2. I think non-x-risk focused messages are a good idea because:
It is much easier to reach a wide audience this way.
It is clear that there are significant and important risks even if we completely exclude x-risk. We should have this discussion even in a world where for some reason we could be certain that humanity will survive for the next 100 years.
It widens Overton’s window. x-risk is still mostly considered to be a fringe position among the general public, although the situation has improved somewhat.
4. I don’t know much about EA’s concerns about Elon. Intuitively, he seems to be fine. But I think that in general, people are more biased towards too much distancing which often hinders coordination a lot.
5. I think more signatures cannot make things worse if authors are handling them properly. Just rough sorting by credentials (as FLI does) may be already good enough. But it’s possible and easy to be more aggressive here.
I agree that it’s unlikely that this letter will be net bad and that it’s possible it can make a significant positive impact. However, I don’t think people argued that it can be bad. Instead, people argued it could be better. It’s clearly not possible to do something like this every month, so it’s better to put a lot of attention to details and think really carefully about content and timing.
2. What is Overton’s window? Otherwise I think I probably agree, but one question is, once this non-x-risk campaign is underway, how to you keep it on track and prevent value drift? Or do you not see that as a pressing worry?
3. Cool, will have to check that out.
4. Completely agree, and just wonder what the best way to promote less distancing is.
Yeah, I suppose I’m just trying to put myself in the shoes of the FHI people here that coordinated this and feel like many comments here are a bit more lacking in compassion than I’d like, especially for more half baked negative takes. I also agree that we want to put attention into detail and timing, but there is also the world in which too much of this leads to nothing getting done, and it’s highly plausible to me that this had probably been an idea for long enough already to make that the case here.
2. I think non-x-risk focused messages are a good idea because:
It is much easier to reach a wide audience this way.
It is clear that there are significant and important risks even if we completely exclude x-risk. We should have this discussion even in a world where for some reason we could be certain that humanity will survive for the next 100 years.
It widens Overton’s window. x-risk is still mostly considered to be a fringe position among the general public, although the situation has improved somewhat.
3. There were cases when it worked well. For example, the Letter of three hundred.
4. I don’t know much about EA’s concerns about Elon. Intuitively, he seems to be fine. But I think that in general, people are more biased towards too much distancing which often hinders coordination a lot.
5. I think more signatures cannot make things worse if authors are handling them properly. Just rough sorting by credentials (as FLI does) may be already good enough. But it’s possible and easy to be more aggressive here.
I agree that it’s unlikely that this letter will be net bad and that it’s possible it can make a significant positive impact. However, I don’t think people argued that it can be bad. Instead, people argued it could be better. It’s clearly not possible to do something like this every month, so it’s better to put a lot of attention to details and think really carefully about content and timing.
2. What is Overton’s window? Otherwise I think I probably agree, but one question is, once this non-x-risk campaign is underway, how to you keep it on track and prevent value drift? Or do you not see that as a pressing worry?
3. Cool, will have to check that out.
4. Completely agree, and just wonder what the best way to promote less distancing is.
Yeah, I suppose I’m just trying to put myself in the shoes of the FHI people here that coordinated this and feel like many comments here are a bit more lacking in compassion than I’d like, especially for more half baked negative takes. I also agree that we want to put attention into detail and timing, but there is also the world in which too much of this leads to nothing getting done, and it’s highly plausible to me that this had probably been an idea for long enough already to make that the case here.
Thanks for responding though! Much appreciated :)