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The evolution of effective altruism

66 points · 171 comments · bazzmt

  1. wodow · · focus · HN ↗
    I was surprised by the weakness of this article, regardless the potential absurdities of parts of EA.

    Why does The Economist consider this the most important issue this week, in a world of complex problems, to splash its first leader on (and more than one page long too)?

    1. stefangordon · · focus · HN ↗
      Because Anthropic is the final manifestation of EA and is about to raise two trillion dollars.
      1. Loquebantur · · focus · HN ↗
        This is beyond absurd.

        Effective altruism originates from the intention to rationally approach the obvious question, how to do the most good in the world. That's obviously not a bad thing?

        The article here goes on a grotesque witch hunt, claiming baselessly things like "polyamory" was widespread among "the movements" adherents.

        You here postulate, Anthropic was a "final" manifestation of that movement. How? Why? Do they practice polyamory there?

        1. nradov · · focus · HN ↗
          Trying to apply rationality in domains where it's ineffective is obviously a bad thing. In the real world, only a limited subset of issues can be reduced to logic and calculations. To believe otherwise is pure hubris, and if you've read the classical tragedies you know the results.
          1. jswelker · · focus · HN ↗
            See Hamlet, who famously lost everything after basing his charitable giving strategy on pure reason.
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