Jeroen Willems🔸

Karma: 1,317

Organizer @ EA Belgium, YouTuber @ A Happier World.

My name is pronounced roughly as “yeroon” (IPA: jəˈʀun). You can leave anonymous feedback here: https://admonymous.co/jeroen_w Currently residing in Brussels, Belgium. I obtained my master’s degree in audiovisual arts, specializing in television, from RITCS in 2020. During my studies, I learned how to direct, write scripts, film, edit and develop concepts. I have since applied and refined all these skills by creating YouTube videos for my channel, A Happier World. A Happier World is a YouTube channel that explores exciting ideas with the potential to radically improve the world. The videos tackle the world’s most pressing problems and offer effective ways we can solve them. Topics covered include global health, poverty, animal welfare, artificial intelligence, pandemics, climate change, and even moral philosophy. I have been actively involved with EA Brussels/Belgium since 2016. My experience in hosting and organizing events has provided valuable insights into effectively communicating EA ideas. Pronouns: he/him

Jeroen Willems🔸Nov 18, 2023, 10:54 AM
3 points
2 ∶ 0
in reply to: GraceAdams🔸’s comment on: Notes on not taking the GWWC pledge (yet)
Thanks for sharing Grace. I think it’s interesting you mention “that I could always resign if needed to”. I’m also still on the fence of pledging, but I wonder if I should look at it similar as going vegan. Like, right now my goal is to be vegan for the rest of my life. So in a way I’ve pledged to that. But something could always happen later in life, perhaps health reasons, that would result in me ‘resigning’ from veganism.

Jeroen Willems🔸Sep 26, 2023, 12:52 PM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform
Today we celebrate Petrov day: The day that Stanislav Petrov potentially saved the world from a nuclear war. 40 years ago now.

I made a quick YouTube Short / TikTok about it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Y8bnqxAbMNg https://www.tiktok.com/@ahappierworldyt/video/7283112331121347873

Jeroen Willems🔸Sep 6, 2023, 9:02 AM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform
I’d love to do more weekly coworkings with people! If you’re interested in coworking with me, you can book a session here: https://app.reclaim.ai/m/jwillems/coworking

We can try it out and then decide if we want to do it weekly or not.

More about me: I run the YouTube channel A Happier World (youtube.com/ahappierworldyt) so I’ll most likely be working on that during our sessions.

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 23, 2023, 12:49 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Severin’s comment on: Should I train to become a mediator for the EA ecosystem?
Some people might not be a fan of AR or circling, so other methods of mediation should be considered too.

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 20, 2023, 7:53 AM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Severin’s comment on: Should I train to become a mediator for the EA ecosystem?
There are still a lot of young EAs that aren’t into AuthRev and circling, so I think as a mediator it’s important to take this into account.

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 9, 2023, 1:50 PM
5 points
2 ∶ 2
on: Reflections on my time on the Long-Term Future Fund
I think having paid (part time or full time) fund managers with less expertise makes sense. Having such a high turnover of fund managers isn’t great for grantees either. I’m not really sure what the cons of paid fund managers are, but I can imagine that there’s a good argument against it that would change my mind. Having less expertise could be a great thing, as your mind isn’t set on a particular view and you can still gather insights from people who do have expertise. And while they perhaps won’t be experts in AI safety or biosecurity, they could be(come) experts at managing funds. Perhaps a pool of experts could be created that fund managers can ask questions too, as long as it won’t take up more than 2 hours a week of their time (or a different cut off).

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 6, 2023, 5:42 PM
7 points
1 ∶ 0
on: The Productivity Fallacy
Great post! I’ve been applying the same metaphor to my life. But I like to think of it more as a phone than a computer since it has a battery that often needs recharging (my laptop is basically always plugged it so I like it less as a metaphor). Also just like not every phone has the same specs and battery, people don’t either. So just because one person is able to do a crazy amount of things, don’t feel bad that you can’t.

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 6, 2023, 10:23 AM
7 points
5 ∶ 0
in reply to: Jeroen Willems🔸’s comment on: EA Funds organisational update: Open Philanthropy matching and distancing
I would like to add that it might be important to communicate this in an email to all currently funded projects by EAIF/LTFF ;)

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 6, 2023, 10:22 AM
4 points
0 ∶ 1
on: EA Funds organisational update: Open Philanthropy matching and distancing
I like seeing this. It’s a great thing to try out and seems like a good idea overall, mostly to decrease the unipolarity of the funding ecosystem. Having no overlap in people who work for Open Phil and help out with EAIF/LTFF seems really important. Though I don’t think there’s any harm for Open Phil to continue matching donations after the six months, but it definitely doesn’t have to be 2:1. 0.5:1 would already be great. I have low confidence in these opinions, just quick thoughts.

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 5, 2023, 3:49 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform
I added the transcription of my newest video on sentientism and moral circle expansion to the EA Forum post :) https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2kNeKoCcHAHQRjRRH/new-a-happier-world-video-on-sentientism-and-moral-circle

New A Happier World video on sentientism and moral circle expansion

Jeroen Willems🔸Aug 3, 2023, 11:25 PM

20 points

0 comments13 min readEA link

Jeroen Willems🔸Jul 17, 2023, 8:36 AM
3 points
2 ∶ 0
in reply to: Benny Smith’s comment on: Is Stirring up Anger Good for Vegan Outreach?
Wow! Not sure what to conclude from that.

