I agree many people believe in the asymmetry, and that is likely one reason people care about animal welfare but not longtermism. However, I think you're conflating a person-affecting view with the asymmetry, which are separate views. I hate to argue semantics here, but the person-affecting view only is concerned only with the welfare of existing beings, not with the creation of negative lives no matter how bad they are. Again, neither of these are my view, but they likely belong to some people.
Very good points made! One objection I think you didn’t mention that might be on OP’s mind in neartermist allocations has to do with population ethics. One reason many people are near termist is because they subscribe to a person-affecting view whereby the welfare of “merely potential” beings does not matter. Since basically all animal welfare interventions either 1. Cause fewer animals to exist, or 2. Change welfare conditions for entire populations of animals, it seems extremely unlikely the animals who would otherwise have lived the higher suffering liv...
Generally, people with person-affecting views still want it to be the case that we shouldn't create individuals with awful lives, and probably also that we should prefer the creation of someone with a life that is net-negative by less over someone with a life that is net-negative by more. (This relates to the supposed procreation asymmetry, where, allegedly, that a kid would be really happy is not a reason to have them, but that a kid would be in constant agony is a reason not to have them.) One way to justify this would be the thought that, if you don't c...
re conflict of interest concerns: I'd go ahead and apply for both membership as a donor and for funding for your project. Others may do the same. We are still considering how to weigh COI concerns against potential value of allowing those applications in, and plan to arrive at a more conclusive policy before deciding whether or not to admit members/applications.
Re referring other applications: similar to above, though I think there's less conflict here and would perhaps unfairly limit many good applications if we excluded merely because you are well ...
We are connected to Nonlinear Network, but there is currently no interaction with them at least for this first round. We may interact with them in the future after our first round and depending on how well-aligned our goals end up being.
I'm curious why you and many EA's who focus on longtermism don't suggest donating to longtermist cause areas (as examples often focuses on Givewell or ACE charities). It seems like if orgs I respect like Open Phil and long term future fund are giving to longtermist areas, then they think that's among the most important things to fund, which confuses me when I then hear longtermists acting like funding is useless on the margin or that we might as well give to GiveWell charities. It gives me a sense that perhaps there's either some contradiction going on, or...
While I agree there is a good signaling benefit, I think you need to be a bit more rigorous in figuring out just how impactful it is, and what the ultimate goal of signaling is. Taking your $100k/year example with Givewell's ~$5k/life saved, that'd mean that the signaling of one's donations below this amount are better than saving about 20 lives. That doesn't seem right to me... And if you think that signaling is valuable for community building, it's probably way more effective to just donate to community building (e.g. EA infrastructure fund) than anythin...
I am now starting a book giveaway based on these data/arguments at my EA Austin fellowship, and I managed to buy a bunch of used versions of EA books for an average of $6-7 per book including shipping, so with a bit of thrift you can get some great deals! Amazon and eBay at least in US make buying used books quite cheap
I have an idea to increase EA donation matches on Facebook's Giving Tuesday, and I want your feedback! PLEASE FILL OUT THIS GOOGLE FORM here https://forms.gle/Kb9ieaN8ZvxBkrZz6 and leave a comment after reading this.
I am considering creating and distributing an automated tool that can schedule and execute donations immediately when matching begins, even if the donor is asleep or AFK. Last year, about 50% of the $1.2m+ donated by EA's was matched. With this tool, this percentage could easily approach 100% (increasing match funds to EA causes by $...
So glad you're doing this!!