I think the strategic ambiguity that the paper identifies is inherent to EA. The central concept of EA is so broad—“maximize the good using your limited resources”—that it can be combined with different assumptions to reach vastly different conclusions. For example, if you add assumptions like “influencing the long-term future is intractable and/or not valuable”, you might reach the conclusion that the best thing to do with your limited resources is to mitigate global poverty through GiveWell-recommended charities or promoting economic growth. But if you tack on assumptions like “influencing the long-term future is tractable and paramount” and “the best way to improve the future is to reduce x-risk”, then you get the x-risk and AI safety agenda.
This makes it challenging and often awkward to talk about what EA focuses on and why. But it’s important to avoid describing EA in a way that implies it only supports either GHWB or the longtermist agenda. The paper cites this section of the EA Hub guide for EA groups which addresses this pitfall.
I think the strategic ambiguity that the paper identifies is inherent to EA. The central concept of EA is so broad—“maximize the good using your limited resources”—that it can be combined with different assumptions to reach vastly different conclusions. For example, if you add assumptions like “influencing the long-term future is intractable and/or not valuable”, you might reach the conclusion that the best thing to do with your limited resources is to mitigate global poverty through GiveWell-recommended charities or promoting economic growth. But if you tack on assumptions like “influencing the long-term future is tractable and paramount” and “the best way to improve the future is to reduce x-risk”, then you get the x-risk and AI safety agenda.
This makes it challenging and often awkward to talk about what EA focuses on and why. But it’s important to avoid describing EA in a way that implies it only supports either GHWB or the longtermist agenda. The paper cites this section of the EA Hub guide for EA groups which addresses this pitfall.