They must be "effective" "altruists".

The only way to do good is to first do all the bad and consolidate power, so you can then use all that power to do good, pinkie promise!

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mcmcmc 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Seems you’ve rustled some jimmies. I’ve always thought effective altruism was a nice way to rationalize insatiable greed.

	▲	cortesoft an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It has the exact same appeal and pitfalls as utilitarianism

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Centigonal 41 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Effective Altruism isn't very different from Randian objectivism.

	▲	nickff 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		What do you mean by this? The two ideas/groups/perspectives seem completely unrelated.

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watwut 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I noticed the same thing about effective altruism. Its fans are really good at convincing themselves the most self-serving action amd goals are noble pursuits.

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godelski an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I think that's the point. No one wants to be the villain in their own story. We all tell ourselves stories to paint ourselves as good. I don't think most people are evil, but I think most evil is created by people who have convinced themselves they are good.

So I see EA as a popular one of those stories. One that people can reinforce. Makes the world simpler than it actually is: climb the ladder, make money at whatever cost, there's no harm that you can do that can't be offset by giving it all away at the end. It is a vast over simplification and is inconsistent logic. If they used their own logic then they'd recognize helping people now also results in compounding effects. You fix the problems now, while they are small and manageable, rather than kicking the can down the road. Maintenance is a lot easier and cheaper than repair. But it also requires us to be nuanced and reflect on ourselves [0]

[0] there seems to be a great irony that those leading these big AI companies are not themselves able to deeply reflect on their own actions, yet ask the AI to. How can you design something that you aren't intimately familiar with?

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tclancy 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I’ve yet to hear of effective altruism from anyone less wealthy me. Seems to be weirdly lumped among the rich.

	▲	nickff 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		To be fair to its adherents (of which I am not one), the so-called philosophy espouses maximizing income, so that one can later allocate that wealth efficiently. Working in a low-earning field which directly provides aid to those in need would seem to violate a core precept of 'Effective Altruism'.