I don’t take point D that seriously. Aesop’s miser is worth keeping in mind; the “longevity researcher eating junk every day” is maybe a more relatable analogy. I’m ambivalent on hinginess because I think the future may remain wide-open and high-stakes for centuries to come, but I’m no expert on that. But anyway I think A, B and E are stronger.
Yeah, “Longtermists might be biased” pretty much sums it up. Do you not find examining/becoming more self-aware of biases constructive? To me it’s pretty central to cause prioritization, drowning children, rationalism, longtermism itself… Couldn’t we see cause prioritization as peeling away our biases one by one? But yes, it would be reasonable to accompany “Here’s why we might be biased against nonhumans” with “Here are some object-level arguments that animal suffering deserves attention.”
I don’t take point D that seriously. Aesop’s miser is worth keeping in mind; the “longevity researcher eating junk every day” is maybe a more relatable analogy. I’m ambivalent on hinginess because I think the future may remain wide-open and high-stakes for centuries to come, but I’m no expert on that. But anyway I think A, B and E are stronger.
Yeah, “Longtermists might be biased” pretty much sums it up. Do you not find examining/becoming more self-aware of biases constructive? To me it’s pretty central to cause prioritization, drowning children, rationalism, longtermism itself… Couldn’t we see cause prioritization as peeling away our biases one by one? But yes, it would be reasonable to accompany “Here’s why we might be biased against nonhumans” with “Here are some object-level arguments that animal suffering deserves attention.”