Global moratorium on AGI, now (Twitter). Founder of CEEALAR (née the EA Hotel; ceealar.org)
Greg_Colbourn
Karma: 4,936
For eating out, it’s nearly always possible to get a vegan version of a non-vegan dish, even when there isn’t anything vegan listed on the menu (e.g. pizza without cheese). However, it does perhaps take a bit of effort/practice to get over the “I’m being difficult” feeling—keep in mind that veganism is a positive thing, not something to feel guilty about. Failing that, chips and salad is a fallback option :-) As for eating at friends houses, I guess it’s similar: you have to feel comfortable with requesting vegan food (or otherwise limiting your options). I’ve never been that into food, so these things don’t bother me that much.
There’s also a charity called Vegfam—http://www.vegfamcharity.org.uk/ - not sure how effective they are though.
Creatine is cheap and readily available as a supplement. Ultimately, foods are made up of chemical building blocks, and it seems arbitrary to consider the division “animal/non-animal” as especially nutritionally salient.
Also, “caring about lesser minds” is a good meme to promote, especially considering FAI, CEV etc.
For those in the UK, this is probably the best buy for vegan Omega 3 supplements: http://www.nuique.com/algal-omega3/
I’d say B12 is the only really critical supplement needed as a vegan (and even then, lots of plant milks are fortified with it, so it’s quite hard to avoid). To be on the safe side, you can take a 1 a day supplement tailored for vegans, like: https://www.vegansociety.com/shop/supplements/veg1-orange-90s Although I’ve recently noticed that I’ve gone nearly a year without this (was going to try a soylent recipe instead, and didn’t, and forgot to restock!), and have not suffered any ill effects. In actual fact, I’ve had a pretty rubbish diet for large parts of the last year (marmite sandwiches, crisps, cereal) and have been fine. Maybe I’m pushing my luck though!
If you look at all the foods eaten in the world, the vast majority are of plant origin, so meat is narrow in scope from that view (it just seems central from a modern-day Western perspective); perhaps the scope is large enough for the analogy not to hold with fruits and vegetables together, but either fruits or vegetables might make a comparable analogy to meat.
My point was mainly that it’s possible to synthesise very close analogues of animal products from plants and it’s not much trouble to get them (Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek Foods are state of the art, but stuff like Fry’s vegetarian is widespread and easy to get). More data is needed for things like Soylent and Power Smoothies, although people have been living for months on them now I guess.
I don’t remember feeling or being any more (or less) healthy when I was an omnivore (I was one up until age 2004 (age 23)). But note that I’ve never reached an optimal level of physical fitness as an adult—maybe one of these years I’ll stick to an exercise regime for long enough!
According to Google, oats have more protein than eggs by weight (17% vs. 13%), and porridge is quick and easy to make in the microwave. There are also lots of vegan protein powders. Maybe try soy, as pea doesn’t taste very nice.
Deleted because.. bananas?
“What Role Do Small-to-Medium Donors Play In the Future of Effective Altruism”
I’ve been wondering the same. But I’ve got a feeling that top tier philanthropists deliberately restrict their giving to ~50% at max. of the room for more funding, both to encourage smaller donors, and also because they only want to support things in proportion to their popular appeal. The latter also explains the motivation for genuinely restricted donation matching.
There is also the Kernel Project (Manchester, UK) - rationalist & rationalist-adjacent low cost living and community building. I would be happy to see more EAs involved.
Was thinking that there could be a tie-in with Giving What We Can’s My Giving. You could tick a box to make your My Giving profile public, and then have another box for people browsing to “copy this donor’s distribution of donations” like some trading websites (such as eToro) offer. Although they would not, unfortunately, come with tallies of expected total utilons produced, there could be league tables of most copied donors by number of people copying, and amount donated following their distribution.
Can ALLFED get listed on EA Funds (https://app.effectivealtruism.org)? That should enable tax deductible donations from the UK.
You need to weigh up the possibility of helping further life that is very alien (with radically different morality—see http://lesswrong.com/lw/y4/three_worlds_collide_08/ for great examples) against the chance of drawing unwanted attention to ourselves. My intuition is that the scale would lean heavily in favour of staying quiet. Unless there is some reason to believe that morality would somehow be convergent in the universe?
Regarding potentially tax deductible items mentioned in section 5, usually accommodation or anything regarded as for personal use is not included. It would be regarded as payment in kind and therefore taxable (and also make the tax reporting more complicated!) This in the UK at least. E.g. https://www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-accommodation/whats-exempt
Something along these lines that I’ve been looking into is providing a cheap hotel for EAs to live in for free whilst they independently study/research/work on start-ups. More information in the following facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1624791014242988/ [EA Hotel, free accommodation and board for up to 2 years, Blackpool, UK] Hoping to post more detail here soon.
Have you got any examples of schools and universities offering free accommodation to staff? I’ve only heard of subsidised accommodation, and here—https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/tax/what-is-taxable-income/tax-on-benefits-in-kind/ - it says that the difference between the rent paid and market rate is taxable.
EA Hotel with free accommodation and board for two years
This is now happening: http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1pc/ea_hotel_with_free_accommodation_and_board_for
Project is now active; I’ve written up the details here: http://effective-altruism.com/ea/1pc/ea_hotel_with_free_accommodation_and_board_for/
As long as you aren’t feeling hungry most of the time, you’re probably getting enough protein. So I would say it doesn’t really take any extra effort. e.g. If all you eat was bread, you’d be getting enough protein. I think most people in the west probably eat more protein than they need.