Great discussion! I think perhaps there is some subtle conflict between EA’s goal of a “radically better world” and marginal cost effectiveness. For marginal cost effectiveness, I think EA does a good job and the ITN framework is helpful. However, if we want, as CEA states, to contribute to solve ”...a range of pressing global problems — like global poverty, factory farming, and existential risk”, I think we need to get much more politically involved. I actually think this has happened in EA already and I have sensed a big shift with the focus on AI where the focus on politics have become almost dominating. In short: I do not think you can incrementally get to a radically better world by only chipping away at the margin. That is not how I understand that many important changes came about in the past, whether democracies, women’s voting rights, civil rights, etc. I do see radical changes having come about in e.g. medical science via incremental improvements, but if we removed all improvements historically that came about through less incremental changes, I think we would live in a significantly worse world.
Great discussion! I think perhaps there is some subtle conflict between EA’s goal of a “radically better world” and marginal cost effectiveness. For marginal cost effectiveness, I think EA does a good job and the ITN framework is helpful. However, if we want, as CEA states, to contribute to solve ”...a range of pressing global problems — like global poverty, factory farming, and existential risk”, I think we need to get much more politically involved. I actually think this has happened in EA already and I have sensed a big shift with the focus on AI where the focus on politics have become almost dominating. In short: I do not think you can incrementally get to a radically better world by only chipping away at the margin. That is not how I understand that many important changes came about in the past, whether democracies, women’s voting rights, civil rights, etc. I do see radical changes having come about in e.g. medical science via incremental improvements, but if we removed all improvements historically that came about through less incremental changes, I think we would live in a significantly worse world.