Given that debating race and IQ would make EA very unwelcoming for black people, probably has the effect of increasing racism, and clearly does not help us do the most good, we shouldn’t even be debating it with ‘empathy and rigour’.
EA is a community for doing the most good, not for debating your favourite edgy topic
We aren’t debating race. We are debating whether it is Bostrom’s job to lie about his view of an ambiguous evidence base as a response to something he said twenty five years ago in a totally different community with different standards and goals.
“ I would be uncomfortable and upset to be part of a community where discussing issues like race/intelligence was not carried out with the empathy and rigour that the subject requires”
I disagree that the race/IQ question is not a question that can help us do the most good. A lot of EA goals can be broadly described as trying to encourage development and modernization in the very poorest countries. Many of these countries are populated by black people. The fact that blacks have lower IQs and lower genetic potential for general intelligence are key factors determining which policies have the best chance of successfully helping these countries. If EAs craft a policy to help these countries which ignores these key factors that policy will fail and billions of dollars will be wasted. A lot is at stake here.
Given that debating race and IQ would make EA very unwelcoming for black people, probably has the effect of increasing racism, and clearly does not help us do the most good, we shouldn’t even be debating it with ‘empathy and rigour’.
EA is a community for doing the most good, not for debating your favourite edgy topic
Yeah, I agree here. We shouldn’t discuss that topic in community venues; it doesn’t help our mission and is largely counterproductive.
Or white people.
″Or white people.″
Well yes, getting fired and permanently blacklisted is not exactly fun.
I’m issuing lepidus a warning for this comment. Let’s keep it collaborative and not snarky.
We aren’t debating race. We are debating whether it is Bostrom’s job to lie about his view of an ambiguous evidence base as a response to something he said twenty five years ago in a totally different community with different standards and goals.
Was responding to
“ I would be uncomfortable and upset to be part of a community where discussing issues like race/intelligence was not carried out with the empathy and rigour that the subject requires”
From the post
My bad
I disagree that the race/IQ question is not a question that can help us do the most good. A lot of EA goals can be broadly described as trying to encourage development and modernization in the very poorest countries. Many of these countries are populated by black people. The fact that blacks have lower IQs and lower genetic potential for general intelligence are key factors determining which policies have the best chance of successfully helping these countries. If EAs craft a policy to help these countries which ignores these key factors that policy will fail and billions of dollars will be wasted. A lot is at stake here.