I feel sometimes that the EA movement is starting to sound like heavy metalists (“climate change is too mainstream”), or evangelists (“in the days after the great climate change (Armageddon), mankind will colonize the galaxy (the 2nd coming), so the important work is the one that prevents x-risk (saves people’s souls)”).
I say “amen” to that, and have supported AI safety financially in the past, but I remain skeptical that climate change can be ignored. What would you recommend as next steps for an EA ember who wants to learn more and eventually act? What are the AMF or GD of climate change?
Nothing you’ve written here sounds like anything I’ve heard anyone say in the context of a serious EA discussion. Are there any examples you could link to of people complaining about causes being “too mainstream” or using religious language to discuss X-risk prevention?
The arguments you seem to be referring to with these points (that it’s hard to make marginal impact in crowded areas, and that it’s good to work toward futures where more people are alive and flourishing) rely on a lot of careful economic and moral reasoning about the real world, and I think this comment doesn’t really acknowledge the work that goes into cause prioritization.
But if you see a lot of these weaker (hipster/religious) arguments outside of mainstream discussion (e.g. maybe lots of EA Facebook groups are full of posts like this), I’d be interested to see examples.
I feel sometimes that the EA movement is starting to sound like heavy metalists (“climate change is too mainstream”), or evangelists (“in the days after the great climate change (Armageddon), mankind will colonize the galaxy (the 2nd coming), so the important work is the one that prevents x-risk (saves people’s souls)”). I say “amen” to that, and have supported AI safety financially in the past, but I remain skeptical that climate change can be ignored. What would you recommend as next steps for an EA ember who wants to learn more and eventually act? What are the AMF or GD of climate change?
Nothing you’ve written here sounds like anything I’ve heard anyone say in the context of a serious EA discussion. Are there any examples you could link to of people complaining about causes being “too mainstream” or using religious language to discuss X-risk prevention?
The arguments you seem to be referring to with these points (that it’s hard to make marginal impact in crowded areas, and that it’s good to work toward futures where more people are alive and flourishing) rely on a lot of careful economic and moral reasoning about the real world, and I think this comment doesn’t really acknowledge the work that goes into cause prioritization.
But if you see a lot of these weaker (hipster/religious) arguments outside of mainstream discussion (e.g. maybe lots of EA Facebook groups are full of posts like this), I’d be interested to see examples.
The Effective Environmentalism group maintains a document of recommended resources.