It seems to me that this post has introduced a new definition of cause X that is weaker (i.e. easier to satisfy) than the one used by CEA.
This post defines cause X as:
The concept behind a “cause X” is that there could be a cause neglected by the EA community but that is as important, or more important, to work on than the four currently established EA cause areas.
What are the sorts of major moral problems that in several hundred years we’ll look back and think, “Wow, we were barbarians!”? What are the major issues that we haven’t even conceptualized today?
I will refer to this as Cause X.
See also the first paragraph of Emanuele Ascani’s answer here.
From the “New causes one could consider” list in this post, I think only Invertebrates and Moral circle expansion would qualify as a potential cause X under CEA’s definition (the others already have researchers/organizations working on them full-time, or wouldn’t sound crazy to the average person).
I think it would be good to have a separate term specifically for the cause areas that seem especially crazy or unconceptualized, since searching for causes in this stricter class likely requires different strategies, more open-mindedness, etc.
It seems to me that this post has introduced a new definition of cause X that is weaker (i.e. easier to satisfy) than the one used by CEA.
This post defines cause X as:
But from Will MacAskill’s talk:
See also the first paragraph of Emanuele Ascani’s answer here.
From the “New causes one could consider” list in this post, I think only Invertebrates and Moral circle expansion would qualify as a potential cause X under CEA’s definition (the others already have researchers/organizations working on them full-time, or wouldn’t sound crazy to the average person).
I think it would be good to have a separate term specifically for the cause areas that seem especially crazy or unconceptualized, since searching for causes in this stricter class likely requires different strategies, more open-mindedness, etc.
Related: Guarded definition.