My problem isn’t in giving people fuzzies as a reward for them giving SIAI 1% of something.
My problem’s with this adding to people’s already super-stimulated-by-clever-marketers set of psychological rewards and excuses-to-self for running up enormous credit card bills buying stuff they don’t need with money that could be put to better use by, say, giving SIAI more than 1% of something.
My problem’s with this adding to people’s already super-stimulated-by-clever-marketers set of psychological rewards and excuses-to-self for running up enormous credit card bills
This problem is about 50 orders of magnitude less important than just getting more money to utilitarian causes like SIAI. Let the marketers win their Pyhrric victory, concentrate on winning the singularity for humanity.
It could also be seen as a kind of rational precommitment—if you know that you want to donate to the SIAI, but can never muster the effort to get it done, this would be a good thing to do. Feeling good after using your credit card is just a bonus.
I think this would be the right way to think about it; as a willpower hack.
If you don’t have a problem donating right now, better just donate the amount you want to give without things like credit cards and such. But if you want to donate but aren’t doing it, this might help (though it would probably be best to work directly on the problem first).
If you expect the emotion to be appropriate to the truth of the situation, then it’s a good thing to have that emotion.
My problem isn’t in giving people fuzzies as a reward for them giving SIAI 1% of something.
My problem’s with this adding to people’s already super-stimulated-by-clever-marketers set of psychological rewards and excuses-to-self for running up enormous credit card bills buying stuff they don’t need with money that could be put to better use by, say, giving SIAI more than 1% of something.
This problem is about 50 orders of magnitude less important than just getting more money to utilitarian causes like SIAI. Let the marketers win their Pyhrric victory, concentrate on winning the singularity for humanity.
It could also be seen as a kind of rational precommitment—if you know that you want to donate to the SIAI, but can never muster the effort to get it done, this would be a good thing to do. Feeling good after using your credit card is just a bonus.
I think this would be the right way to think about it; as a willpower hack.
If you don’t have a problem donating right now, better just donate the amount you want to give without things like credit cards and such. But if you want to donate but aren’t doing it, this might help (though it would probably be best to work directly on the problem first).