Overall, I think the Progress studies community seems decently aligned with what EAs care about, and could become more-so in the coming years. The event had decent epistemics and was less intimidating than an EA conference. I think many people who feel that EA is too intense, cares too much about longtermism, or uses too much jargon could find progress studies as a suitable alternative. If the movement known as EA dissolved (God forbid) I think progress studies could absorb many of the folks.
I’m curious about how you think this will develop. It seems like Progress studies often takes the stance that for all technologies, progress in that technology is good. This seems relatively central to their shtick.
Maybe their views will start to shift towards thinking strongly in terms of what we would call differential technological development. Where they can maintain their view that progress is good, but append onto that that progress is only good if certain technologies get developed sooner than other technologies. Perhaps this is the perspective they have on many technologies already, and I don’t know enough about the community to tell.
You know that’s what I thought as well, but I’ve found the community to be more open to caution than I initially thought. Derek Thompson in particular (the main organizer for the event) harped on safety quite a bit. And if more EAs got involved (assuming they don’t get amnesia) I assume they can carry over some of these concerns and shift the culture.
I’m curious about how you think this will develop. It seems like Progress studies often takes the stance that for all technologies, progress in that technology is good. This seems relatively central to their shtick.
Maybe their views will start to shift towards thinking strongly in terms of what we would call differential technological development. Where they can maintain their view that progress is good, but append onto that that progress is only good if certain technologies get developed sooner than other technologies. Perhaps this is the perspective they have on many technologies already, and I don’t know enough about the community to tell.
You know that’s what I thought as well, but I’ve found the community to be more open to caution than I initially thought. Derek Thompson in particular (the main organizer for the event) harped on safety quite a bit. And if more EAs got involved (assuming they don’t get amnesia) I assume they can carry over some of these concerns and shift the culture.