I don’t directly work on x-risks at the moment, apart from some of my time sharing resources and giving information or career advice relevant to it to people in EA Philippines.
But if I did, the importance and drive of making sure the world doesn’t become extinct or dystopian would be what would motivate me to work. Also, all the work done by other EAs in other causes would be for naught if we end up becoming extinct or lock in a bad future this century.
all the work done by other EAs in other causes would be for naught if we end up becoming extinct
I’ve seen this argument elsewhere, and still don’t find it convincing. “All” seems hyperbolic. Much longtermist work to improve the quality of posthumans’ lives does become irrelevant if there won’t be any posthumans. But animal welfare, poverty reduction, mental health, and probably some other causes I’m forgetting will still have made an important (if admittedly smaller-scale) difference by relieving their beneficiaries’ suffering.
What is your opinion of EFILism? It’s basically an extremist form of antinatalism that argues that total extinction of the biosphere would be a good thing, since all life going extinct means that suffering would no longer exist.
I don’t directly work on x-risks at the moment, apart from some of my time sharing resources and giving information or career advice relevant to it to people in EA Philippines.
But if I did, the importance and drive of making sure the world doesn’t become extinct or dystopian would be what would motivate me to work. Also, all the work done by other EAs in other causes would be for naught if we end up becoming extinct or lock in a bad future this century.
I’ve seen this argument elsewhere, and still don’t find it convincing. “All” seems hyperbolic. Much longtermist work to improve the quality of posthumans’ lives does become irrelevant if there won’t be any posthumans. But animal welfare, poverty reduction, mental health, and probably some other causes I’m forgetting will still have made an important (if admittedly smaller-scale) difference by relieving their beneficiaries’ suffering.
What is your opinion of EFILism? It’s basically an extremist form of antinatalism that argues that total extinction of the biosphere would be a good thing, since all life going extinct means that suffering would no longer exist.
Don’t have the time to read into it but I think that total extinction of the biosphere would very likely not be a good thing.