So you seem to think that our guidelines ask people to weaken their views while Nick’s may not be doing that, and that they may be harmful to suffering-focused views if we think promoting SFE is important. I think my perspective differs in the following ways:
The guidelines are fairly similar in their recommendation to mention moral uncertainty and arguments that are especially important to other parts of the community while representing one’s own views honestly.
If we want to promote SFE in EA, we will be more convincing for (potential) EAs if we provide nuanced and balanced arguments, which is what the guidelines ask for, and if s-risks research is more fleshed out and established in the community. Unlike our previous SFE content, our recent efforts (e.g., workshops, asking for feedback on early drafts) received a lot of engagement from both newer and long-time EA community members. (Outside of EA, this seems less clear.)
We sought feedback on these guidelines from community members and received largely positive feedback. Some people will always disagree but overall, most people were in favor. We’ll seek out feedback again when we revisit the guidelines.
I think this new form of cooperation across the community is worth trying and improving on. It may not be perfect yet, but we will reassess at the end of this year and make adjustments (or discontinue the guidelines in a worst case).
I hope this is helpful. We have now published the guidelines, you can find the links above!
I agree with/appreciate these points. I think there is a difference in how each sides deals with each others’ concerns, but I guess I can see that it might be fair anyway. That is, in EAF’s guidelines, authors are encouraged to “include some of the best arguments against these positions, and, if appropriate, mention the wide acceptance of these arguments in the effective altruism community”, while in Beckstead’s, authors are encouraged to discuss the practical concerns of the SFE community, which might not otherwise be practical concerns for them, depending on their empirical views (e.g. astronomical suffering would be outweighed by far more wellbeing).
Also, I expect this not to be the case, but is general advocacy against working on extinction risks (and in favour of other priorities) something that would be discouraged according to the guidelines? This may “cause human extinction” by causing people to (voluntarily) be less likely to try to prevent extinction. Similarly, what about advocacy for voluntary human extinction (however unlikely it is anyway)? I think these should be fine if done in an honest and civil way, and neither underhandedly nor manipulatively.
Thanks! I think I don’t have the capacity to give detailed public replies to this right now. My respective short answers would be something like “sure, that seems fine” and “might inspire riskier content, depends a lot on the framing and context”, but there’s nuance to this that’s hard to convey in half a sentence. If you would like to write something about these topics and are interested in my perspective, feel free to get in touch and I’m happy to share my thoughts!
Thanks for giving input on this!
So you seem to think that our guidelines ask people to weaken their views while Nick’s may not be doing that, and that they may be harmful to suffering-focused views if we think promoting SFE is important. I think my perspective differs in the following ways:
The guidelines are fairly similar in their recommendation to mention moral uncertainty and arguments that are especially important to other parts of the community while representing one’s own views honestly.
If we want to promote SFE in EA, we will be more convincing for (potential) EAs if we provide nuanced and balanced arguments, which is what the guidelines ask for, and if s-risks research is more fleshed out and established in the community. Unlike our previous SFE content, our recent efforts (e.g., workshops, asking for feedback on early drafts) received a lot of engagement from both newer and long-time EA community members. (Outside of EA, this seems less clear.)
We sought feedback on these guidelines from community members and received largely positive feedback. Some people will always disagree but overall, most people were in favor. We’ll seek out feedback again when we revisit the guidelines.
I think this new form of cooperation across the community is worth trying and improving on. It may not be perfect yet, but we will reassess at the end of this year and make adjustments (or discontinue the guidelines in a worst case).
I hope this is helpful. We have now published the guidelines, you can find the links above!
Thanks!
I agree with/appreciate these points. I think there is a difference in how each sides deals with each others’ concerns, but I guess I can see that it might be fair anyway. That is, in EAF’s guidelines, authors are encouraged to “include some of the best arguments against these positions, and, if appropriate, mention the wide acceptance of these arguments in the effective altruism community”, while in Beckstead’s, authors are encouraged to discuss the practical concerns of the SFE community, which might not otherwise be practical concerns for them, depending on their empirical views (e.g. astronomical suffering would be outweighed by far more wellbeing).
Also, I expect this not to be the case, but is general advocacy against working on extinction risks (and in favour of other priorities) something that would be discouraged according to the guidelines? This may “cause human extinction” by causing people to (voluntarily) be less likely to try to prevent extinction. Similarly, what about advocacy for voluntary human extinction (however unlikely it is anyway)? I think these should be fine if done in an honest and civil way, and neither underhandedly nor manipulatively.
Thanks! I think I don’t have the capacity to give detailed public replies to this right now. My respective short answers would be something like “sure, that seems fine” and “might inspire riskier content, depends a lot on the framing and context”, but there’s nuance to this that’s hard to convey in half a sentence. If you would like to write something about these topics and are interested in my perspective, feel free to get in touch and I’m happy to share my thoughts!