Donated $180k to PauseAI (US and Global). Calling on more people to donate significant amounts.
Pretty much the only way we’re going to survive the next 5-10 years is by such efforts being successful. [X post]
Did it? My sense was only that (a) the amount of money from six-figure donations was nonetheless dwarfed by Open Philanthropy, and (b) as the number of professionals in EA has increased, the percentage of the community focused on donations has been diluted somewhat. But we’re still around!
I basically think so, yes. I think it mainly caused by, as you put it, “the amount of money from six-figure donations was nonetheless dwarfed by Open Philanthropy” and therefore people have scaled back/stopped since they don’t think it’s impactful. I basically don’t think that’s true, especially in this case of animal welfare but also just in terms of absolute impact which is what actually matters as opposed to relative impact. FWIW, this is the same (IMO, fallacious) argument “normies” have against donating “my potential donations are so small compared to billionaires/governments/NGOs that I may as well just spend it on myself”.
But yes, the amount of people I know who would consider themselves to be effective altruists, even committed effective altruists who earn considerable salaries donate relatively little, at least compared to what they could be donating.
Go Greg!! Strong upvote because I think more Pause advocacy on the margin is probably the most neglected Safety intervention, disagreed X thingy because I don’t think its “the only way we’re going to survive” partly because dumb luck exists and we actually need more of everything (waves hand over all possible Governance and Technical safety interventions).
Thanks. Yeah, I see a lot of disagreement votes. I was being too hyperbolic for the EA Forum. But I do put ~80% on it (which I guess translates to “pretty much”?), with the remaining ~20% being longer timelines, or dumb luck of one kind or another that we can’t actually influence.
Donated $180k to PauseAI (US and Global). Calling on more people to donate significant amounts. Pretty much the only way we’re going to survive the next 5-10 years is by such efforts being successful. [X post]
@Greg_Colbourn while I disagree on Pause AI and the beliefs that lead up to it, I want to commend you for this for:
1) Taking your beliefs seriously.
2) Actually donating significant amounts. I don’t know how this sort of fell off as a thing EAs do.
Did it? My sense was only that (a) the amount of money from six-figure donations was nonetheless dwarfed by Open Philanthropy, and (b) as the number of professionals in EA has increased, the percentage of the community focused on donations has been diluted somewhat. But we’re still around!
I basically think so, yes. I think it mainly caused by, as you put it, “the amount of money from six-figure donations was nonetheless dwarfed by Open Philanthropy” and therefore people have scaled back/stopped since they don’t think it’s impactful. I basically don’t think that’s true, especially in this case of animal welfare but also just in terms of absolute impact which is what actually matters as opposed to relative impact. FWIW, this is the same (IMO, fallacious) argument “normies” have against donating “my potential donations are so small compared to billionaires/governments/NGOs that I may as well just spend it on myself”.
But yes, the amount of people I know who would consider themselves to be effective altruists, even committed effective altruists who earn considerable salaries donate relatively little, at least compared to what they could be donating.
Go Greg!! Strong upvote because I think more Pause advocacy on the margin is probably the most neglected Safety intervention, disagreed X thingy because I don’t think its “the only way we’re going to survive” partly because dumb luck exists and we actually need more of everything (waves hand over all possible Governance and Technical safety interventions).
Thanks. Yeah, I see a lot of disagreement votes. I was being too hyperbolic for the EA Forum. But I do put ~80% on it (which I guess translates to “pretty much”?), with the remaining ~20% being longer timelines, or dumb luck of one kind or another that we can’t actually influence.
Thank you for sharing your donation choices!