Jeroen Willems🔸Jul 15, 2023, 7:04 AM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Jeroen Willems🔸’s comment on: Is Stirring up Anger Good for Vegan Outreach?
Also for passer-by’s perhaps having large QR codes that lead to Elwood’s website is handy.

Jeroen Willems🔸Jul 15, 2023, 7:03 AM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Is Stirring up Anger Good for Vegan Outreach?
I’m curious: How many people actually tried or wanted to try out the dog meat?

Jeroen Willems🔸Jul 9, 2023, 9:04 AM
24 points
9 ∶ 0
on: OpenAI is starting a new “Superintelligence alignment” team and they’re hiring
We are dedicating 20% of the compute we’ve secured to date over the next four years to solving the problem of superintelligence alignment.
This may sound like a lot, but I think it’s likely that 4 years from now 20% of currently secured compute will just be a tiny fraction of what they’ll have secured by then.

Jeroen Willems🔸Jul 9, 2023, 8:53 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Announcing the EA Archive
What’s the likelihood that even in ‘incredible’ places there would be electricity? For some reason I always assumed there would basically be no electricity during a major global catastrophe, which is possibly incorrect. But does it make sense to have paper copies too? What’s the trade-off here?

Jeroen Willems🔸Jun 20, 2023, 9:38 AM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Jeroen Willems🔸’s comment on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform
Reason why I call it a “stream of consciousness”: Streams change over time. Conscious beings do too. They can also split, multiply or grow bigger.

One thing I worry about though: Does your consciousness end when sleeping? Does it end when under anesthesia? These thoughts frighten me.

Jeroen Willems🔸Jun 19, 2023, 8:06 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 1
on: Jeroen_W’s Shortform
An unpolished attempt at moral philosophy
Summary: I propose a view combining classic utilitarianism with a rule that says not to end streams of consciousness.
Under classic utilitarianism, the only thing that matters is hedonic experiences.
People with a person affecting view object to this, but that view comes with issues of its own.

To solve the tension between these two philosophies, I propose a view that adds a rule to classical utilitarianism disallowing directly ending streams of consciousness (SOC)

This is a way to bridge the gap between the person-affecting view and ‘personal identity doesn’t exist’ view and tries to solve some population ethics issues.

I like the simplicity of classic utilitarianism. But I have a strong intuition that a stream of consciousness is valuable intrinsically, meaning that it shouldn’t be stopped/destroyed. Creating a new stream of consciousness isn’t intrinsically valuable (except for the utility it creates).

A SOC isn’t infinitely valuable. Here are some exceptions:
1. When not ending a SOC would result in more SOCs ending (see trolley problem): basically you want to break the rule as little as possible
2. The SOC experiences negative utility and there are no signs it will become positive utility (see euthanasia)
3. Ending the SOC will create at least 10x its utility (or a different critical level)

I believe this is compatible with the non-identity problem (it’s still unclear who’s you if you’re duplicated or if you’re 20 years older).
But I’ve never felt comfortable with the teleportation argument, and this intuition explains why (as a SOC is being ended).

So generally this means: Making current population happier (or making sure few people die) > increasing amount of people

Future people don’t have SOCs as they don’t exist yet, but it’s still important to make their lives go well.

Say we live in a simulation. If our simulation gets turned off and gets replaced by a different one of equal value (pain/pleasure wise), there still seems to be something of incredible value lost.

Still, if the simulation gets replaced by a sufficiently more valuable one it could still be good, hence exception number 3. The exception also makes sure you can kill someone to prevent future people never coming into existence (for example: someone is about to spread a virus that makes everyone incapable of reproducing).

I don’t think adding this rule changes the EV calculations regarding increasing pain/pleasure of present and future beings when it doesn’t involve ending streams of consciousness (I could be wrong though).

This rule doesn’t solve the repugnant conclusion, but I don’t think it’s repugnant in the first place. I think my bar for a life worth living seems higher than those of other people.

How I came to this: I really liked this forum post arguing “Making current population happier > increasing amount of people”. But if I agree it means there’s something of value besides pure pleasure/pain. This is my attempt at finding what it is.

One possible major objection: If you’re giving birth you’re essentially causing a new SOC to be ended (as long as aging isn’t solved). Perhaps this is solved by saying you can’t directly end a stream of consciousness, but you can ignore second/third order effects (though I’m not sure how to make sense of that).
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these ideas. I don’t think these thoughts are good enough or polished enough to deserve a full forum post. I wouldn’t be surprised if the first comment under this shortform would completely shatter this idea.

Jeroen Willems🔸Jun 6, 2023, 10:44 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Sharang Phadke’s comment on: Feedback requested: EA Forum reactions
I’d personally much rather have agree/disagree on posts than these reactions, if we had to pick. I’m not sure if these reactions add any useful information. But I’m happy to see you’re trying to make it simpler than at LessWrong. Curious to hear what the other reasons are for no agree/disagree on posts. I frequently upvote posts I disagree with and would like to express that disagreement without writing a comment. Maybe agree/disagrees can be optionally set by the authors of the post?

Jeroen Willems🔸Jun 6, 2023, 10:38 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: EdoArad’s comment on: Feedback requested: EA Forum reactions
Very much agree. I use upvotes/downvotes to indicate what I would like to see more/less of on the forum. Making that clearer in the pop-up would be great!

Jeroen Willems🔸

New A Hap­pier World video on sen­tien­tism and moral cir­cle expansion

An unpolished attempt at moral philosophy

New A Happier World video on sentientism and moral circle expansion