Owen Cotton-Barratt These are notes on a policy proposal aimed at reducing catastrophic risk. They cover some of the advantages and disadvantages of the idea at a general level; they do not yet constitute a proposal for a specific version of the policy. Research produces large benefits. In some cases it may also pose novel […]
Niel Bowerman Over the last year the Centre for Effective Altruism has had over a dozen meetings with UK policymakers and tested the waters on a range of policies we thought might have significant positive benefits for the world. In most cases we quickly found that they could not currently attract political support, for various […]
Owen Cotton-Barratt When we choose between giving time or money to different interventions, we’re making a comparison. It’s nice to know what these comparisons come down to. There are a lot of sources of evidence, and different ones will be more appropriate in different contexts. Say we are comparing between intervention x in cause area […]
Owen Cotton-Barratt This is an introduction to the principle that when we are making decisions under uncertainty, we should choose so that we may err in either direction. We justify the principle, explore the relation with Umeshisms, and look at applications in priority-setting. Some trade-offs How much should you spend on your bike lock? A […]
Owen Cotton-Barratt and Toby Ord There are several different kinds of artificial general intelligence (AGI) which might be developed, and there are different scenarios which could play out after one of them reaches a roughly human level of ability across a wide range of tasks. We shall discuss some of the implications we can see […]
Nick Beckstead, Oxford University, Future of Humanity Institute Introduction It is commonly objected that the “long-run” perspective on effective altruism rests on esoteric assumptions from moral philosophy that are highly debatable. Yes, the long-term future may overwhelm aggregate welfare considerations, but does it follow that the long-term future is overwhelmingly important? Do I really want […]
Toby Ord, Oxford University, Future of Humanity Institute Work towards reducing existential risk is likely to happen over a timescale of decades. For many parts of this work, the benefits of that labour is greatly affected by when it happens. This has a large effect when it comes to strategic thinking about what to do […]
Owen Cotton-Barratt This post has two distinct parts. The first explores the meanings that have been attached to the term ‘cause’ within the effective altruism movement, and suggests my preferred usage. The second makes use of these distinctions to clarify the claims I made in a recent post on the long-term effects of animal welfare […]
Nick Beckstead, Oxford University, Future of Humanity Institute Summary I investigated this question because of its potential relevance to existential risk and the long-term future more generally. There are a limited number of books and scientific papers on the topic and the core questions are generally not regarded as resolved, but the people who seem […]
Owen Cotton-Barratt, Oxford University This post discusses the question of how we should seek to compare human- and animal-welfare interventions. It argues: first, that indirect long-term effects mean that we cannot simply compare the short term welfare effects; second, that if any animal-welfare charities are comparably cost-effective with the best human-welfare charities, it must be […]