I think that ignoring historical precedent is exactly what Scott was pointing out we aren’t doing in his post, and I think the vast majority of EAs think it would be a mistake to do so now.
My point was that we’re aware of the skulls, and cautious. Your response seems to be “who cares about the skulls, that was the past. I’m sure we can do better now.” And coming from someone who is involved in EA, hearing that view from people interested in changing the world really, really worries me—because we have lots of evidence from studies of organizational decision making and policy that ignoring what went wrong in the past is a way to fail now and in the future.
I have a hard time seeing longtermism being at risk for embracing eugenics or racism. But it might be interesting to look at the general principles for why people in the past advocated eugenics or racism—perhaps, insufficient respect or individual autonomy—and try to learn from those more general lessons. Is that what you’re arguing for in your post?
Yes. The ways that various movements have gone wrong certainly differs, and despite the criticism related to race, which I do think is worth addressing, I’m not primarily worried that longtermists will end up repeating specific failure modes—different movements fail differently.
I think that ignoring historical precedent is exactly what Scott was pointing out we aren’t doing in his post, and I think the vast majority of EAs think it would be a mistake to do so now.
My point was that we’re aware of the skulls, and cautious. Your response seems to be “who cares about the skulls, that was the past. I’m sure we can do better now.” And coming from someone who is involved in EA, hearing that view from people interested in changing the world really, really worries me—because we have lots of evidence from studies of organizational decision making and policy that ignoring what went wrong in the past is a way to fail now and in the future.
I have a hard time seeing longtermism being at risk for embracing eugenics or racism. But it might be interesting to look at the general principles for why people in the past advocated eugenics or racism—perhaps, insufficient respect or individual autonomy—and try to learn from those more general lessons. Is that what you’re arguing for in your post?
Yes. The ways that various movements have gone wrong certainly differs, and despite the criticism related to race, which I do think is worth addressing, I’m not primarily worried that longtermists will end up repeating specific failure modes—different movements fail differently.