b) Effective altruists don’t want to upset their own System 1 sensibilities, their altruistic efforts would lose some of the fuzzies driving them if they needed to justify “mass sterilisation of third world countries” to themselves.
I think the likely result of any attempt of a mass sterilisation project is increased population because you don’t get it to work but Western doctors in the third world lose credibility.
Will we influence that decisions only based on “provide better education, then hope for the best”,
We actually have good data that better education decreases birth rates.
Certainly, within what’s Good (tm) and Acceptable (tm), funding better education in the third world is the most effective method.
However, if you go far enough outside the Overton window, you don’t need credibility, as long as the power asymmetry is big enough. You want food? It only comes with a chemical agent which sterilizes you, similar to Golden Rice. You don’t need to accept it, you’re free to starve. The failures of colonialism as well as the most recent forays into the middle east stem from the constraints of also having to placate the court of public opinion.
Regardless of this one example, are you taking the position of “the most effective methods are those within the Overton window”? That would be typical, but the actual question would be: Is it because changing the Overton window to include more radical options is too hard, or is it because those more radical options wouldn’t feel good?
You want food? It only comes with a chemical agent which sterilizes you, similar to Golden Rice. You don’t need to accept it, you’re free to starve
Again I think the likely result of your project is lost influence because you provide ammunition to various people who don’t want to have Western doctors in their country.
You want food? It only comes with a chemical agent which sterilizes you, similar to Golden Rice. You don’t need to accept it, you’re free to starve
I think you have a bad model of political realities.
Even if individual citizens of a third world country would accept that, the power that be in that society don’t.
Additionally you will be able to distribute less condoms.
Regardless of this one example, are you taking the position of “the most effective methods are those within the Overton window”?
Almost per definition the mere act of discussing ideas outside of the Overton window publically comes with a cost even if you just discuss them and not do anything further.
To the extend that you discuss them you don’t do that publically.
However, if you go far enough outside the Overton window, you don’t need credibility, as long as the power asymmetry is big enough.
Almost per definition the person who moves outside of the Overton window doesn’t have a big amount of power.
I think the likely result of any attempt of a mass sterilisation project is increased population because you don’t get it to work but Western doctors in the third world lose credibility.
We actually have good data that better education decreases birth rates.
Certainly, within what’s Good (tm) and Acceptable (tm), funding better education in the third world is the most effective method.
However, if you go far enough outside the Overton window, you don’t need credibility, as long as the power asymmetry is big enough. You want food? It only comes with a chemical agent which sterilizes you, similar to Golden Rice. You don’t need to accept it, you’re free to starve. The failures of colonialism as well as the most recent forays into the middle east stem from the constraints of also having to placate the court of public opinion.
Regardless of this one example, are you taking the position of “the most effective methods are those within the Overton window”? That would be typical, but the actual question would be: Is it because changing the Overton window to include more radical options is too hard, or is it because those more radical options wouldn’t feel good?
Again I think the likely result of your project is lost influence because you provide ammunition to various people who don’t want to have Western doctors in their country.
I think you have a bad model of political realities. Even if individual citizens of a third world country would accept that, the power that be in that society don’t. Additionally you will be able to distribute less condoms.
Almost per definition the mere act of discussing ideas outside of the Overton window publically comes with a cost even if you just discuss them and not do anything further.
To the extend that you discuss them you don’t do that publically.
Almost per definition the person who moves outside of the Overton window doesn’t have a big amount of power.
If you were really intent on extending the Overton window in general, you would include Communist solutions as well as fascist ones ;-).