Opening a Soul-Saving Shop - by Matt Reardon - From Matter

Effective Altruism that shows people how we got here, not where we ended up

Last year, I lamented that the Soul of EA is In Trouble because EAs were downplaying their true motivations in favor of expedient ones. This hits a growing movement especially hard because, when people interface with it, they’ll think the movement is about whatever vaguely palatable conception of “AI safety” they were pitched, and people who think that will make up more and more of the movement over time. I disagreed then and I disagree now that it is actually expedient to repress our true motivations. Those motivations are beautiful: care for literally everyone, willingness to sacrifice…

related reading

• Notes on Effective Altruismmichaelnotebook.com
• Effective altruism in the garden of ends — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
• Gardens versus rocketships: towards sustainable wellbeing in Effective Altruism – Autotranslucenceautotranslucence.com
• The Deaths of Effective Altruism | WIREDwired.com
• Saving Everyone, Everywhere, Across Space and Time - 34th Street Magazine34st.com
• I graduated from Effective Altruismsubstack.com
• The Lessons of Effective Altruism | Ethics & International Affairsethicsandinternationalaffairs.org
• The Soul of EA is in Troublefrommatter.substack.com
• What is effective altruism? | Effective Altruismeffectivealtruism.org
• What is Going On With Effective Altruism? | Magazine | The Harvard Crimsonthecrimson.com
• The Effective-Altruism Comebackweb.archive.org
• EA Has A Lying Problem | Otiumsrconstantin.wordpress.com