Probably Brian Tomasik. I think about his essay On triage every once in a while:
Triage as “warm and calculating”
But isn’t this focus on efficiency cold-hearted? Doesn’t strict triage neglect the pain of those who don’t get preferential treatment? For example, people sometimes scoff at legitimate concerns about large pecuniary expenditures on the grounds that it’s insensitive to care about money when lives are at stake. In the real world, though, we can’t do everything. Resources are limited, and we inevitably face choices between helping one being or another. It is precisely the sympathy that we feel for those animals left homeless by a hurricane, for instance, that so fervently motivates us to devote our money toward more efficient ways of ameliorating animal suffering. Triage is not an act of harshness; it represents the highest form of mercy and compassion.
I like this sentiment. It’s good to care about the one, I feel, and to take oppurtunities to help many because they’re all just like that one, with suffering and joy that’s worth caring about, even alone.
As I learned from someone on this forum, “EAs are not cold and calculating—they are warm and calculating.”
Probably Brian Tomasik. I think about his essay On triage every once in a while:
I like this sentiment. It’s good to care about the one, I feel, and to take oppurtunities to help many because they’re all just like that one, with suffering and joy that’s worth caring about, even alone.