TM

Tyler M

-64 karmaJoined Nov 2022

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6

Yudkowsky wrote this above. 

 

the Singer side explicitly starts by trying to twist people's brains up internally, and at some point we should all maybe have a conversation about that.

It would be wild to see anyone defend or explain the terms "Singer side" or "twisting people's brains" in this context, much less the intentional act implied.

This is a flat out attack that uses ideas and sentiment from actual criticisms of MIRI/LW, which I do not cite, because it is inflammatory. This is likely to preempt anticipated future criticism using these arguments.

I am writing here because the EA community should know now, that sentiment in global health and poverty, and animal welfare, is extremely low, especially among limited talent.

As EAs know, the FTX money favored longtermist causes. In the aftermath of the FTX collapse, EA is globally harmed, further disadvantaging these causes already in the shadow of this money. 

The departure of this talent could be a wholesale disaster for EA, and leave it in a permanent weakened state. It is not being discussed, like dangers, such as the risk of FTX, due to the dynamics of EA discourse, which is easily dominated by full time influencers like Yudhowsky.

In this vulnerable state, undue attempts to associate Peter Singer, "EA", and undue attempts to dissasociate "LW" and "rationality", are an incredibly uncooperative defection.

(Be it clear, I'm not analogizing myself to Novik in that metaphor.  I'm analogizing Peter Singer and classical Givewell-style EA to Novik.  I asked SBF if he wanted to meet with me ever, he never got around to it, I do not think he was a Yudkowsky fan and he hung out with some EAs who definitely weren't.)

 

Caroline Ellison is the disgraced and probably criminally responsible CEO of Alameda, involved in FTX’s downfall.

Despite Yudhowsky's citing of Peter Singer, almost none of SBF's FTX FF money went to Peter Singer’s causes of global poverty and animal welfare. No one in these causes was invited to the Bahamas with the other attendees. Yudhowsky was hosted by SBF in the Bahamas and is a regrantor of FTX FF.

There are many reasons why SBF would not want to meet with him, for many of the same reasons SBF might not want to meet with me or most readers. 

 

As many readers of the forum know, Caroline Ellison’s blog is bizarre seeming, intimate and sometimes salacious, which is why its content has not been cited widely on the EA forum until now, when Yudhowsky used one element in this top level post. 

I think a reasonable person would say that many of Ellison's interests that are orthogonal to mainstream beliefs, are highly associated with certain parts of EA, that are local to the Bay Area, near Stanford, Ellison’s Alma Mater and the rationalist community.

One example is Ellison’s interest in “HBD”. These are highly associated with the “rationalist” culture and do not appear in EA in many other US cities and other countries. The reason why I will not further elaborate is that it is speculative, inflammatory, hostile to try to single out the SSC/LW/Rationalist community, which has been done here explicitly here with Yudhowsky, with "Peter Singer" and "Givewell-style EA".