Hello there, my name is Benton. I have a bachelor's degree in philosophy (and one in computer science), and that's where I first heard about effective altruism (I believe it was an ethics class I took). I initially rejected it, as I believed it presupposed two claims that I was very skeptical of: moral realism and utilitarianism. It took several years for me to come back around to this movement. Through reading the work of Micheal Huemer and others, I become convinced of moral realism, and I also realized that the arguments of Peter Singer and others can apply even for non-utilitarians. All it takes is the recognition that preventing unnecessary suffering is a good thing (and probably obligatory). And that brings me here.
I don't actively work on any projects, however, I am split between four priorities: global health and wellbeing, animal welfare, AI safety (including x-risk and s-risk), and politics/systemic change. I am not a consequentialist, as I think what causes to prioritize depends on more than the expected value of a given amount of time or money input into a cause. I generally have the intuition that we should end extreme poverty first before prioritizing other issues (yes, I think I am species-ist). However, factory farming is just so abhorrent that I can't help but think that should also be a priority, especially since ending extreme poverty may lead to an increase of the consumption of animal products from factory farms. And not only is AI safety important for longtermist reasons, it may be the most important neartermist cause if AGI is only a few years away as many experts claim. That's why I am split between these three issues. But I really want more research and focus on politics and systemic change in the EA community. As far as I can tell, there is no research being done on alternate economic systems (market socialism, participatory socialism, etc) within the community. One could argue that implementing alternate systems is not a very tractable solution, however, one could argue the current economic system is what gives rise to the other three problems in the first place, so it could be the most effective solution to many issues even though it's improbable.
Hello there, my name is Benton. I have a bachelor's degree in philosophy (and one in computer science), and that's where I first heard about effective altruism (I believe it was an ethics class I took). I initially rejected it, as I believed it presupposed two claims that I was very skeptical of: moral realism and utilitarianism. It took several years for me to come back around to this movement. Through reading the work of Micheal Huemer and others, I become convinced of moral realism, and I also realized that the arguments of Peter Singer and others can apply even for non-utilitarians. All it takes is the recognition that preventing unnecessary suffering is a good thing (and probably obligatory). And that brings me here.
I don't actively work on any projects, however, I am split between four priorities: global health and wellbeing, animal welfare, AI safety (including x-risk and s-risk), and politics/systemic change. I am not a consequentialist, as I think what causes to prioritize depends on more than the expected value of a given amount of time or money input into a cause. I generally have the intuition that we should end extreme poverty first before prioritizing other issues (yes, I think I am species-ist). However, factory farming is just so abhorrent that I can't help but think that should also be a priority, especially since ending extreme poverty may lead to an increase of the consumption of animal products from factory farms. And not only is AI safety important for longtermist reasons, it may be the most important neartermist cause if AGI is only a few years away as many experts claim. That's why I am split between these three issues. But I really want more research and focus on politics and systemic change in the EA community. As far as I can tell, there is no research being done on alternate economic systems (market socialism, participatory socialism, etc) within the community. One could argue that implementing alternate systems is not a very tractable solution, however, one could argue the current economic system is what gives rise to the other three problems in the first place, so it could be the most effective solution to many issues even though it's improbable.
Fun facts about me:
I love philosophy and do it in my spare time; I have a substack that I may or may not keep posting to here: https://thepurpleturtle.substack.com/
I work as a software engineer.
As I said before, I am very much not a utilitarian (though I think consequences are very important)
I recently decided to go vegetarian.
I am considering a trial pledge of 5% of my income.