All of Benjamin Start's Comments + Replies

It makes sense but on a practical level I disagree. There would be no way that would happen fast enough for it to work. When people change careers, they have to re-educate themselves on some level. It would also quickly turn into a too-many-hands-in-the-kitchen scenario from so many people joining neglected causes at the exact same time.

Then there's the issue of there being more problems than people. Many problems become irrelevant over time and the long term ones rise to the top. With billions of problems and EA only focusing on very few at a time, many l... (read more)

This is a really important issue!

A big thing to keep in mind-along with most other issues in the US- are the people and entities that are preventing solutions from happening. There are many bills on important issues that get killed after several attempts. To me based on a recent advocacy effort in my city on this issue there seems to be lots of public support.

I think we need to be asking, "what are tangible ways to get solutions passed that the public already supports?" It's in part a matter of navigating an oligarchy.

In this world there's not a lot that isn't touched by white savior colonialism. Perfectionism and productivity are good in moderation. When those things are taken to harmful extremes is when you fall into narcissism, racism and oppression. In one of the first chapters of 'doing good better' they talk about how aid was really helpful in countries in Africa and nowhere did they mention the reasons it wasn't helpful, which goes against effectiveness. I like the philosophy of effectiveness, but there needs to be a better way for the community to determine wh... (read more)

Evil is not contained by good rational people, it's contained by inefficiently. Systematic murder has to go through a legislative process, not through a cortisol addicts trigger happy political beliefs. If alcoholics had to travel on foot for a week to get to a bar, some would make the trip but most would just switch to a more convenient addiction. Like Twitter.

It doesn't come from within often, it usually comes from trauma. Politics can prevent that to some extent but it won't stop death, infertility, natural disasters, disability, accidents, and a whole range of traumas that existed before politics. In a perfect world there would be less evil, but still evil. Trauma + that small percentage of people who are just evil.

If you think that genocide is an improvement then you're holding on to your idea way too tightly. You need to read posts before replying. Having a "the titanic will never sink mentality" is going to kill the idea before you publish anything.

Can you point me to some information on AI suffering? 

I personally see suffering as a spiritual and biological issue. The only scenario I can imagine AI suffering are those people making a psudo biological being with cells and DNA using technology, and at that point you've just made a living being that you can give the same options as any suffering person with health problems. Suffering requires a certain amount of perception that doesn't seem likely a computer would have. 

Without perception of suffering, you might have an AI reading posts like t... (read more)

Is there a context for the type of things you are using your intuition for? 

Yes. This is why language is so difficult. Then there's the added layer of propoganda. It can make two people who "speak the same language" be completely unable to understand each other. 

This is a really important topic. There are a few problems. 

Your article mostly focuses on gay people. They make up a tiny portion amoung a community that includes transgender, nonbinary, intersex, asexual, bisexual, pansexual,  polyamourous and more people. In areas where the LGBT+ community is widely accepted, there are extrememly high portions of the populations that identify as LGBT+.  Having statistics about 30% of the population is very different than having statistics about 5% of the population. Many older survey have lots of deeply c... (read more)

Only read the summary. I agree. 

I resist it myself haha... I was planning on getting a post out sometime about how some things just can't be quantified, with examples of math problems that are not possible to calculate. I think quantification through labels rather than numbers is really useful. I've often heard people say to solve something it must be done strategically, but it doesn't end up going through because they have a hard time conceptualizing what an effective strategy would look like.

I get overwhelmed by long text- what is your goal? To collect better data? To reduce drinking? This is in response to the sentence in the last paragraph that asks "so what should we do?"

This is definitely important. I think you can go further and promote other causes as well. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are related to identity stuff like women/race/disability issues as well as internet privacy, but there's a lot more. If each cause had 3 different things written down that can be easily applied across any project or field of work, that'd be pretty cool. 

This reminded me of actor mapping. There's many different contexts of actor mapping, the one I originally learned about was in activism. It looks like you're trying to better tangibly quantify it, which I don't know how much exists on that. Slightly different topic, but this also reminded me of mapping a mutal aid network. 

Interesting. I'm not generally around people who believe population growth is important. I thought that was more a thing that unstable politicians cared about. I think it's more about voting in representative leadership than trying to cater to leaders that aren't interested in being rational. 

What I meant to say in my original comment that data as it is collected and used in present and recent times should not be used. While that would remove the use of the majority of data we have now, that doesn't mean there are not great amounts of relevant uncollected and unused data. 

