Effective Altruists Maximized Happiness!
~ by creating an AGI that forces you to be happy… ~
Oh, wait, no — Effective Altruism DOESN’T want Artificial General Intelligence, because EA is terrified of some ‘amorphous entity with no accountability which decides the fate of humanity without listening to the rest of us’, in the form of AGI. Effective Altruism is, however, totally on-board with becoming that very-same ‘amorphous entity with no accountability which decides the fate of humanity without listening to the rest of us’! As long as THEY are the overlords, not AGI, everything is fine!
My most recent personal example, among a growing list…
I do not measure my life as ‘better’ when I am happier; I don’t want to suffer, nor should others suffer, AND I don’t include ‘happy-time’ in the measure of my life. Effective Altruist texting me, deigns to explain:
“You’d probably do better with more focus on (happiness).”
“Mindful happiness is the best for you.”
I explain that “when you tell me that I *should* value what you *think* I should value, you are being paternalistic.”
This Effective Altruist continues:
“I was engaging in persuasion…”
“I thought the entirety of EA was about finding cause areas to optimize.”
“If I’m concerned for a fat person, I would say exactly that, you’d probably do better with more value/time for exercise.”
Not ONCE did they apologize for imposing their values. And, though I repeatedly explained that “maximizing what *you* say I *should* want is NOT altruistic,” the Effective Altruist has gone silent. No admission on their part.
That silence is another common feature of the EA community — they ghost the conversation as soon as you have an argument they can’t refute. Dozens of such instances have piled-up in their EA Forum; I invite you to also notice how often and vigorously they police the tone of *whoever* critiques their organization. Yet, they pointedly ignore the outsider’s arguments, or dismiss those arguments without rebuttals. Their own Forum is testament to their tactics, empirically.
Watch out for ‘Effective Altruists’ — they’re wearing that name as a BRAND.
