but I am very concerned with just how little cause prioritization seems to be happening at my university group
I’ve heard this critique in different places and never really understood it. Presumably undergraduates who have only recently heard of the empirical and philosophical work related to cause prioritization are not in the best position to do original work on it. Instead they should review arguments others have made and judge them, as you do in the Arete Fellowship. It’s not surprising to me that most people converge on the most popular position within the broader movement.
Instead they should review arguments others have made and judge them, as you do in the Arete Fellowship
IMO there’s a difference between evaluating arguments to the best of your ability and just deferring to the consensus around you. I think most people probably shouldn’t spend lots of time doing cause prio from scratch, but I do think most people should judge the existing cause prio literature on object level and judge them from the best of the ability.
My read of the sentence indicated that there was too much deferring and not enough thinking through the arguments oneself.
IMO there’s a difference between evaluating arguments to the best of your ability and just deferring to the consensus around you.
Of course. I just think evaluating and deferring can look quite similar (and a mix of the two is usually taking place).
OP seems to believe students are deferring because of other frustrations. As many have quoted: “If after Arete, someone without background in AI decides that AI safety is the most important issue, then something likely has gone wrong”.
I’ve attended Arete seminars at Ivy League universities and seen what looked liked fairly sophisticated evaluation to me.
I’d say that critically examining arguments in cause prioritization is an important part of doing cause prioritization. Just as examining philosophical arguments of others is part of doing philosophy. At least, reviewing and judging arguments does not amount to deferring—which is what the post seems mainly concerned about. Perhaps there is actually no disagreement?
I’ve heard this critique in different places and never really understood it. Presumably undergraduates who have only recently heard of the empirical and philosophical work related to cause prioritization are not in the best position to do original work on it. Instead they should review arguments others have made and judge them, as you do in the Arete Fellowship. It’s not surprising to me that most people converge on the most popular position within the broader movement.
IMO there’s a difference between evaluating arguments to the best of your ability and just deferring to the consensus around you. I think most people probably shouldn’t spend lots of time doing cause prio from scratch, but I do think most people should judge the existing cause prio literature on object level and judge them from the best of the ability.
My read of the sentence indicated that there was too much deferring and not enough thinking through the arguments oneself.
Of course. I just think evaluating and deferring can look quite similar (and a mix of the two is usually taking place).
OP seems to believe students are deferring because of other frustrations. As many have quoted: “If after Arete, someone without background in AI decides that AI safety is the most important issue, then something likely has gone wrong”.
I’ve attended Arete seminars at Ivy League universities and seen what looked liked fairly sophisticated evaluation to me.
I’d say that critically examining arguments in cause prioritization is an important part of doing cause prioritization. Just as examining philosophical arguments of others is part of doing philosophy. At least, reviewing and judging arguments does not amount to deferring—which is what the post seems mainly concerned about. Perhaps there is actually no disagreement?