Thanks for writing out a reaction very similar to my own. As I wrote in a comment on a different topic, “it seems to me that one of the core values of effective altruism is that of impartiality― giving equal moral weight to people who are distant from me in space and/or time.”
I agree that “all people count equally” is an imprecise way to express that value (and I would probably choose to frame in in the lens of “value” rather than “belief”) but I read this as an imprecise expression of a common value in the movement rather than a deep philosophical commitment to valuing all minds exactly the same.
But there is a huge difference in this case between something being a common belief and a philosophical commitment, and there is also a huge difference between saying that space/time does not matter and that all people count equally.
I agree that most EAs believe that people roughly count equally, but if someone was to argue against that, I would in no way think they are violating any core tenets of the EA community. And that makes the sentence in this PR statement fall flat, since I don’t think we can give any reassurance that empirical details will not change our mind on this point.
And yeah, I think time/space not mattering is a much stronger core belief, but as far as I can tell that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the concerns this statement is trying to preempt. I don’t think racism and similar stuff is usually motivated by people being far away in time and space (and indeed, my guess is something closer to the opposite is true, where racist individuals are more likely to feel hate towards the immigrants in their country, and more sympathy for people in third world countries).
Thanks for writing out a reaction very similar to my own. As I wrote in a comment on a different topic, “it seems to me that one of the core values of effective altruism is that of impartiality― giving equal moral weight to people who are distant from me in space and/or time.”
I agree that “all people count equally” is an imprecise way to express that value (and I would probably choose to frame in in the lens of “value” rather than “belief”) but I read this as an imprecise expression of a common value in the movement rather than a deep philosophical commitment to valuing all minds exactly the same.
But there is a huge difference in this case between something being a common belief and a philosophical commitment, and there is also a huge difference between saying that space/time does not matter and that all people count equally.
I agree that most EAs believe that people roughly count equally, but if someone was to argue against that, I would in no way think they are violating any core tenets of the EA community. And that makes the sentence in this PR statement fall flat, since I don’t think we can give any reassurance that empirical details will not change our mind on this point.
And yeah, I think time/space not mattering is a much stronger core belief, but as far as I can tell that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the concerns this statement is trying to preempt. I don’t think racism and similar stuff is usually motivated by people being far away in time and space (and indeed, my guess is something closer to the opposite is true, where racist individuals are more likely to feel hate towards the immigrants in their country, and more sympathy for people in third world countries).