Thanks—I meant “lone” as in one or two researchers raising these concerns in isolation, not to say they were unaffiliated with an institution.
I’m not familiar with Zoe’s work, and would love to hear from anyone who has worked with them in the past. After seeing the red flags mentioned above, and being stuck with only Zoe’s word for their claims, anything from a named community member along the lines of “this person has done good research/has been intellectually honest” would be a big update for me.
And since I’ve stated my suspicions, I apologize to Zoe if their claims turn out to be substantiated. This is an extremely important post if true, although I remain skeptical.
In particular, a post of the form:
I have written a paper (link).
(12 paragraphs of bravery claims)
(1 paragraph on why EA is failing)
(1 paragraph call to action)
Strikes me as being motivated not by a desire to increase community understanding of an important issue, but rather to generate sympathy for the authors and support for their position by appealing to justice and fairness norms. The other explanation is that this was a very stressful experience, and the author was simply venting their frustrations.
But I’d hope that authors publishing an important paper wouldn’t use its announcement solely as an opportunity for venting, rather than a discussion of the paper and its claims. Whereas that choice makes sense if the goal is to create sympathy and marshal support without needing to defend your object-level argument.
I’m not familiar with Zoe’s work, and would love to hear from anyone who has worked with them in the past. After seeing the red flags mentioned above, and being stuck with only Zoe’s word for their claims, anything from a named community member along the lines of “this person has done good research/has been intellectually honest” would be a big update for me…. [The post] strikes me as being motivated not by a desire to increase community understanding of an important issue, but rather to generate sympathy for the authors and support for their position by appealing to justice and fairness norms. The other explanation is that this was a very stressful experience, and the author was simply venting their frustrations.
(Hopefully I’m not overstepping; I’m just reading this thread now and thought someone ought to reply.)
I’ve worked with Zoe and am happy to vouch for her intentions here; I’m sure others would be as well. I served as her advisor at FHI for a bit more than a year, and have now known her for a few years. Although I didn’t review this paper, and don’t have any detailed or first-hand knowledge of the reviewer discussions, I have also talked to her about this paper a few different times while she’s been working on it with Luke.
I’m very confident that this post reflects genuine concern/frustration; it would be a mistake to dismiss it as (e.g.) a strategy to attract funding or bias readers toward accepting the paper’s arguments. In general, I’m confident that Zoe genuinely cares about the health of the EA and existential risk communities and that her critiques have come from this perspective.
I believe these are authors already working at EA orgs, not “brave lone researchers” per se.
Thanks—I meant “lone” as in one or two researchers raising these concerns in isolation, not to say they were unaffiliated with an institution.
I’m not familiar with Zoe’s work, and would love to hear from anyone who has worked with them in the past. After seeing the red flags mentioned above, and being stuck with only Zoe’s word for their claims, anything from a named community member along the lines of “this person has done good research/has been intellectually honest” would be a big update for me.
And since I’ve stated my suspicions, I apologize to Zoe if their claims turn out to be substantiated. This is an extremely important post if true, although I remain skeptical.
In particular, a post of the form:
I have written a paper (link).
(12 paragraphs of bravery claims)
(1 paragraph on why EA is failing)
(1 paragraph call to action)
Strikes me as being motivated not by a desire to increase community understanding of an important issue, but rather to generate sympathy for the authors and support for their position by appealing to justice and fairness norms. The other explanation is that this was a very stressful experience, and the author was simply venting their frustrations.
But I’d hope that authors publishing an important paper wouldn’t use its announcement solely as an opportunity for venting, rather than a discussion of the paper and its claims. Whereas that choice makes sense if the goal is to create sympathy and marshal support without needing to defend your object-level argument.
(Hopefully I’m not overstepping; I’m just reading this thread now and thought someone ought to reply.)
I’ve worked with Zoe and am happy to vouch for her intentions here; I’m sure others would be as well. I served as her advisor at FHI for a bit more than a year, and have now known her for a few years. Although I didn’t review this paper, and don’t have any detailed or first-hand knowledge of the reviewer discussions, I have also talked to her about this paper a few different times while she’s been working on it with Luke.
I’m very confident that this post reflects genuine concern/frustration; it would be a mistake to dismiss it as (e.g.) a strategy to attract funding or bias readers toward accepting the paper’s arguments. In general, I’m confident that Zoe genuinely cares about the health of the EA and existential risk communities and that her critiques have come from this perspective.
Thanks Ben! That’s very helpful info. I’ll edit the initial comment to reflect my lowered credence in exaggeration or malfeasance.