Thx for the long writeup. FWIW I will share some of my own impressions.
Robin’s one of the most generative and influential thinkers I know. He has consistently produced fascinating ideas and contributed to a lot of the core debates in EA, like giving now vs later, AI takeoff, prediction markets, great filter, and so on. His comments regarding common discussion of inequality are all of a kind with the whole of his ‘elephant in the brain work’, noticing weird potential hypocrisies in others. I don’t know how to easily summarize the level of his intellectual impact on the world, so I’ll stop here.
It seems like there’s been a couple of (2-4) news articles taking potshots at Hanson for his word choices, off the back of an angry mob, and this is just going to be a fairly standard worry for even mildly interesting or popular figures, given that the mob is going after people daily on Twitter. (As the OP says, not everyone, but anyone.)
It seems to me understandable if some new group like EA Munich (this was one of their first events?) feels out of their depth when trying to deal with the present-day information and social media ecosystem, and that’s why they messed up. But overall this level of lack of backbone mustn’t be the norm, else the majority of interesting thinkers will not be interested in interacting with EA. I am less interested in contributing-to and collaborating-with others in the EA community as a result of this. I mean, there’s lots of things I don’t like that are just small quibbles, which is your price for joining, but this kind of thing strikes at the basic core of what I think is necessary for EA to help guide civilization in a positive direction, as opposed to being some small cosmetic issue or personal discomfort.
Also, it seems to me like it would be a good idea for the folks at EA Munich to re-invite Robin to give the same talk, as a sign of goodwill. (I don’t expect they will and am not making a request, I’m saying what it seems like to me.)
Any discussion of the Munich cancellation as a potential indicator of “norms” should probably note that there are hundreds of talks by interesting thinkers each year at EA conferences/meetups around the world. At least, people I’d consider interesting, even if they don’t come into conflict with social norms as regularly as Robin.
On a graph of “controversial x connection to EA,” Robin is in the top corner (that is, I can’t think of anyone who is both at least as controversial and at least as connected to EA, other than maybe Peter Singer). So all these other talks may not say much about our “norm” for handling controversial speakers. But based on the organizers I know, I’d be surprised if most other EA groups (especially the bigger/more experienced ones) would have disinvited Robin.
In terms of your own feelings about contributing/collaborating in EA, do you think sentiments like those of the Munich group are common? It seems like their decision was widely criticized by lots of people in EA (even those who, like me, defended their right to make the decision/empathized with their plight while saying it was the wrong move), and supported by very few. If anything, I updated from this incident in the direction of “wow, EA people are even more opposed to ‘cancel culture’ than I expected.”
This is definitely not the case, the record of events for EA Munich goes back to May 2018, and I’m pretty sure the group got founded in 2015/2016 (although at the time of the decision, only a few of the original founding members were still involved).
Thx for the long writeup. FWIW I will share some of my own impressions.
Robin’s one of the most generative and influential thinkers I know. He has consistently produced fascinating ideas and contributed to a lot of the core debates in EA, like giving now vs later, AI takeoff, prediction markets, great filter, and so on. His comments regarding common discussion of inequality are all of a kind with the whole of his ‘elephant in the brain work’, noticing weird potential hypocrisies in others. I don’t know how to easily summarize the level of his intellectual impact on the world, so I’ll stop here.
It seems like there’s been a couple of (2-4) news articles taking potshots at Hanson for his word choices, off the back of an angry mob, and this is just going to be a fairly standard worry for even mildly interesting or popular figures, given that the mob is going after people daily on Twitter. (As the OP says, not everyone, but anyone.)
It seems to me understandable if some new group like EA Munich (this was one of their first events?) feels out of their depth when trying to deal with the present-day information and social media ecosystem, and that’s why they messed up. But overall this level of lack of backbone mustn’t be the norm, else the majority of interesting thinkers will not be interested in interacting with EA. I am less interested in contributing-to and collaborating-with others in the EA community as a result of this. I mean, there’s lots of things I don’t like that are just small quibbles, which is your price for joining, but this kind of thing strikes at the basic core of what I think is necessary for EA to help guide civilization in a positive direction, as opposed to being some small cosmetic issue or personal discomfort.
Also, it seems to me like it would be a good idea for the folks at EA Munich to re-invite Robin to give the same talk, as a sign of goodwill. (I don’t expect they will and am not making a request, I’m saying what it seems like to me.)
Any discussion of the Munich cancellation as a potential indicator of “norms” should probably note that there are hundreds of talks by interesting thinkers each year at EA conferences/meetups around the world. At least, people I’d consider interesting, even if they don’t come into conflict with social norms as regularly as Robin.
On a graph of “controversial x connection to EA,” Robin is in the top corner (that is, I can’t think of anyone who is both at least as controversial and at least as connected to EA, other than maybe Peter Singer). So all these other talks may not say much about our “norm” for handling controversial speakers. But based on the organizers I know, I’d be surprised if most other EA groups (especially the bigger/more experienced ones) would have disinvited Robin.
In terms of your own feelings about contributing/collaborating in EA, do you think sentiments like those of the Munich group are common? It seems like their decision was widely criticized by lots of people in EA (even those who, like me, defended their right to make the decision/empathized with their plight while saying it was the wrong move), and supported by very few. If anything, I updated from this incident in the direction of “wow, EA people are even more opposed to ‘cancel culture’ than I expected.”
(More for archival purposes than anything else)
This is definitely not the case, the record of events for EA Munich goes back to May 2018, and I’m pretty sure the group got founded in 2015/2016 (although at the time of the decision, only a few of the original founding members were still involved).