Maybe even to the existential risks career network.
There’s very little on the website. Somebody should write an essay making a case for the uninitiated for existential risk reduction charity as a (potentially) highly cost-effective charitable activity.
I am pretty sure that—if your aim is to try and ensure our descendants colonise the galaxy successfully—then helping the needy in Mozambique is not going to be the best way to do that.
What is the supposed aim of this “good quality” charitable giving? Presumably there is no generally agreed-on one—and different participants pull in somewhat different directions.
I agree. But getting people to accept optimal philanthropy in uncontroversial domains is a neccessary precursor to getting them to accept x-risk. In fact I have had conversations with people high-up in organizations like Givewell and GWWC who used this explicit argument: get reputational capital from succeeding at 3rd world poverty, then expend it on x-risk.
Exactly. Even if a LWer is convinced giving to existential risk charities is optimal, they should still be in favor of persuading people to become better philanthropists in uncontroversial domains whenever it’s not possible to directly persuade people to be proponents of existential risk reduction.
I am pretty sure that—if your aim is to try and ensure our descendants colonise the galaxy successfully—then helping the needy in Mozambique is not going to be the best way to do that.
What is the supposed aim of this “good quality” charitable giving? Presumably there is no generally agreed-on one—and different participants pull in somewhat different directions.
Could be. I think that many/most people have some utilitarian impulse in them and this is what I was appealing to in my article.
Somebody should write an essay making a case for the uninitiated for existential risk reduction charity as a (potentially) highly cost-effective charitable.
Thanks, will do. [Edit: Done.]
There’s very little on the website. Somebody should write an essay making a case for the uninitiated for existential risk reduction charity as a (potentially) highly cost-effective charitable activity.
This could include
A summary of the points made in Astronomical Waste.
Some of the points made in Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global catastrophic risk.
Reference to and brief discussion of some existential risks.
A link to a list of charities working on reducing global catastrophic risk.
A link to a Do-It-Yourself charity evaluation tailored to charities focused on some sort of global catastrophic risk reduction.
Here I’ll note that Nick Beckstead is doing his thesis on tangible charity vs. existential risk reduction charity.
I am pretty sure that—if your aim is to try and ensure our descendants colonise the galaxy successfully—then helping the needy in Mozambique is not going to be the best way to do that.
What is the supposed aim of this “good quality” charitable giving? Presumably there is no generally agreed-on one—and different participants pull in somewhat different directions.
I agree. But getting people to accept optimal philanthropy in uncontroversial domains is a neccessary precursor to getting them to accept x-risk. In fact I have had conversations with people high-up in organizations like Givewell and GWWC who used this explicit argument: get reputational capital from succeeding at 3rd world poverty, then expend it on x-risk.
Exactly. Even if a LWer is convinced giving to existential risk charities is optimal, they should still be in favor of persuading people to become better philanthropists in uncontroversial domains whenever it’s not possible to directly persuade people to be proponents of existential risk reduction.
I have to know… why ‘Formally’? It’s distracting me while I read the new comments thread. :)
I myself do have this aim :-). See my response to a comment by taw.
Could be. I think that many/most people have some utilitarian impulse in them and this is what I was appealing to in my article.
Yes, this is a good idea.
Yep, good idea.