I also want to throw another thought out there: it’s not inconceivable to me that we might find the most effective way to support the arts in the world is to, say, give cash transfers to poor people in Africa. Or put resources towards some other broad, systemic issue that affects everyone but is disproportionately relevant in the domain of the arts.
For a related take on advancing science, see this.
If we mean ‘the arts’ in general and over time, I think this is extremely likely. Basically that would mean working to reduce existential risk, in my view. The long-run artistic achievements of civilization (provided that it survives and retains any non-negligible interest in art) will be many orders of magnitude more numerous, and much higher in peak quality, than those we have seen so far.
I was taking you to mean ‘the arts’ as something like a constraint on the degree of indirectness, patience, etc, that one accepts. E.g. ‘the arts for my community now, not for foreigners or future times, via methods that are connected reasonably closely to the arts world.’
Regarding loosening copyright, it’s not just letting people enjoy the old works, but enabling new creation.
For a related take on advancing science, see this.
If we mean ‘the arts’ in general and over time, I think this is extremely likely. Basically that would mean working to reduce existential risk, in my view. The long-run artistic achievements of civilization (provided that it survives and retains any non-negligible interest in art) will be many orders of magnitude more numerous, and much higher in peak quality, than those we have seen so far.
I was taking you to mean ‘the arts’ as something like a constraint on the degree of indirectness, patience, etc, that one accepts. E.g. ‘the arts for my community now, not for foreigners or future times, via methods that are connected reasonably closely to the arts world.’
Regarding loosening copyright, it’s not just letting people enjoy the old works, but enabling new creation.