Vladimir_Nesov comments on (One reason) why capitalism is much maligned - Less Wrong

1 Post author: multifoliaterose 19 July 2010 03:48AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 19 July 2010 07:38:48PM 1 point [-]

My impression is that existential risk charity is very much unlike third-world aid charity, in that how to deliver third world aid is not a philosophically challenging problem. Everyone has a good intuitive understanding of people, of food and the lack thereof, and at least some understanding of things like incentive problems.

I suspect helping dead states efficiently and sustainably is very difficult, possibly more so than developing FAI as a shortcut. Of course, it's a completely different kind of challenge.

Comment deleted 19 July 2010 08:09:23PM *  [-]
Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 19 July 2010 09:10:00PM *  1 point [-]

I disagree strongly. You can repeatedly get it it wrong with failed states, and learn from your mistakes. The utility cost for each failure is additive, whereas the first FAI failure is fatal.

Distinguish the difficulty of developing an adequate theory, from the difficulty of verifying that a theory is adequate. It's the failure with the latter that might lead to disaster, while not failing requires a lot of informed rational caution. On the other hand, not inventing an adequate theory doesn't directly lead to a disaster, and failure to invent an adequate theory of FAI is something you can learn from (the story of my life for the last three years).

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