I can think of a few key dystopias (brave new world, the rise of meritocracy 1870-2033, We) that have utilitarian reasoning taken to a drastic conclusion in some way. Many of them point to this dynamic and the implicit critique is that to think about human value in this was is base. But we have this kind of comparative social destruction permeating our society anyway at the moment, its just more general than EA points. Nice article and great to explore—another risk of the movement we should register ! :)
Perhaps its the virtue of decision-theoretically consistent behaviour we should be praising and celebrating as well as the big splash results?
(i) very supportive of taking on things that are ex ante good ideas, but carry significant risk of failing altogether, and
(ii) good at praising these decisions after they have turned out to fail.
It doesn’t totally remove the sting to have those around you say “Great job taking that risk, it was the right decision and the EV was good!” and really mean it, but I do find that it helps, and it’s a habit I’m trying to build to praise these kinds of things after the fact as much as I praise big successes.
Of course there is some tension; often, if a thing fails to produce value, it’s useful to figure out how we could have anticipated that failure, and why it might not have been the right decision ex ante. Balance, I guess.
I can think of a few key dystopias (brave new world, the rise of meritocracy 1870-2033, We) that have utilitarian reasoning taken to a drastic conclusion in some way. Many of them point to this dynamic and the implicit critique is that to think about human value in this was is base. But we have this kind of comparative social destruction permeating our society anyway at the moment, its just more general than EA points. Nice article and great to explore—another risk of the movement we should register ! :)
Perhaps its the virtue of decision-theoretically consistent behaviour we should be praising and celebrating as well as the big splash results?
I’ve often found the EAs around me to be
(i) very supportive of taking on things that are ex ante good ideas, but carry significant risk of failing altogether, and
(ii) good at praising these decisions after they have turned out to fail.
It doesn’t totally remove the sting to have those around you say “Great job taking that risk, it was the right decision and the EV was good!” and really mean it, but I do find that it helps, and it’s a habit I’m trying to build to praise these kinds of things after the fact as much as I praise big successes.
Of course there is some tension; often, if a thing fails to produce value, it’s useful to figure out how we could have anticipated that failure, and why it might not have been the right decision ex ante. Balance, I guess.