My name is Kendrea Beers. Currently, I’m a MS student and Graduate Research Assistant in the Artificial Intelligence program at Oregon State University.
tae
Karma: 345
Potential funding opportunity for woman-led EA organization
Great, this is exactly the sort of response I was hoping for!
I do not have a personal connection to the award, and I don’t know how many charities were nominated last year. I plan to nominate the organization that stands out in this discussion (thus far J-PAL). The website doesn’t mention any kind of voting system, so one nomination should suffice.
Frustratingly, I think the requirement that the organization must serve North American women rules out ACE, SCI, CFAR, and Encompass. J-PAL may have a chance.
Willpower is likely not a valid model — see the top-level comment by MichaelStJules below.
The point remains valid, though, that people are only willing to change their lives so much.
Oh, you beat me to this point! Here’s a more conversationally written article about the topic that I shared above before I saw your comment: http://nautil.us/issue/45/power/against-willpower
This seems like an incredibly interesting and important discussion! I don’t have much time now, but I’ll throw in some quick thoughts and hopefully come back later.
I think that there is room for Romy and Paolo’s viewpoint in the EA movement. Lemme see if I can translate some of their points into EA-speak and fill in some of their implicit arguments. I’ll inevitably use a somewhat persuasive tone, but disagreement is of course welcome.
(For context, I’ve been involved in EA for about six years now, but I’ve never come across any EAs in the wild. Instead, I’m immersed in three communities: Buddhist, Christian, and social-justice-oriented academic. I’m deeply committed to consequentialism, but I believe that virtues are great tools for bringing about good consequences.)
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I think the main difference between Guerrilla’s perspective and the dominant EA perspective is that Guerrilla believes that small actions, virtues, intuitions, etc. really matter. I’m inclined to agree.
Social justice intuition says that the fundamental problem behind all this suffering is that powerful/privileged people are jerks in various ways. For example, colonialism screwed up Africa’s thriving (by the standards of that time) economy. (I’m no expert, but as far as I know, it seems highly likely that African communities would have modernized into flourishing places if they weren’t exploited.) As another example, privileged people act like jerks when they spend money on luxuries instead of donating.
Spiritual intuition, from Buddhism, Christianity, and probably many other traditions, says that the reason powerful/privileged people are jerks is that they’re held captive by greed, anger, delusion, and other afflictive emotions. For example, it’s delusional and greedy to think that you need a sports car more than other people need basic necessities.
If afflictive emotions are the root cause of all the world’s ills, then I think it’s plausible to look to virtues as a solution. (I interpret “generating the political will” to mean “generating the desire for specific actions and the dedication to follow through”, which sound like virtues to me.) In particular, religions and social justice philosophers seem to agree that it’s important to cultivate a genuine yearning for the flourishing of all sentient beings. Other virtues—equanimity, generosity, diligence—obviously help with altruistic endeavors. Virtues can support the goal of happiness for all in at least three ways. First, a virtuous person can help others more effectively. Compassion and generosity help them to gladly share their resources, patience helps them to avoid blowing up with anger and damaging relationships, and perseverance helps them to keep working through challenges. Second, people who have trained their minds are themselves happier with their circumstances (citation needed). Great, now there’s less work for others to do! Third, according to the Buddhist tradition, a virtuous person knows better what to do at any given moment. By developing compassion, one develops wisdom, and vice versa. The “Effective” and the “Altruism” are tied together. This makes sense because spiritual training should make one more open, less reactive, and less susceptible to subconscious habits; once these obscurations are removed, one has a clearer view of what needs to be done in any given moment. You don’t want to act on repressed fear, anger, or bigotry by accident! To riff off Romy and Paolo’s example of “wealthy EA donors” failing to work on themselves, their ignorance of their own minds may have real-world consequences when they don’t even notice that they could support systemic change at their own organizations. The argument here is that our mental states have significant effects on our actions, so we’d better help others by cleaning up our harmful mental tendencies.
Maybe this internal work won’t bear super-effective fruit immediately, but I think it’s clear that mind-training and wellbeing create a positive feedback loop. Investing now will pay off later: building compassionate and wise communities would be incredibly beneficial long-term.
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Miscellaneous points in no particular order:
“EA seems to unquestioningly replicate the values of the old system: efficiency and cost-effectiveness, growth/scale, linearity, science and objectivity, individualism, and decision-making by experts/elites”.
