It seems to me that there’s a background assumption of many global poverty EAs that human welfare has positive flowthrough effects for basically everything else.
If this is true, is there a post that expands on this argument, or is it something left implicit?
I’ve since added a constraint into my innovation acceleration efforts, and now am basically focused on “asymmetric, wisdom-constrained innovation.”
I think Bostrom has talked about something similar: namely, differential technological development (he talks about technology rather than economic growth, but the two are very related). The idea is that fast innovation in some fields is preferable to fast innovation in others, and we should try to find which areas to speed up the most.
No, I actually think the post is ignoring x-risk as a cause area to focus on now. It makes sense under certain assumptions and heuristics (e.g. if you think near term x-risk is highly unlikely, or you’re using absurdity heuristics), I think I was more giving my argument for how this post could be compatible with Bostrom.
If this is true, is there a post that expands on this argument, or is it something left implicit?
I think Bostrom has talked about something similar: namely, differential technological development (he talks about technology rather than economic growth, but the two are very related). The idea is that fast innovation in some fields is preferable to fast innovation in others, and we should try to find which areas to speed up the most.
No, I actually think the post is ignoring x-risk as a cause area to focus on now. It makes sense under certain assumptions and heuristics (e.g. if you think near term x-risk is highly unlikely, or you’re using absurdity heuristics), I think I was more giving my argument for how this post could be compatible with Bostrom.