Effective Altruism AMA
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Will thread Qs I A. Latency may vary!
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We were trying to answer the question “how do we do the most good with our philanthropy” by asking within our network. That led us to The Life You Can Save, which talked about Givewell.
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Replying to @moskov
What prompted your interest in EA?
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I don’t think any of our longtermist grants rely ~at all in practice on long run predictions, or even that much on longtermism.
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Replying to @moskov
One of the big challenges with utilitarianism, is that the further the view, the less possible you can predict unintended consequences. Longtermism takes this fault to its max
How does effective altruism overcome this impossible forecasting task?
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I support longtermism but don’t feel it in my bones like many EAs. I’m more interested in GHW relative to the community.
I am worried about the welfare of future digital people.
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Replying to @moskov
Do you support long-termism? Are you worried about the welfare of future digital “people?”
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Another major donor
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Replying to @moskov
Would you rather EA had a new $10B net worth individual or 3 congressmen or 10 more of the median alignment researcher
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Per the quote some things are practically incommensurate and for that we use world view diversification. openphilanthropy.org/research/world
But within the views, especially Global Health, they are often very commensurate. Eg many different things impact child mortality
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Replying to @moskov
My skepticism is centered on this framing of the argument (which for all I know is a terrible frame, I’m not we’ll read on it.) But I’m pretty suspicious of meaningful measurement in this area. What do you think?
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Roughly speaking, the Democrats are better in every area. It’s not a hard question, though it might be later. (I hope so frankly!)
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Replying to @moskov
How should EA-minded people think about US politics?
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Replying to
FWIW I think the truth is more complicated.
(I don't speak for EA here; no one does)
I think issues > parties, and most of my work is getting policymakers from both parties to pay attention to important but unsexy problems--e.g. preventing another pandemic.
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