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Are EA billionaire philanthropists actually effective in their 'altruism'? (spoilers: no)
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this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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SneerClub
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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.
AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)
This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.
[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]
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Nothing about a philosopher's person matters as long as they're able to put forward coherent philosophical arguments. If a conclusion follows from a set of assumptions and an argument, what does it matter if a five year old or a tree presented that argument?
Sure, if you distrust the source, that invites deeper scrutiny, but it cannot in itself invalidate an argument.
That's first-order ethics. Some of us have second-order ethics. The philosophical introduction to this is Smilansky's designer ethics. The wording is fairly odious, but the concept is simple: e.g. Heidegger was a Nazi, and that means that his opinions are suspect even if competently phrased and argued. A common example of this is discounting scientific claims put forth by creationists, intelligent-design proponents, and other apologists; they are arguing with a bias and it is fair to examine that bias.
“What do you mean the clock is broken? It’s 12 now, and the clock says 12!”
@SmoothOperator @mountainriver
What's your position on Codes Of Conduct for free software projects? Just trying to confirm some prejudices here
Could you elaborate? I'm not sure I know what you're referring to, I'm not a software developer.
@SmoothOperator OK, how do you feel about the statement "technology is politically neutral"?