Reflecting a bit on the EA call for criticisms, one obvious challenge to the movement is cities like San Francisco. That’s a city with tons of EA aligned folks and yet spending a lot of philanthropic dollars to alleviate hunger in Africa or address AGI risk in the future while there’s massive human immiseration all around the city just seems extremely dystopian. Here’s a good Atlantic article on the issues in SF for those that are curious: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/how-san-francisco-became-failed-city/661199/
Say more about why it feels dystopian? Totally agree that the situation in SF is bad. but it feels good to me that EA aligned people see how much worse it is in other places, and don’t prioritize what’s near to them over where the most suffering is.
Would it be altruistic to walk past a person dying in the streets so you can close an extra deal, make an extra buck and send that to a far away place to help a few more people? That seems rather cold and calculating and not in a good way.
There definitely are people suffering to a high degree in SF btw. The homeless situation is quite dire.
It similar doesn’t seem altruistic to help people on the streets close to you and ignore poor people in a different country just because they are far away.
No situation short of “help everybody” really sounds appealing. Short of solving all problems in the world, prioritizing problems is necessary. What’s wrong with prioritizing problems based on where the most suffering is?
Reflecting a bit on the EA call for criticisms, one obvious challenge to the movement is cities like San Francisco. That’s a city with tons of EA aligned folks and yet spending a lot of philanthropic dollars to alleviate hunger in Africa or address AGI risk in the future while there’s massive human immiseration all around the city just seems extremely dystopian. Here’s a good Atlantic article on the issues in SF for those that are curious: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/how-san-francisco-became-failed-city/661199/
Say more about why it feels dystopian? Totally agree that the situation in SF is bad. but it feels good to me that EA aligned people see how much worse it is in other places, and don’t prioritize what’s near to them over where the most suffering is.
Would it be altruistic to walk past a person dying in the streets so you can close an extra deal, make an extra buck and send that to a far away place to help a few more people? That seems rather cold and calculating and not in a good way.
There definitely are people suffering to a high degree in SF btw. The homeless situation is quite dire.
It similar doesn’t seem altruistic to help people on the streets close to you and ignore poor people in a different country just because they are far away.
No situation short of “help everybody” really sounds appealing. Short of solving all problems in the world, prioritizing problems is necessary. What’s wrong with prioritizing problems based on where the most suffering is?