Here’s how I interpret the argument: historically, people who value these things have gone on to gain a bunch of power and use it to oppress others. This is evidence that valuing these things leads to bad consequences. Therefore, we should try to find values that have better track records. I’d be fascinated to see a full argument for or against this chain of reasoning.
More factors that may or may not matter: Greed might be the root cause of someone’s aspiration toward efficiency+growth. A lack of trust+empathy might lead someone to embrace individualism. Giving power to experts/elites suggests a lack of respect for non-elites.
“In short, we believe that EA could do more to encourage wealth owners to dig deep to transform themselves to build meaningful relationships and political allyship that are needed for change at the systems level.”
If you assume that spreading virtues is crucial, as I’ve argued above, and if virtues can spread throughout networks of allies, then you should build those networks.
We would suspect that donors and grant managers with a deep emotional connection to their work and an actual interest to have their personal lives, values and relationships be touched by it will stick with it and go the extra mile to make a positive contribution, generating even more positive outcomes and impact.
We need mind training so that we can help impartially. Impartiality is compatible with cultivating “warm” qualities like trust and relationships. Julia Wise explains why no one is a statistic: http://www.givinggladly.com/2018/10/no-one-is-statistic.html
More philanthropic funding, about half of it we would argue, should go to initiatives that are still small, unproven and/or academically ‘unprovable’, that tackle the system rather than the symptoms, and adopt a grassroots, participatory bottom-up approach to finding alternative solutions, which might bear more plentiful fruit in the long run.”
Sounds like a good consequentialist thesis that fits right in in EA!
Here’s a looking-at-the-bright-side sort of progress:
I’ve been bewildered for most of this year about why I’m struggling so much to get things done. Just 2020-related stress doesn’t explain it.
Well, I think I’ve figured out that I’m just really burned out (or, as Cal Newport puts it, in a state of “deep procrastination”).
...in one of my two majors! So, I’ve changed the burned-out major to a minor. Now I’ll graduate in just a few months, giving me more time to learn things and explore career options (which I’m suddenly more excited about).
My path ahead isn’t exactly straightforward, but at least I’ve gained some valuable knowledge about what it could look like.
In the spirit of Aaron Gertler’s expansion on calling elderly relatives, we can extend “feeding stray cats” to spending time with animals. This can be as small as giving some extra attention to local animals—in my case, I like to hang out with the cows and sheep at my university who are destined to become meat—or as significant as volunteering at a farm sanctuary.
Hi! Thanks for this new way to get career advice.
I’d greatly appreciate ideas for where my skill set could be most useful.
My dream job would be some sort of research role at the intersection of philosophy, math, computer science, and religious studies. Lately, I’ve been curious about the risks of demographic shift toward religious fundamentalists.
What steps could I take toward a role like this? Where can I find EAs interested in the future religious landscape? Has there already been discussion in EA circles about the demographic shift toward fundamentalism?
As soon as I can, I plan to do some internet research and write up preliminary thoughts on risks from fundamentalism. I’ll also work on getting more involved in the Christian and Buddhist EA communities. Beyond that, though, what can I do?
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Here’s my background:
I expect to graduate this June from a US public research university with a major in Philosophy, a minor in Math, and a minor in Computer Science. I completed a few semi-prestigious tech research internships, spent a semester studying at a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, and am writing my thesis on the spiritual paths of Mahayana Buddhism and Orthodox Christianity.
I have a strong grasp of an unusually wide variety of philosophies and religions. It brings me endless enjoyment to understand where people are coming from. I’ve won a couple philosophical writing awards.
As for math and computer science, I’m your run-of-the-mill strong student. I excel at proofs and logic, but I don’t enjoy programming much. I’d love to learn more math—a minor doesn’t feel like enough!
Here’s a compilation of ideas from 2015 called “What Can A Technologist Do About Climate Change?”: http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/
I highly recommend the Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva! It’s the most significant ethical text of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, with some serious Madhyamaka metaphysics sprinkled in. I’m currently writing my undergrad thesis on it, and I’d be happy to talk about it.
Here’s a great guide: https://www.shambhala.com/guide-to-the-way-of-the-bodhisattva/. I took an intensive course on the Bodhicaryavatara in the traditional monastic style in Kathmandu, Nepal; see https://ryi.org/programs/degree-programs if you really want to dive deep. The school is currently offering all courses online.
