Yeah, that would be interesting. I’m not sure there inherently has to be a tradeoff between ‘being able to date EAs’ and ‘having access to work networks free of professional advances.’ Granted the situation you mentioned is inappropriate. But there are lots of different fields in EA, and lots of people who are at similar power levels. If a young AI safety researcher and a young animal-welfare person meet at their university group and start dating, that’s ‘dating within EA’ but it isn’t, in my opinion, at all inappropriate, and the risks are pretty low.
I agree that two young (low seniority) EAs from different fields dating is low risk to them. It avoids issues created by power imbalances. I don’t see issues in such propositioning, especially in more casual/social settings.
If two senior EAs from different fields date, the risk of harassment stemming from power imbalances is much lower than the senior and junior EA from same field scenario. It could be viewed as problematic from ‘a gatekeeping/preferential treatment at the expense of other EAs’ perspective. But people could argue this scenario still has more rewards than risks.
If we find that there is a way for people in the low risk scenarios to date each other, while at the same time assuring against the high risk one, I’d be on board with it. My main issue is if our answer to this is to say ‘let the current norms/policies be’ because we can defer to the goodness or good judgement of high seniority EAs to act appropriately.
I do believe that the majority of them might even behave ethically, but policies and systems are usually not created with them in mind. They are in place so that the minority of people who engage in bad behavior are not attracted to our spaces knowing that it’s easy for them to slip through the cracks here.
Yeah, that would be interesting. I’m not sure there inherently has to be a tradeoff between ‘being able to date EAs’ and ‘having access to work networks free of professional advances.’ Granted the situation you mentioned is inappropriate. But there are lots of different fields in EA, and lots of people who are at similar power levels. If a young AI safety researcher and a young animal-welfare person meet at their university group and start dating, that’s ‘dating within EA’ but it isn’t, in my opinion, at all inappropriate, and the risks are pretty low.
I agree that two young (low seniority) EAs from different fields dating is low risk to them. It avoids issues created by power imbalances. I don’t see issues in such propositioning, especially in more casual/social settings.
If two senior EAs from different fields date, the risk of harassment stemming from power imbalances is much lower than the senior and junior EA from same field scenario. It could be viewed as problematic from ‘a gatekeeping/preferential treatment at the expense of other EAs’ perspective. But people could argue this scenario still has more rewards than risks.
If we find that there is a way for people in the low risk scenarios to date each other, while at the same time assuring against the high risk one, I’d be on board with it. My main issue is if our answer to this is to say ‘let the current norms/policies be’ because we can defer to the goodness or good judgement of high seniority EAs to act appropriately.
I do believe that the majority of them might even behave ethically, but policies and systems are usually not created with them in mind. They are in place so that the minority of people who engage in bad behavior are not attracted to our spaces knowing that it’s easy for them to slip through the cracks here.