Ineffective altruism: Some doubts about effective altruism
I’m a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute, Oxford. There are many things I like about effective altruism. The purpose of this blog is to discuss what I don’t like about effective altruism in order to drive positive change within and outside of the movement. Discussions are long-form, structured into series, and informed by academic research.
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Exaggerating the risks (Part 1: Introduction)
Many effective altruists think that humanity faces high levels of existential risk. In this series, I look at some places where the risks may have been exaggerated.
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Existential risk pessimism and the time of perils (Part 3: The time of perils)
In Part 2 of this series, we looked at failed ways out of the tension between Existential Risk Pessimism and the Astronomical Value Thesis. Now let’s introduce a hypothesis that might resolve the tension.
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Existential risk pessimism and the time of perils (Part 2: Failed solutions)
In Part 1 of this series, we saw how the Pessimistic view that existential risk is high might come into conflict with the Astronomical Value Thesis that it’s very important to mitigate existential risk. It turns out that this conflict is robust to many ways of challenging the initial argument.
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Existential risk pessimism and the time of perils (Part 1: The problem)
Suppose that humanity faces very high levels of existential risk. Surely that means we should do more to mitigate existential risk, right? Surprisingly, the opposite is true.
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A note about methodology
I have an awful lot in common with many effective altruists. We begin in similar places, but end up quite far apart.
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What I like about effective altruism
I don’t hate everything about effective altruism. In fact, there are ten things about the movement that I admire a great deal.
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Why am I writing this blog?
Why am I writing this blog? What is this blog meant to accomplish?
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About me
Who am I, and why should you listen to me?