I see no reason why EA cannot outreach broadly and stay true to its principles. Give Well I have heard described after a two minute explanation of what it did as Go Compare for charities (a price comparison site). Most people will be no more interested in the detail of how Give Well comes up with charities it does than how Go Compare works. To encourage greater giving a broad based genuine community needs to be created that makes greater giving normal. That there is an academic core is great, but that won’t be for many people. So I think the effect can remain thick, whilst the outreach can be broad.
There are a couple of reasons for the concern that effective altruism may grow too big too fast:
If effective altruism ‘goes viral’, some of us worry that it will become decentralized too quickly for the principles to adjust, and then an ‘effective altruist’ would just be anybody ‘who donates $10 to Oxfam’. That would counteract effective altruism’s initial mission.
This is just my speculation, but I believe effective altruists who believe the best cause for bettering the world is an unconventional one. If effective altruism grows too fast for anyone to stay on top of, unconventional but important causes may be discarded. If effective altruism was a grassroots movement supported by millions, we can’t be sure that a cause like ensuring superhuman machine intelligence will safeguard humanity, or ending factory farming, would be (sufficiently) supported.
Note that these aren’t my own opinions, and I’m just reporting my impression from the Effective Altruism Summit.
I see no reason why EA cannot outreach broadly and stay true to its principles. Give Well I have heard described after a two minute explanation of what it did as Go Compare for charities (a price comparison site). Most people will be no more interested in the detail of how Give Well comes up with charities it does than how Go Compare works. To encourage greater giving a broad based genuine community needs to be created that makes greater giving normal. That there is an academic core is great, but that won’t be for many people. So I think the effect can remain thick, whilst the outreach can be broad.
There are a couple of reasons for the concern that effective altruism may grow too big too fast:
If effective altruism ‘goes viral’, some of us worry that it will become decentralized too quickly for the principles to adjust, and then an ‘effective altruist’ would just be anybody ‘who donates $10 to Oxfam’. That would counteract effective altruism’s initial mission.
This is just my speculation, but I believe effective altruists who believe the best cause for bettering the world is an unconventional one. If effective altruism grows too fast for anyone to stay on top of, unconventional but important causes may be discarded. If effective altruism was a grassroots movement supported by millions, we can’t be sure that a cause like ensuring superhuman machine intelligence will safeguard humanity, or ending factory farming, would be (sufficiently) supported.
Note that these aren’t my own opinions, and I’m just reporting my impression from the Effective Altruism Summit.