I think this is less futile than you’re suggesting. You’re right that in a decentralized system without formal governance, power defaults to capital. But the argument doesn’t require democratizing EA. It requires convincing some of the people with capital that broader epistemic empowerment is in their interest, measured by their own goals.
At least some of the people with money and power in EA are genuinely trying to do the most good they can. Alexander Berger is publicly writing about the streetlight problem and acknowledging costly false negatives. EA’s own frameworks would instantly recognize pure exploitation with zero exploration as a failure mode in any other system. The ask isn’t “share power because it’s fair.” It’s “you’re leaving impact on the table, by your own criteria, and the fix is cheap relative to the cost of what you’re missing.”
That’s not a constitutional reform. It’s one or two funders deciding that discovery infrastructure is worth building. Which is, admittedly, Path 1 again. But if the argument is strong enough, Path 1 is all it takes.
I think this is less futile than you’re suggesting. You’re right that in a decentralized system without formal governance, power defaults to capital. But the argument doesn’t require democratizing EA. It requires convincing some of the people with capital that broader epistemic empowerment is in their interest, measured by their own goals.
At least some of the people with money and power in EA are genuinely trying to do the most good they can. Alexander Berger is publicly writing about the streetlight problem and acknowledging costly false negatives. EA’s own frameworks would instantly recognize pure exploitation with zero exploration as a failure mode in any other system. The ask isn’t “share power because it’s fair.” It’s “you’re leaving impact on the table, by your own criteria, and the fix is cheap relative to the cost of what you’re missing.”
That’s not a constitutional reform. It’s one or two funders deciding that discovery infrastructure is worth building. Which is, admittedly, Path 1 again. But if the argument is strong enough, Path 1 is all it takes.