I wouldn’t treat the upvotes there as much evidence; I think most EAs voting on these things don’t have very good qualitative or quantitative models of xrisks and what it’d take to stop them.
A reductio ad absurdum here you might have is whether this is an indictment of the karma system in general. I don’t think it is, because (to pick a sample of other posts on the frontpage) posts about burnout and productivity can simply invoke people’s internal sense/vibe of what makes them worried, so just using affect isn’t terrible, posts about internship/job opportunities can be voted based on which jobs EAs are internally excited for themselves or their acquaintances/coworkers to work at, posts about detailed specific topics have enough details in them that people can try to evaluate post on the merits of the posts themselves, etc.
I wouldn’t treat the upvotes there as much evidence; I think most EAs voting on these things don’t have very good qualitative or quantitative models of xrisks and what it’d take to stop them.
A reductio ad absurdum here you might have is whether this is an indictment of the karma system in general. I don’t think it is, because (to pick a sample of other posts on the frontpage) posts about burnout and productivity can simply invoke people’s internal sense/vibe of what makes them worried, so just using affect isn’t terrible, posts about internship/job opportunities can be voted based on which jobs EAs are internally excited for themselves or their acquaintances/coworkers to work at, posts about detailed specific topics have enough details in them that people can try to evaluate post on the merits of the posts themselves, etc.