I’m also studying The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus, with the accessible commentary Thirty Steps to Heaven by Vassilios Papavassiliou. St. John is venerated in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but he gets more attention from the Orthodox. I find Orthodoxy fascinating because it has such a mystical relationship-oriented spirituality compared to the legalistic style of both Catholicism and Protestantism. However, this text focuses on individual spirituality; there’s not much discussion of ethics.
When exactly is the deadline to apply? Thanksgiving, since November 25 is two weeks from when this was posted on November 11?
Asking on behalf of a professor friend who would appreciate the chance to work on her application over the weekend :)
I’d love to read! Female American voice here. I’m a trained singer, but not a trained voice actor. I have a Tascam DR-05 and might be able to finagle access to a recording studio.
This is great timing. I’m currently in the middle of reading Significant Digits aloud. Just this past week, I realized that voice acting is a ton of fun and I’d like to contribute to a project :)
Thanks for organizing, Fin!
Hi Ben, looking forward to reading your story aloud for the audio project!
So, on behalf of future readers/listeners… how do you pronounce “lumiq”?
Thanks!
Thanks for the great idea!
Here’s an email script summarizing this article. I wrote it in ~5 minutes to send to my US Congressional representative, so it’s not very polished, but I think it’s good enough.
Hi! I’d like to encourage Rep. ___ to advocate for opening borders to Russians as much as possible. Any simplification of the visa process will help. This will weaken Russia and its onslaught on Ukraine while also strengthening our economy.
First, Russian men who don’t want to fight would avoid conscription or desert the army by immigrating to the US with their families. Second, the Russian economy would weaken: emigrants would stop paying taxes, and the Russian military would experience brain drain. Third, a kind welcome from the US would weaken Putin’s propaganda that everyone hates Russian people.
As for us, we’d get the best kind of immigrants: people willing to change their lives to avoid supporting a corrupt government. These people are the most likely to have savings, higher education, in-demand skills, English skills, and generally a good grip on reality.
In conclusion, let’s welcome Russian people to take a stand against the Russian government!
Adding on: Increasing EA spending in certain areas could certainly support diversity, but it could have the opposite effect elsewhere.
I’m concerned that focusing community-building efforts at elite universities only increases inequality. I’m guessing that university groups do much of the recruiting for all-expenses-paid activities. In practice, then, students at elite universities will benefit, while students at state schools and community colleges won’t even hear about these opportunities. So the current EA community-building system quite accurately selects for privileged students to give money to.
Curious about any work to change this pattern!
Try and sell me on AGI safety if I’m a social justice advocate! That’s a big one I come across.
I’m more inspired by the “altruistic” aesthetic than the “effective” aesthetic.
“Effective” blends into the Silicon Valley productivity/efficiency crowd. While there’s a lot to appreciate about the Bay Area, I’d prefer not to tie EA to that culture.
On the other hand, there are truly beautiful exemplars of altruism throughout history and around the world.
Personally, I associate altruism with Avalokiteśvara. Art portraying him is colorful and full of details, which, to me, represents that Effective Altruism can bridge all kinds of cultures, theories, and life experiences. Here’s why he has so many heads and arms:
One prominent Buddhist story tells of Avalokiteśvara vowing never to rest until he had freed all sentient beings from saṃsāra. Despite strenuous effort, he realizes that many unhappy beings were yet to be saved. After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, his head splits into eleven pieces. Amitābha, seeing his plight, gives him eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the suffering. Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokiteśvara tries to reach out to all those who needed aid, but found that his two arms shattered into pieces. Once more, Amitābha comes to his aid and invests him with a thousand arms with which to aid the suffering multitudes.[34]
I’m gonna need help coming up with more examples of historical altruistic art… Civil rights art from the US? (I love this painting of Harriet Tubman reaching out to the viewer.) Some Christian saints?
We’d need to be really careful.
The Enlightenment led to good foundational ideas of EA, but it was also full of philosophers who conceptualized humans as individualistic rational actors, excluded pretty much everybody except for white men from the moral circle, and advocated for constant growth with no regard for sustainability (e.g. Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes, Adam Smith).
I do think historical aesthetics are great (see my other comment on this post), but I think we should stick to historical art that isn’t so closely tied to questionable philosophy.EDIT: I see how this came across differently than I intended! I do not mean that we should cancel the Enlightenment. Please see child comments for explanation.
Thanks for the suggestion! Done.