I often make an adjacent point to folks, which is something like:
EA is not all one thing, just like the economy is not all one thing. Just as civilization as we know it doesn’t work unless we have people willing to do different things for different reasons, EA depends on different folks doing different things for different reasons to give us a rounded out basket of altruistic “goods”.
Like, if everyone thought saltine crackers were the best food and everyone competed to make the best saltines, we’d ultimately all be pretty disappointed that we had a mountain of amazing saltine crackers and literally nothing else, and so it makes sense even in the world where saltines really are the best food that generate the most benefit by their production that we instrumentally produce other things so we can enjoy our saltines in full.
I think the same is true of EA. I care a lot about AI x-risk and it’s what I focus on, but that doesn’t mean I think everyone should do the same. In fact, if they did, I’m not sure it would be so good, because then maybe we stop paying attention to other causes that, if we don’t address them, end up making trying to address AI risks moot. I’m always very glad to see folks working on things, even things I don’t personally think are worthwhile, both because of uncertainty about what is best and because there’s multiple dimensions along which it seems we can optimize (and would be happy if we did).
Strongly agree substantively about the adjacency of your point, and about the desire for a well-rounded world. I think it’s a different thread of thought than mine, but it is worth being clear about as well. And see my reply to Jacob_J elsewhere in the comments, here, for how I think that can work even for individuals.
I often make an adjacent point to folks, which is something like:
EA is not all one thing, just like the economy is not all one thing. Just as civilization as we know it doesn’t work unless we have people willing to do different things for different reasons, EA depends on different folks doing different things for different reasons to give us a rounded out basket of altruistic “goods”.
Like, if everyone thought saltine crackers were the best food and everyone competed to make the best saltines, we’d ultimately all be pretty disappointed that we had a mountain of amazing saltine crackers and literally nothing else, and so it makes sense even in the world where saltines really are the best food that generate the most benefit by their production that we instrumentally produce other things so we can enjoy our saltines in full.
I think the same is true of EA. I care a lot about AI x-risk and it’s what I focus on, but that doesn’t mean I think everyone should do the same. In fact, if they did, I’m not sure it would be so good, because then maybe we stop paying attention to other causes that, if we don’t address them, end up making trying to address AI risks moot. I’m always very glad to see folks working on things, even things I don’t personally think are worthwhile, both because of uncertainty about what is best and because there’s multiple dimensions along which it seems we can optimize (and would be happy if we did).
Strongly agree substantively about the adjacency of your point, and about the desire for a well-rounded world. I think it’s a different thread of thought than mine, but it is worth being clear about as well. And see my reply to Jacob_J elsewhere in the comments, here, for how I think that can work even for individuals.