I am not aware of any realistic scenario where I would act differently from someone who straightforwardly wanted to improve the world altruistically.
(The scenarios in which I would seem very contrived and unlikely to manifest in the real world.)
Could you describe a realistic scenario in which you think Iโd act meaningfully different from an altruistic person in a way that would make me a worse employee/โcoworker?
Could you describe a realistic scenario in which you think Iโd act meaningfully different from an altruistic person in a way that would make me a worse employee/โcoworker?
So the problem with this is that I donโt know you. That said, here is my best shot:
You work hard, you attain a position of power and influence. Eventually, you realize that you have sort of been promoted to incompetence, or perhaps merely that you are probably no longer the best person to be having your particular position. But itโs a tricky question, and nobody is in a good position to realize that this is the case, or to call you out on it. You decide to do nothing.
In this example, as perhaps in others, capabilities really matter. For example, people have previously mentioned offering Terence Tao a few million to work on AI alignment, and his motivations there presumably wouldnโt matter, just the results.
โYou shouldnโt fund/โpatronise me or support my researchโ is probably a recommendation Iโd be loathe to make.
(Excluding cases where Iโm already funded well enough that marginal funding is not that helpful.)
Selflessly rejecting all funding because Iโm not the best bet for this particular project is probably something that Iโd be unwilling to do.
(But in practice, I expect that probabilistic reasoning would recommend funding me anyways. I think having enough confidence to justify not funding a plausible pathway is unlikely before itโs too late.)
But yeah, I think this is an example of where selfishness would be an issue.
In all fairness, I expect most people would be very reluctant to recommend that resources be directed away from the causes or organisations that give them status.
Having an aversion to โselfishnessโ might overcome this, but more likely it would just make them invent reasons why their organisation/โarea really is very important.
Personal impact on a brighter world.
Iโm not a grant maker and donโt want to be.
I am not aware of any realistic scenario where I would act differently from someone who straightforwardly wanted to improve the world altruistically.
(The scenarios in which I would seem very contrived and unlikely to manifest in the real world.)
Could you describe a realistic scenario in which you think Iโd act meaningfully different from an altruistic person in a way that would make me a worse employee/โcoworker?
So the problem with this is that I donโt know you. That said, here is my best shot:
In this example, as perhaps in others, capabilities really matter. For example, people have previously mentioned offering Terence Tao a few million to work on AI alignment, and his motivations there presumably wouldnโt matter, just the results.
That sounds fair.
โYou shouldnโt fund/โpatronise me or support my researchโ is probably a recommendation Iโd be loathe to make. (Excluding cases where Iโm already funded well enough that marginal funding is not that helpful.)
Selflessly rejecting all funding because Iโm not the best bet for this particular project is probably something that Iโd be unwilling to do.
(But in practice, I expect that probabilistic reasoning would recommend funding me anyways. I think having enough confidence to justify not funding a plausible pathway is unlikely before itโs too late.)
But yeah, I think this is an example of where selfishness would be an issue.
Thanks for the reply!
In all fairness, I expect most people would be very reluctant to recommend that resources be directed away from the causes or organisations that give them status.
Having an aversion to โselfishnessโ might overcome this, but more likely it would just make them invent reasons why their organisation/โarea really is very important.