Epistemic status: Speculation from two decently informed advocates armed with anecdata.
Note on process: After having some version of this conversation several times and saying, “we should probably write about this publicly,” we took the less heroic route: we recorded one of our conversations, fed the transcript into an LLM, and then substantially revised the structure, substance, and framing ourselves. We will not be sharing the transcript, as it is in...
TLDR: Take the population ethics quiz here: https://mdickens.me/pop-ethics/
Population ethics is an oft-overlooked subfield within ethics. Many people hold views that they don't realize contradict each other, or that have strange implications that they wouldn't endorse if they thought about it more.
Not just that—population ethics is a BIG DEAL. A lot of ethical decisions hinge on how you think about changes in future populations....
Headline finding: I audited 17 AI Safety Talent programmes. Zero of 17 have published any comparison group, rejected-applicant follow-up, matched control or randomisation. Not one. Every programme that mentions a counterfactual does it by asking participants to self-report.
Background
At least $70 million...
I wonder if promoting awareness in general, like Eckhart Tolle or Alan Watts is a good focus for EA.
Aware people should care more about others. In their perception they are the same as others, so helping them would be helping themselves.
They can also help them more effectively, as they control their minds rather than giving in to desires. And they have acces to all the energy not used by the mind.
This could also be dangerous. An evil person who has more control over their mind will certainly do more damage. Especially during the precipus, when dangerous technology like nukes and DYI virusses are way ahead of their prevention.
Input is very much appreciated, and will make it in to a full length post.
Thank you