Values and reflective processes, Effective Altruism
Most longtermist and EA ideas come from a small group of people with similar backgrounds, but could affect the global population now and in the future. This creates the risk of longtermist decisionmakers not being aligned with that wider population. Participatory methods aim to involve people decisionmaking about issues that affect them, and they have become common in fields such as international development, global health, and humanitarian aid. Although a lot could be learned from existing participatory methods, they would need to be adapted to issues of concern to EAs and longtermists. The fund could support the development of new participatory methods that fit with EA and longtermist concerns, and could fund the running of participatory processes on key issues.
Additional notes:
There is a field called participatory futures, however it seems not very rigorous [based on a very rough impression, however see comment below about this], and as far as I know hasn’t been applied to EA issues.
Participedia has writeups of participatory methods and case studies from a variety of fields.
> In this essay from Rethink Priorities, we discuss the opportunities that deliberative reforms offer for improving institutional decision-making. We begin by describing deliberation and its links to democratic theory, and then sketch out examples of deliberative designs. Following this, we explore the evidence that deliberation can engender fact-based reasoning, opinion change, and under certain conditions can motivate longterm thinking. So far, most deliberative initiatives have not been invested with a direct role in the decision-making process and so the majority of policy effects we see are indirect. Providing deliberative bodies with a binding and direct role in decision-making could improve this state of affairs. We end by highlighting some limitations and areas of uncertainty before noting who is already working in this area and avenues for further research.
Love the idea—just writing to add that Futures Studies, participatory futures in particular & future scenario methodologies could be really useful for Longtermist research. Methods in these fields can be highly rigorous (I’ve been working with some futures experts as part of a project to design 3 visions of the future—which have just finished going through a lengthly stress-testing and crowd-sourcing process to open them up to public reflection and input), especially if the scenario design is approached in a systematised way using a well-developed framework.
I could imagine various projects that aim to create a variety of different desirable visions of the future through participatory methods, identifying core characteristics, pathways towards them, system dynamics and so on to illustrate the value and importance of longtermist governance to get there. Just one idea, but there are plenty of ways to apply this field to EA/Longtermism!
Would love to talk about your idea more as it also chimes with a paper I’m drafting, ‘Contesting Longtermism’, looking at some of the core tensions within the concept and how these could be opened up to wider input. If you’re interested in talking about it, feel free to reach out to me at j.b.p.davies@uu.nl
Thanks for the point about rigor—I’m not that familiar with participatory futures but had encountered it through an organisation that tends to be a bit hypey. But good to know there is rigorous work in that field.
I agree that there are lots of opportunities to apply to EA/Longtermism and your paper sounds interesting. I’ll send an email.
Participatory longtermism
Values and reflective processes, Effective Altruism
Most longtermist and EA ideas come from a small group of people with similar backgrounds, but could affect the global population now and in the future. This creates the risk of longtermist decisionmakers not being aligned with that wider population. Participatory methods aim to involve people decisionmaking about issues that affect them, and they have become common in fields such as international development, global health, and humanitarian aid. Although a lot could be learned from existing participatory methods, they would need to be adapted to issues of concern to EAs and longtermists. The fund could support the development of new participatory methods that fit with EA and longtermist concerns, and could fund the running of participatory processes on key issues.
Additional notes:
There is a field called participatory futures, however it seems not very rigorous [based on a very rough impression, however see comment below about this], and as far as I know hasn’t been applied to EA issues.
Participedia has writeups of participatory methods and case studies from a variety of fields.
This comments section is pretty participatory.
Cool idea! :) You might be interested in skimming the report Deliberation May Improve Decision-Making from Rethink Priorities.
> In this essay from Rethink Priorities, we discuss the opportunities that deliberative reforms offer for improving institutional decision-making. We begin by describing deliberation and its links to democratic theory, and then sketch out examples of deliberative designs. Following this, we explore the evidence that deliberation can engender fact-based reasoning, opinion change, and under certain conditions can motivate longterm thinking. So far, most deliberative initiatives have not been invested with a direct role in the decision-making process and so the majority of policy effects we see are indirect. Providing deliberative bodies with a binding and direct role in decision-making could improve this state of affairs. We end by highlighting some limitations and areas of uncertainty before noting who is already working in this area and avenues for further research.
Love the idea—just writing to add that Futures Studies, participatory futures in particular & future scenario methodologies could be really useful for Longtermist research. Methods in these fields can be highly rigorous (I’ve been working with some futures experts as part of a project to design 3 visions of the future—which have just finished going through a lengthly stress-testing and crowd-sourcing process to open them up to public reflection and input), especially if the scenario design is approached in a systematised way using a well-developed framework.
I could imagine various projects that aim to create a variety of different desirable visions of the future through participatory methods, identifying core characteristics, pathways towards them, system dynamics and so on to illustrate the value and importance of longtermist governance to get there. Just one idea, but there are plenty of ways to apply this field to EA/Longtermism!
Would love to talk about your idea more as it also chimes with a paper I’m drafting, ‘Contesting Longtermism’, looking at some of the core tensions within the concept and how these could be opened up to wider input. If you’re interested in talking about it, feel free to reach out to me at j.b.p.davies@uu.nl
Thanks for the point about rigor—I’m not that familiar with participatory futures but had encountered it through an organisation that tends to be a bit hypey. But good to know there is rigorous work in that field.
I agree that there are lots of opportunities to apply to EA/Longtermism and your paper sounds interesting. I’ll send an email.