I remember speaking with a few people that were employed doing AI-type EA work (people who appear to have fully devoted their careers to the mainstream narrative of EA-style longtermism). I was a bit surprised that when I asked them “What are the strongest arguments against longtermism” none were able to provide much of an answer. I was perplexed that people who had decided to devote their careers (and lives?) to this particular cause area weren’t able to clearly articulate the main weaknesses/problems.
Part of me interpreted this as “Yeah, that makes sense. I wouldn’t be able to speak about strong arguments against gravity or evolution either, because it seems so clear that this particular framework is correct.” But I also feel some concern if the strongest counterargument is something fairly weak, such as “too many white men” or “what if we should discount future people.”
I remember speaking with a few people that were employed doing AI-type EA work (people who appear to have fully devoted their careers to the mainstream narrative of EA-style longtermism). I was a bit surprised that when I asked them “What are the strongest arguments against longtermism” none were able to provide much of an answer. I was perplexed that people who had decided to devote their careers (and lives?) to this particular cause area weren’t able to clearly articulate the main weaknesses/problems.
Part of me interpreted this as “Yeah, that makes sense. I wouldn’t be able to speak about strong arguments against gravity or evolution either, because it seems so clear that this particular framework is correct.” But I also feel some concern if the strongest counterargument is something fairly weak, such as “too many white men” or “what if we should discount future people.”