Thanks Ozzie! Yes, I’m very aware that this is a strange post for the EA forum. In fact I think this post would have been strange anywhere. There’s no venue and a small audience for a post on fungi and existential risk.
Yet as with platforms such as instagram or twitter, I’m a fan to try defy the accepted and most rewarded formats and move the needle a little towards a more flexible format and more flexible thinking. That does of course mean that I give up likes or upvotes, but I have not spend enough time on these forums to care about this. Unfortunately I think there is a considerable number of posts that get upvoted a lot more than I would have found appropriate given their level of scholarship or originality. Lastly, the post did not take much time to write—as I mention I simply wrote up my naive impressions, in parts because I wanted to retain memory of the content of the book, in parts because there’s not much disccusion within EA on ecology-existential risk. I don’t know how long the illustrations took, but Magdalena is very talented and I suspect not much. So, thank you for you sympathy, but I’m ok :)
As for the rest of your comment: feeling conflicted seems useful! I agree with your last bullet points, even though they are so broad they are hard to argue with I guess (destroying the climate?). I have very little hope that this article alone will inspire grant funders to consider fungi research or start-ups, nor that EAs suddenly become very interested in ecology research, species extinction and the lessons we can learn from the climate crisis about existential risk.
But if I make it more likely that others who (unlike me) have studied these subjects, will write about them here and feel justified in steel-manning the position that our earthsystems and ecosystems play a vital role in existential risk, then I have moved the needle a little.
Thanks Ozzie! Yes, I’m very aware that this is a strange post for the EA forum. In fact I think this post would have been strange anywhere. There’s no venue and a small audience for a post on fungi and existential risk.
Yet as with platforms such as instagram or twitter, I’m a fan to try defy the accepted and most rewarded formats and move the needle a little towards a more flexible format and more flexible thinking. That does of course mean that I give up likes or upvotes, but I have not spend enough time on these forums to care about this. Unfortunately I think there is a considerable number of posts that get upvoted a lot more than I would have found appropriate given their level of scholarship or originality. Lastly, the post did not take much time to write—as I mention I simply wrote up my naive impressions, in parts because I wanted to retain memory of the content of the book, in parts because there’s not much disccusion within EA on ecology-existential risk. I don’t know how long the illustrations took, but Magdalena is very talented and I suspect not much. So, thank you for you sympathy, but I’m ok :)
As for the rest of your comment: feeling conflicted seems useful! I agree with your last bullet points, even though they are so broad they are hard to argue with I guess (destroying the climate?). I have very little hope that this article alone will inspire grant funders to consider fungi research or start-ups, nor that EAs suddenly become very interested in ecology research, species extinction and the lessons we can learn from the climate crisis about existential risk.
But if I make it more likely that others who (unlike me) have studied these subjects, will write about them here and feel justified in steel-manning the position that our earthsystems and ecosystems play a vital role in existential risk, then I have moved the needle a little.