I agree. Data has different meanings and uses- priors are forms of data. Right now I see data primarily as a tool of persuasion. It's relevance varies across fields- data in psychology is very different from data in physical sciences. Like you mentioned, it's accuracy depends on the people creating and conducting the study. Modern science is dissatisfying to me, with persuasion being one of the problems I have with it. Even the commenting guidelines in this reply say "aim to explain, not persuade" While I would never write off all of modern science, one of the projects I'm working on is an alternative to academia. One of the goals is to use data in much more progressive ways then it is used now. 

Doing research is always a great way to go. Getting feedback is important, because that's when you'll hear things you might not see with the internet search algorythm matrix. For some people it can be difficult to unlearn after they've already been exposed to too much information.

Another thing I thought of-

I think there might be a pretty big reason that's contributing to why the world isn't a better place despite our technological advancements. 

People can't solve their own problems. Specifically because if their solution fails, they are screwed. The emotional labor is too much. 

I have a personal boundary that (for the most part) I can't work on projects regarding problems I currently have. It's too stressful. 

As an example, there is a problem I am dealing with now that I could probably set up a website for. It wouldn... (read more)

Facebook is pretty terrible I wish there was an easier way to not use it. So many people post it as a primary method of contact. 

It's great you are trying to help people in Ukraine. This forum probably isn't the best place for this type of post. 

It's important to rest and have hobbies that will never be useful. I'm sure some years from now we're going to have a lot of EA's get serious health issues from overworking themselves trying to be as productive as possible. Resting makes people more productive, because then they actually have the energy they need to do the work they want. 

I would go on to say data shouldn't be used. Data is something collected after the fact, and it only measures what is measured, not what's important to measure. It's easy to accurately identify information in the present and in the future through priors and other means. 

Misinformation is really messing things up in the US. 

As a former advocate I had a really difficult time voting and giving public comments to support issues, and still do. The main concern was over the typical EA thought process of "helpful" things actually causing harm. I was particularily concerned about this after finding out some of the things I supported had caused a negative impact, as well as seeing people I trusted accidentally support negative things. 

It can take years of research before finding out what information is actually true. It ... (read more)

In general there are many important topics EA doesn't focus on, government is just one of many. To answer your question specifically, an EA would probably become easily frustrated with government inefficiency, especially when you are dealing with people who actively try to make it inefficient. I personally have multiple ideas on this topic, but never been able to meaningfully work on them, to some extent directly because of government inefficiency. 

The other issue you run into is that to be part of the EA movement you do need some level of privilege, ... (read more)

This forum is not user-friendly. Took a bit to arrive. 

I am not! I applied and didn't get it, I think the movement is bigger than available tickets in a convention. I'm on a few EA discords if you'd like to chat. 

Ah... this is something I struggle with. Especially since I've had the same goals for years. It would be a hard transition, I've done it before. I like to think of it as the next thing I find will be better in ways I didn't expect, as long as I'm putting effort in. 

Couldn't read the article so I can't say. EA does have some red flags it needs to deal with (just like literally any movement in existence) so it's easy to pick on.  How red flags are handled is what's important, and based on the amount of posts I've seen saying that the movement struggles to address logitimate criticisms internally, it needs a shift to sincerely move forward. And I say that because some of the first things mentioned were things I personally had concerns about. 
I will say, if it's low-effort then the best response might be no response. It's an op-ed, it's someone's big fat opinion. If EA was somehow perfect beyond the limits of reality someone would still write a low-effort op-ed.

I personally have a difficult time with this. Usually in these conversations they are looking for something specific, and it's hard to know what I have to say that would be helpful for them. For me sometimes I see the big picture too much and it's hard to find something meaningful out of that. Ex. I want to solve systemic issues that the person I'm talking to can't change. I don't know how to balance what's realistic and helpful with what's needed. 

Haha I don't know what IIDM is but I do know what forecasting is. If I had lots of money one of the things I'd do is create a forecasting news organization. They don't talk about what happened, they talk about what's going to happen. The knowlege transfer is important. People are too spread apart to use one platform, but if there was a list of people who were readily available to share information on certain topics and their contact info that would be valuble. 

Hi! I personally am interested in EA from the standpoint of government policy as well as social and emotional skills. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get more involved let me know.

As to why I need liability assistance: Honestly. I don't know. Which is why it's important. I don't want to catch myself in a situation where I don't know about some ridiculously obscure tax or business law and it screws me over.

It has nothing to do with the project. If I was doing a project for a non-altruistic purpose I'd be asking the exact same thing.

In general I am very uncomfortable with paperwork. I don't know how to fill something out when every response is not applicable. Usually I just find someone who knows how to interpret paperwork and they f... (read more)