Mack the Knife
- [deleted]
No, I don’t think that’s a relevant risk (Upvote if you agree)
Yes, I think this might happen (upvote if you agree)
Neither, although probably closer to B. Of course they are entitled to their opinions and should feel free to express them. I just wish they would do it in a way that didn’t regularly come across as deminishing important efforts in other areas (just my opinion, naturally). Of course that isn’t easy and others have commented on the difficulty to balance the two. But I think, there are some things that could be done, especially in the wording and visual representation of different cause areas.
Like I’ve said in many other comments, I don’t have a problem with their ranking or the fact that there is a ranking in the first place. And of course they are explicit about their values. But I still think there are ways to push x-risk as the top priority whilst also conveying other cause areas as more valuable than they currently are. Difficult of course, but not impossible. The key problem is that I’m not sure many people discouragd from “less important causes” then happily go into longtermism. I think it’s more likely they stop being active altogether (this is my personal impression of course from my own experiences and many conversations). Because you can’t force yourself to care about something when you simply don’t—even if you want to and even if that’d be the “best” and most rational thing to do. So people in “less important causes” might be lost altogether and not doing their “less important” but still pretty valuable (I think) work anymore. And that I the concern I wanted to voice. Not all that “absurd”, I think.