EA is apparently such a successful idea that even its critics feel compelled to use its framing to levy their criticism:
“SBF’s Future Fund donated $36.5 million to Effective Ventures, a charity chaired by friend and mentor MacAskill. It is unclear what the basis of this donation was. Was there a randomised, controlled trial (RCT) to decide if this was the best use of the money?”
“ Why should we take his views on existential threats facing humanity that he calls to our attention in his latest book What We Owe The Future with any seriousness? If MacAskill cannot predict threats to his own near-term future, namely, the threat associating with SBF posed to his own reputation and the effective altruism movement, how well can he estimate, much less affect, the million-year prospects of humanity?”
Because it is in fact much easier to predict the major threats facing humanity in this century than to predict which specific companies will commit fraud. The former is just a property of the universe, available to discover on inspection. The latter is being actively hidden by precisely the person with the best ability and most incentive to hide it.
“ What would MacAskillian calculations make of CMC’s modest beginning as a single-bed clinic?”
I don’t know about MacAskill specifically, but this was in a time before AI was a looming threat. We are generally very up on neglected and important global health interventions.
“ If malaria eradication in Bangladesh is one’s greatest passion, the least that can be done is to live and work amongst the people of Chittagong’s hill tract districts.”
To be self-consistent, shouldn’t you be living among Chittagong’s hill tract districts if you’re going to use them in your piece?
EA is apparently such a successful idea that even its critics feel compelled to use its framing to levy their criticism:
“SBF’s Future Fund donated $36.5 million to Effective Ventures, a charity chaired by friend and mentor MacAskill. It is unclear what the basis of this donation was. Was there a randomised, controlled trial (RCT) to decide if this was the best use of the money?”
“ Why should we take his views on existential threats facing humanity that he calls to our attention in his latest book What We Owe The Future with any seriousness? If MacAskill cannot predict threats to his own near-term future, namely, the threat associating with SBF posed to his own reputation and the effective altruism movement, how well can he estimate, much less affect, the million-year prospects of humanity?”
Because it is in fact much easier to predict the major threats facing humanity in this century than to predict which specific companies will commit fraud. The former is just a property of the universe, available to discover on inspection. The latter is being actively hidden by precisely the person with the best ability and most incentive to hide it.
“ What would MacAskillian calculations make of CMC’s modest beginning as a single-bed clinic?”
I don’t know about MacAskill specifically, but this was in a time before AI was a looming threat. We are generally very up on neglected and important global health interventions.
“ If malaria eradication in Bangladesh is one’s greatest passion, the least that can be done is to live and work amongst the people of Chittagong’s hill tract districts.”
To be self-consistent, shouldn’t you be living among Chittagong’s hill tract districts if you’re going to use them in your piece?