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When one thinks of Silicon Valley’s politics, tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s high-profile backing of Donald Trump, Elon Musk’s partisan tweets, or the sheer amount of tech money pouring into political campaigns might come to mind. What might not, however, are the unique beliefs held by some of the most powerful technologists, including Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. Sometimes crudely grouped as TESCREAL, these ideologies often center around technological and quantitative solutions to societal advancement. Nuanced and sometimes conflicting, TESCREAL views are easily misunderstood or misrepresented. But while they may seem idiosyncratic, these ideologies have emerged as potentially powerful influences on public policy. In particular, Effective Altruism (EA) and Longtermism can provide crucial insights into priorities like AI safety, which has become increasingly relevant in an unprecedented age of technological advancement.
Before the EA movement was championed by the Silicon Valley powerful, it found its roots in academic circles. Coined in 2011 by Oxford philosophers Toby Ord and Will Macaskill, EA was inspired by famous Princeton ethicist Peter Singer. It started out with the simple utilitarian goal of “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis.” Effective Altruists (EAs) propose a formula for doing the most good by combining Singer’s philosophy that a moral person has a strict duty to donate significant amounts to charity with quantitative observations that certain charities are more effective than others at saving lives with limited resources. However, since its inception, EA has been constantly evolving. EAs have branched out from their core principle of cost-effective philanthropy, becoming key sponsors of research in AI alignment, biosecurity, animal welfare, and nuclear risk.
"Even though the prospect of vast tech money flowing into politics is bound to raise concerns, we should not simply dismiss EA-funded efforts as attempts to maliciously secure corporate interests."
The expansion of EA is in part a result of its fusion with other TESCREAL...