I enjoyed this read, and agree with the vibes of it. I am not sure what specifically is being recommended. I do think it would be good if EA avoids alienating people unnecessarily. That has two implications:
(a) the movement avoid identifying with the political left any more than is strictly entailed by the goals of EA, because it will alienate people on the political right who could contribute;
(b) being more conservative, in the non-political sense of holding new ideas lightly and giving a lot of weight to conventional ideas. This could be framed on “moral parliament” terms—you give a lot of weight in decision-making to the question, “what would conventional, common-sense morality say about this decision/cause area?”.
I think EA has generally achieved (a), but I probably have blind spots there so could be wrong.
I don’t have a good sense of (b). It’s hard to say. EA leaders like Will MacAskill have said they waited several years after being told that longtermism should be the overriding concern for EAs, before he started publicly advocating for that stance. Plenty of EA Funding still goes to global health and development, even though philosophers like Will MacAskill and Hilary Greaves seem to think long-termism is the overriding concern.
Presumably that comes from a reluctance to go all-in on EA thinking and to have some sort of compromise with more conventional norms. I don’t have a good sense if we give conventional morality too much weight, or not enough.
What specifically is being recommended? Good question. I would say two things.
(1) Think about issues of recruitment, leadership, public messaging, public association with an eye to virtues such as statesmanship & good judgment. There’s no shortage of prophets in EA; it’s time for some kings.
But that’s really vague & unhelpful too! Ok, true. I’m no statesman but how about something like this:
(2) Choose one disease and eliminate it entirely. People will say that eliminating disease X is doing less good than reducing disease Y by 40% (or something like that). Ignore them. Eliminating disease X shows the world that EA is a serious undertaking that achieves uncontroversially good things. Maybe disease X would have mutated and caused something worse; maybe not – who knows! We’re clueless! But it would show that EA is not just earnest young people following a fad but a real thing that really matters. That’s the kind of achievement that could take EA to the next level.
(Obviously, don’t give up on the existential risks & low-chance/high-impact stuff. I just mean that concrete proof of effectiveness is a great recruiting & enthusing tool.)
On whether EA appeals enough to conservatives
(1) It’s not bad, but could be a lot better. Frankly, EA is a good fit with major world religions that encourage alms-giving (Christianity & Islam spring to mind) and ought to be much bigger there than it is.
(2) This anecdote from Tyler Cowen’s talk: “And after my talk, a woman went up to me and she came over and she whispered in my ear and she said, you know, Tyler, I actually am a social conservative and an effective altruist, but please don’t tell anyone.” Hmm.
I enjoyed this read, and agree with the vibes of it. I am not sure what specifically is being recommended. I do think it would be good if EA avoids alienating people unnecessarily. That has two implications:
(a) the movement avoid identifying with the political left any more than is strictly entailed by the goals of EA, because it will alienate people on the political right who could contribute;
(b) being more conservative, in the non-political sense of holding new ideas lightly and giving a lot of weight to conventional ideas. This could be framed on “moral parliament” terms—you give a lot of weight in decision-making to the question, “what would conventional, common-sense morality say about this decision/cause area?”.
I think EA has generally achieved (a), but I probably have blind spots there so could be wrong.
I don’t have a good sense of (b). It’s hard to say. EA leaders like Will MacAskill have said they waited several years after being told that longtermism should be the overriding concern for EAs, before he started publicly advocating for that stance. Plenty of EA Funding still goes to global health and development, even though philosophers like Will MacAskill and Hilary Greaves seem to think long-termism is the overriding concern.
Presumably that comes from a reluctance to go all-in on EA thinking and to have some sort of compromise with more conventional norms. I don’t have a good sense if we give conventional morality too much weight, or not enough.
Thanks for your comments!
What specifically is being recommended? Good question. I would say two things.
(1) Think about issues of recruitment, leadership, public messaging, public association with an eye to virtues such as statesmanship & good judgment. There’s no shortage of prophets in EA; it’s time for some kings.
But that’s really vague & unhelpful too! Ok, true. I’m no statesman but how about something like this:
(2) Choose one disease and eliminate it entirely. People will say that eliminating disease X is doing less good than reducing disease Y by 40% (or something like that). Ignore them. Eliminating disease X shows the world that EA is a serious undertaking that achieves uncontroversially good things. Maybe disease X would have mutated and caused something worse; maybe not – who knows! We’re clueless! But it would show that EA is not just earnest young people following a fad but a real thing that really matters. That’s the kind of achievement that could take EA to the next level.
(Obviously, don’t give up on the existential risks & low-chance/high-impact stuff. I just mean that concrete proof of effectiveness is a great recruiting & enthusing tool.)
On whether EA appeals enough to conservatives
(1) It’s not bad, but could be a lot better. Frankly, EA is a good fit with major world religions that encourage alms-giving (Christianity & Islam spring to mind) and ought to be much bigger there than it is.
(2) This anecdote from Tyler Cowen’s talk: “And after my talk, a woman went up to me and she came over and she whispered in my ear and she said, you know, Tyler, I actually am a social conservative and an effective altruist, but please don’t tell anyone.” Hmm.