Not fundedGrant
$0raised

Project summary

The e/acc movement has been getting a lot of coverage recently, with a Forbes article and Lex Fridman podcast. Many people seem unaware of what exactly the movement is, and I want to write up a summary of its beliefs and goals for easy reference. In particular, the movement claims to have noble goals, but regularly engages in misdirection about exactly what those goals are in ways that may not be obvious to outsiders. I think it would be valuable to have a resource that points out both the positive ideals of the movement and the deceptive practices that its members regularly engage in. While still a very niche community, it's becoming an influential movement within silicon valley, and as such can have an outsized impact (likely negative) on the rest of the world.

(I have in mind something similar to SSC's libertarianism and reactionary FAQs.)

What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?

Goal: Write a summary of the movement and share it with others.

Methods: By writing such a summary, and sharing it with others. (I have no particular advertisement channel past social media and word of mouth. I'm hoping that others find it useful and share it themselves.)

How will this funding be used?

To cover costs of living. It will be a long article and I expect it will take me several days of research to write, and then I have to keep it updated with changes as time passes.

(The cost also factors in the significant amount of prior time I've spent learning about and debating this topic, which has all been unpaid.)

Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?

I'm the sole writer, and I plan to solicit feedback on the article from several members of the e/acc and AI safety communities before publishing. I have a strong understanding of the arguments behind accelerationism and AI risk, having discussed them at length before, such as here and here. I've written articles on related topics in the past, such as here.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)

Doesn't get shared widely. Manifold currently puts this at about a 50% chance of occurring, though I expect that number to go down if this project is funded, since that would indicate significant interest and I could probably get funders to help share it. Still, even if it remains niche, I and a few others will be able to use it as a resource whenever people ask about the movement. (I frequently engage in AI discourse on Twitter, usually productively I think.)

What other funding are you or your project getting?

None for this project. I've gotten funding for other unrelated projects on Manifund, see my profile. I've applied for an ACX grant for this project, but I think it's very unlikely it gets funded.

Austin avatar

Austin Chen

about 1 year ago

Hey Isaac! I think this is an interesting proposal, and am funding this partway to see if others agree that this kind of thing would be useful and good.

I think e/acc is intellectually interesting (and am intrigued by some ideas eg silicon descendents would be no morally worse than biological descendents), and would like to have a clearer understanding of what the key principles of its proponents are. Collaborating with core e/accs and EAs to get a balanced perspective sounds like a good idea (otherwise I'd worry that the FAQ would come across as a bit of a caricature).

Austin avatar

Austin Chen

about 1 year ago

I also think "seeding a wiki" or "having a LW dialogue" might be an interesting addendum or alternative to "writing a FAQ". A wiki might allow more participation for people with different perspectives (though perhaps loses out on coherence of vision), while the LW dialogue format might be a good fit for getting to the heart of disagreements and nuanced takes.

Isaac-King avatar

Isaac King

about 1 year ago

@Austin I of course plan to represent them as honestly as possible; I'll reach out to some members to look it over to point out any inaccuracies. It will unavoidably be rather negative though, as the movement is fundamentally one about naive optimism and internet trolling; it's not a serious intellectual movement. (Silicon descendants being morally no worse than biological descendants is not an insight at all related to e/acc, that's been discussed in philosophy ever since the invention of computing, and transhumanists/extropians have been proponents of that idea since the 90s at least, possibly earlier. e/acc only appeared ~a year ago, and has little connection to traditional transhumanism.)

I suppose I could start a wiki, but it seems like too niche a topic to really be worth it?

Having a LW dialogue assumes that any e/acc is interested in such a discussion, which doesn't seem likely. (I've been trying to find one who will for a few weeks, no luck yet.)

Adrian-Regenfuss avatar

Adrian Regenfuss

about 1 year ago

@Isaac-King There are both an e/acc wiki¹ and an e/acc forum².

¹: https://www.eaccwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

²: https://www.effectiveacceleration.org/, rather quiet for a while though