Thanks for this thoughtful and excellently written post. I agree with the large majority of what you had to say, especially regarding collective vs. individual epistemics (and more generally on the importance of good institutions vs. individual behavior), as well as concerns about insularity, conflicts of interest, and underrating expertise and overrating “value alignment”. I have similarly been concerned about these issues for a long time, but especially concerned over the past year.
I am personally fairly disappointed by the extent to which many commenters seem to be dismissing the claims or disagreeing with them in broad strokes, as they generally seem true and important to me. I would value the opportunity to convince anyone in a position of authority in EA that these critiques are both correct and critical to address. I don’t read this forum often (was linked to this thread by a friend), but feel free to e-mail me (jacob.steinhardt@gmail.com) if you’re in this position and want to chat.
Also, to the anonymous authors, if there is some way I can support you please feel free to reach out (also via e-mail). I promise to preserve your anonymity.
Without defending all of the comments, I think some amount of “disagreeing . . . in broad strokes” is an inevitable consequence of publishing all of this at once. The post was the careful work of ten people over an extended period of time (most was written pre-FTX collapse). For individuals seeking to write something timely in response, broad strokes are unavoidable if one wants to address key themes instead of just one or two specific subsections.
I hope that, when ConcernedEAs re-post this in smaller chunks, there will be more specific responses from the community in at least some places.
Thanks for this thoughtful and excellently written post. I agree with the large majority of what you had to say, especially regarding collective vs. individual epistemics (and more generally on the importance of good institutions vs. individual behavior), as well as concerns about insularity, conflicts of interest, and underrating expertise and overrating “value alignment”. I have similarly been concerned about these issues for a long time, but especially concerned over the past year.
I am personally fairly disappointed by the extent to which many commenters seem to be dismissing the claims or disagreeing with them in broad strokes, as they generally seem true and important to me. I would value the opportunity to convince anyone in a position of authority in EA that these critiques are both correct and critical to address. I don’t read this forum often (was linked to this thread by a friend), but feel free to e-mail me (jacob.steinhardt@gmail.com) if you’re in this position and want to chat.
Also, to the anonymous authors, if there is some way I can support you please feel free to reach out (also via e-mail). I promise to preserve your anonymity.
Without defending all of the comments, I think some amount of “disagreeing . . . in broad strokes” is an inevitable consequence of publishing all of this at once. The post was the careful work of ten people over an extended period of time (most was written pre-FTX collapse). For individuals seeking to write something timely in response, broad strokes are unavoidable if one wants to address key themes instead of just one or two specific subsections.
I hope that, when ConcernedEAs re-post this in smaller chunks, there will be more specific responses from the community in at least some places.