I was struck by your paragraph ‘ A wildly successful EA movement could do as much good for the world as almost any other social movement in history. Even if the movement is only marginally successful, if the precepts underlying the movement are somewhat sound, the utility implications are enormous.’
I suspect if EA is to do massive good, this is more likely to come from developing and promoting ideas such as extinction risk reduction that come to be adopted politically, rather than from EA’s direct philanthropy. The biggest wins may come through political channels.
I agree with your arguments against focusing too much on longtermism.
I was struck by your paragraph ‘ A wildly successful EA movement could do as much good for the world as almost any other social movement in history. Even if the movement is only marginally successful, if the precepts underlying the movement are somewhat sound, the utility implications are enormous.’
I suspect if EA is to do massive good, this is more likely to come from developing and promoting ideas such as extinction risk reduction that come to be adopted politically, rather than from EA’s direct philanthropy. The biggest wins may come through political channels.
I agree with your arguments against focusing too much on longtermism.