I obviously have no inside knowledge of the situation @saulius describes here, but I do think it touches on a potential concern of mine that RP could become (or could already be) too influential in the cause prioritization domain. This is not based on anything about RP other than its size: I think it’s almost inevitable that any organization that exists (or could plausibly exist) in an RP-like space will have its own private institutional interests that could reasonably be expected to influence its outputs. Allowing those interests to affect outputs seems rather undesirable.
Three ways to manage this problem occur to me. I tentatively think that decentralization is best; no one organization should control too much of the “cause prioritization thinking/research market.”[1] In a sufficiently decentralized system, there is another similarly-capable organization that can correct errors influenced by private institutional interests. Next in line, I’d suggest externally enforceable guarantees, such as a freedom-of-expression policy with third-party enforcement. I’d place promises that are not externally enforceable in a distinctly lower category; I wouldn’t put much stock in them to the extent that the promisor was the main/only game in town.
I’m ignoring Open Phil here, because I don’t think the Open Phil hegemony is a fundamentally tractable problem. In contrast, RP is seeking funds from Forum users, and so the question of keeping its private institutional interests from potentially affecting community views on cause prioritization is fairly on the table.
I obviously have no inside knowledge of the situation @saulius describes here, but I do think it touches on a potential concern of mine that RP could become (or could already be) too influential in the cause prioritization domain. This is not based on anything about RP other than its size: I think it’s almost inevitable that any organization that exists (or could plausibly exist) in an RP-like space will have its own private institutional interests that could reasonably be expected to influence its outputs. Allowing those interests to affect outputs seems rather undesirable.
Three ways to manage this problem occur to me. I tentatively think that decentralization is best; no one organization should control too much of the “cause prioritization thinking/research market.”[1] In a sufficiently decentralized system, there is another similarly-capable organization that can correct errors influenced by private institutional interests. Next in line, I’d suggest externally enforceable guarantees, such as a freedom-of-expression policy with third-party enforcement. I’d place promises that are not externally enforceable in a distinctly lower category; I wouldn’t put much stock in them to the extent that the promisor was the main/only game in town.
I’m ignoring Open Phil here, because I don’t think the Open Phil hegemony is a fundamentally tractable problem. In contrast, RP is seeking funds from Forum users, and so the question of keeping its private institutional interests from potentially affecting community views on cause prioritization is fairly on the table.