If you don’t know any better, ie haven’t lived long enough, then it sounds like a logical and compelling ideology
yeah, until they pull out their machine god they absolutely have to build, because otherwise trillions of simulated humans will be tortured forever and that’s not mathing in their sum of all happiness. also it never occurred to them that maybe billionaires shouldn’t exist and instead post things like this:
totally not a cult btw
Ironically the trolley problem meme here is a great example of the objection: the same set up that puts him in the position to pull the lever also requires that people be tied to the track.
No, if you’re from the same socioeconomic sphere as him and haven’t lived long enough. The only people I’ve ever met or heard of that are effective altruists are “upper middle class” or properly wealthy…and younger than 50…
I guess because I was an idiot cringe atheist rationalist realist (you know the type) when I was his age, and thanks to an open mind and some very patient very wise people in my life, I was able to grow out of it, I give people like that the benefit of the doubt as long as they’re otherwise kind and open-minded.
My issue isn’t with the basic ideals of effective altruisim, it’s with how it’s used by the wealthy to fleece people with the idea of helping people.
There’s not a single thing wrong with being a starry-eyed idealist. Especially if you act, bring your beliefs and ideals into fact.