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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31680 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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philosophers can comfortably engage in thought experiments about double-or-nothing without hurting anyone. Perhaps owners of crypto brokerages cannot.

Only if they don't teach people who go on to work in crypto brokerages.

In slightly more general terms, this indicates that philosophers don't fully appreciate the "nothing" side of the thought experiment. Perhaps having to make a public speech. Just something to drive home the emotional element of the "nothing", along the lines of this: https://youtube.com/watch?v=K_Kzf21cFoQ

Only if they don't teach people who go on to work in crypto brokerages.

Will MacAskill must be ruing the day he ever met this smart young guy, right now:

Not long before interning at Jane Street, SBF had a meeting with Will MacAskill, a young Oxford-educated philosopher who was then just completing his PhD. Over lunch at the Au Bon Pain outside Harvard Square, MacAskill laid out the principles of effective altruism (EA). The math, MacAskill argued, means that if one’s goal is to optimize one’s life for doing good, often most good can be done by choosing to make the most money possible—in order to give it all away. “Earn to give,” urged MacAskill.

...MacAskill couldn’t have hoped for a better recruit. Not only was SBF raised in the Bay Area as a utilitarian, but he’d already been inspired by Peter Singer to take moral action. During his freshman year, SBF went vegan and organized a campaign against factory farming. As a junior, he was wondering what to do with his life. And MacAskill—Singer’s philosophical heir—had the answer: The best way for him to maximize good in the world would be to maximize his wealth.

SBF listened, nodding, as MacAskill made his pitch. The earn-to-give logic was airtight. It was, SBF realized, applied utilitarianism. Knowing what he had to do, SBF simply said, “Yep. That makes sense.” But, right there, between a bright yellow sunshade and the crumb-strewn red-brick floor, SBF’s purpose in life was set: He was going to get filthy rich, for charity’s sake. All the rest was merely execution risk.

His course established, MacAskill gave SBF one last navigational nudge to set him on his way, suggesting that SBF get an internship at Jane Street that summer.

...After SBF quit Jane Street, he moved back home to the Bay Area, where Will MacAskill had offered him a job as director of business development at the Centre for Effective Altruism.

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