Open Thread for February 11 - 17

Scott Garrabrant

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Since people were pretty encouraging about the quest to do one's part to help humanity, I have a follow-up question. (Hope it's okay to post twice on the same open thread...)

Perhaps this is a false dichotomy. If so, just let me know. I'm basically wondering if it's more worthwhile to work on transitioning to alternative/renewable energy sources (i.e. we need to develop solar power or whatever else before all the oil and coal run out, and to avoid any potential disastrous climate change effects) or to work on changing human nature itself to better address the aforementioned energy problem in terms of better judgment and decision-making. Basically, it seems like humanity may destroy itself (if not via climate change, then something else) if it doesn't first address its deficiencies.

However, since energy/climate issues seem pretty pressing and changing human judgment is almost purely speculative (I know CFAR is working on that sort of thing, but I'm talking about more genetic or neurological changes), civilization may become too unstable before it can take advantage from any gains from cognitive enhancement and such.On the other hand, climate change/energy issues may not end up being that big of a deal, so it's better to just focus on improving humanity to address other horrible issues as well, like inequality, psychopathic behavior, etc.

Of course, society as a whole should (and does) work on both of these things. But one individual can really only pick one to make a sizable impact -- or at the very least, one at a time. Which do you guys think may be more effective to work on?

[NOTE: I'm perfectly willing to admit that I may be completely wrong about climate change and energy issues, and that collective human judgment is in fact as good as it needs to be, and so I'm worrying about nothing and can rest easy donating to malaria charities or whatever.]

The economy is quite capable of dealing with finite resources. If you have land with oil on it, you will only drill if the price of oil is increasing more slowly than interest. If this is the case, then drilling for oil and using the value generated by it for some kind of investment is more helpful than just saving the oil.

Climate change is still an issue of course. The economy will only work that out if we tax energy in proportion to its externalities.

We should still keep in mind that climate change is a problem that will happen in the future, and we need... (read more)

3ChristianKl12y

The core question is: "What kind of impact do you expect to make if you work on either issue?" Do you think there work to be done in the space of solar power development that other people than yourself aren't effectively doing? Do you think there work to be done in terms of better judgment and decision-making that other people aren't already doing? [...] The problem with coal isn't that it's going to run out but that it kills hundred of thousands of people via pollution and that it creates climate change. [...] Why? To me it seems much more effective to focus on more cognitive issues when you want to improve human judgment. Developing training to help people calibrate themselves against uncertainty seems to have a much higher return than trying to do fMRI studies or brain implants.

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Open Thread for February 11 - 17

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

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Open Thread for February 11 - 17

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

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