This is the second of a collection of three essays, ‘On Wholesomeness’. In the first essay I introduced the idea of wholesomeness as a criterion for choosing actions. This essay will explore the relationship between acting wholesomely and some different conceptions of effective altruism.

Tensions

Apparent tensions

Acting wholesomely feels relatively aligned with traditional commonsense notions of doing good. To the extent that EA is offering a new angle on doing good, shouldn’t we expect its priorities to clash with what being wholesome suggests? (It would be a suspicious convergence if not!)

Getting more concrete:

• It feels wholesome to support our local communities, but EA suggests it would be more effective to support others far removed from us. 
• It doesn’t feel wholesome to reorient strategies around speculative sci-fi concerns. But this is what a large fraction of EA has done with AI stuff.

Surely there are tensions here?

[...]

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Outline:

(00:21) Tensions

(00:25) Apparent tensions

(01:11) Aside: acting wholesomely and commonsense morality

(01:54) The shut-up-and-multiply perspective

(02:24) Deep tensions between wholesomeness and straw EA

(03:42) Wholesome EA

(04:32) Finding EA within a wholesomeness-focused worldview

(08:08) Finding wholesomeness within an EA worldview

(10:04) Central challenges of wholesome EA

(10:41) Wholesomeness vs expedience

(13:22) Global vs local wholesomeness as the focus of attention

(15:32) EA mistakes as failures of wholesomeness

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

Source:

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.