I think it’s good to make object-level criticisms of posts, but I think it’s important that we encourage rather than discourage posts that make a genuine attempt to explore unusual ideas about what we should prioritise, even if they seem badly wrong to you. That’s because people can make up their own minds about the ideas in a post, and because some of these posts that you’re suggesting be deleted might be importantly right.
In other words, having a community that encourages debate about the important questions seems more important to me than one that shuts down posts that seem “harmful” to the cause.
I generally agree, but not in this specific case for two reasons. First, I think there are more thorough, less provocative, strictly better discussions of this kind of thing already. See writing from Beckstead, Bostrom, etc. Second, I think there are specific direct harms this post could have. See my latest reply to the OP on the other branch of this thread.
I think it’s good to make object-level criticisms of posts, but I think it’s important that we encourage rather than discourage posts that make a genuine attempt to explore unusual ideas about what we should prioritise, even if they seem badly wrong to you. That’s because people can make up their own minds about the ideas in a post, and because some of these posts that you’re suggesting be deleted might be importantly right.
In other words, having a community that encourages debate about the important questions seems more important to me than one that shuts down posts that seem “harmful” to the cause.
I generally agree, but not in this specific case for two reasons. First, I think there are more thorough, less provocative, strictly better discussions of this kind of thing already. See writing from Beckstead, Bostrom, etc. Second, I think there are specific direct harms this post could have. See my latest reply to the OP on the other branch of this thread.