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steven0461 comments on Thoughts on the Singularity Institute (SI) - Less Wrong
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This likely won't work. Money is fungible, so unless the total donations so earmarked exceeds the planned SI funding for that cause, they won't have to change anything. They're under no obligation to not defund your favorite cause by exactly the amount you donated, thus laundering your donation into the general fund. (Unless I misunderstand the relevant laws?)
EDIT NOTE: The post used to say vast majority; this was changed, but is referenced below.
Suppose you earmark to a paper on a topic X that SI would otherwise probably not write a paper on. Would that cause SI to take money out of research on topics similar to X and into FAI research? There would probably be some sort of (expected) effect in that direction, but I think the size of the effect depends on the details of what causes SI's allocation of resources, and I think the effect would be substantially smaller than would be necessary to make an earmarked donation equivalent to a non-earmarked donation. Still, you're right to bring it up.