Once again, I think the accusation that we are not being transparent is deeply disingenuous.
If you agree that saying ‘diversity is a strength’ is equivalent to ‘diversity is always a strength and there are no problems increasing diversity in anyway then I can see your concern; I’m pretty confused how this is your assumption of what we mean, and to me is far from the common usage of the phrase. But yes, I agree even if our epistemic situation demands diversity, there are ways this could go wrong, and its not an easy problem ‘where the tent stops’, and whilst it is a very important conversation to have and to negotiate, I too often think that having this conversation in response to any calls to diversify ends up doing much more harm than good.
Once again, these post is not talking about EA, and I’m not sure it’s particularly advocating for ‘non-merit based’ practices (some signatories may agree, some may not). One example of initiatives that could be done to increase demograohic diversity are efforts like magnify mentoring, or doing more outreach in developing countries, or funding initiatives in a broader geographic distribution, or even improving the advertising of projects and job positions. But sure, if we think increasing demographic diversity is important, we might want to have a conversation about other things that can be done.
Also, much of the diversity we speak about is about pluralism of method, core assumptions etc, which only have something to do with ’merit’if you are judging from already a very particular perspective, and it is having this singular perspective is one of the things we are arguing against.
On your final point, you have definitely entirely misrepresentation my position and I am shocked from the conversations we have had that you would come to this conclusion about my work. I’m also pretty surprised this would be your conclusion of Luke’s work as well, which has included everything from biosecurity work for the WHO, work on AI governance and work on climate change, but I don’t know how much of his stuff your reading. I can safely say Luke disagrees that ERS should basically just be XR. I know far less about Dasgupta’s work. Also, i really don’t understand how we can be seen as fully representative of CSER-style xrisk work either. I don’t quite understand how you can claim people hold beliefs, be counteracted, then fail to give evidence for your point whilst maintaining that you are right.
and to me is far from the common usage of the phrase
It’s pretty lowest common denominator to say “you should infer that we mean the good stuff and not the bad stuff, since we all intuitively agree on commonsensical differences between good and bad”. Affordable housing, degrowth, etc. Diversity doesn’t have to be one of those!
Sometimes “currently we should have more of this rather than less, there will be (non-edge) cases where the cost of more is worth it” can be reasonably obvious, even if it’s not obvious how much more, or what the least costly way to get more is, and for some specific proposals its unclear whether the benefits outweigh the costs.
Once again, I think the accusation that we are not being transparent is deeply disingenuous.
If you agree that saying ‘diversity is a strength’ is equivalent to ‘diversity is always a strength and there are no problems increasing diversity in anyway then I can see your concern; I’m pretty confused how this is your assumption of what we mean, and to me is far from the common usage of the phrase. But yes, I agree even if our epistemic situation demands diversity, there are ways this could go wrong, and its not an easy problem ‘where the tent stops’, and whilst it is a very important conversation to have and to negotiate, I too often think that having this conversation in response to any calls to diversify ends up doing much more harm than good.
Once again, these post is not talking about EA, and I’m not sure it’s particularly advocating for ‘non-merit based’ practices (some signatories may agree, some may not). One example of initiatives that could be done to increase demograohic diversity are efforts like magnify mentoring, or doing more outreach in developing countries, or funding initiatives in a broader geographic distribution, or even improving the advertising of projects and job positions. But sure, if we think increasing demographic diversity is important, we might want to have a conversation about other things that can be done.
Also, much of the diversity we speak about is about pluralism of method, core assumptions etc, which only have something to do with ’merit’if you are judging from already a very particular perspective, and it is having this singular perspective is one of the things we are arguing against.
On your final point, you have definitely entirely misrepresentation my position and I am shocked from the conversations we have had that you would come to this conclusion about my work. I’m also pretty surprised this would be your conclusion of Luke’s work as well, which has included everything from biosecurity work for the WHO, work on AI governance and work on climate change, but I don’t know how much of his stuff your reading. I can safely say Luke disagrees that ERS should basically just be XR. I know far less about Dasgupta’s work. Also, i really don’t understand how we can be seen as fully representative of CSER-style xrisk work either. I don’t quite understand how you can claim people hold beliefs, be counteracted, then fail to give evidence for your point whilst maintaining that you are right.
It’s pretty lowest common denominator to say “you should infer that we mean the good stuff and not the bad stuff, since we all intuitively agree on commonsensical differences between good and bad”. Affordable housing, degrowth, etc. Diversity doesn’t have to be one of those!
Sometimes “currently we should have more of this rather than less, there will be (non-edge) cases where the cost of more is worth it” can be reasonably obvious, even if it’s not obvious how much more, or what the least costly way to get more is, and for some specific proposals its unclear whether the benefits outweigh the costs.