In my experience, many EAs have a fairly nuanced perspective on technological progress and aren’t unambiguous techno-optimists.
For instance, a substantial fraction of the community is very concerned about the potential negative impacts of advanced technologies (AI, biotech, solar geoengineering, cyber, etc.) and actively works to reduce the associated risks.
Moreover, some people in the community have promoted the idea of “differential (technological) progress” to suggest that we should work to (i) accelerate risk-reducing, welfare-enhancing technologies (or ideas generally) and (ii) decelerate technologies (or ideas) with the opposite effects. That said, studying the concrete implications of differential progress seems fairly neglected and deserves to be explored in much greater depth. In line with the above idea, it seems common for EAs to argue that technological progress has been very beneficial in some regards—improving human welfare, especially over the last hundreds of years (e.g. here)—while it has been harmful in other regards, such as factory farming having led to greater animal suffering.
In my experience, many EAs have a fairly nuanced perspective on technological progress and aren’t unambiguous techno-optimists.
For instance, a substantial fraction of the community is very concerned about the potential negative impacts of advanced technologies (AI, biotech, solar geoengineering, cyber, etc.) and actively works to reduce the associated risks.
Moreover, some people in the community have promoted the idea of “differential (technological) progress” to suggest that we should work to (i) accelerate risk-reducing, welfare-enhancing technologies (or ideas generally) and (ii) decelerate technologies (or ideas) with the opposite effects. That said, studying the concrete implications of differential progress seems fairly neglected and deserves to be explored in much greater depth. In line with the above idea, it seems common for EAs to argue that technological progress has been very beneficial in some regards—improving human welfare, especially over the last hundreds of years (e.g. here)—while it has been harmful in other regards, such as factory farming having led to greater animal suffering.