And yes, a university is exactly the right place to debate what eugenics is. In fact, that is precisely how we come to understand what eugenics actually means and implies.

Besides, eugenic ideas are hardly a modern invention. Starting with Spartan society — which did not routinely throw babies off cliffs, despite the popular myth, but did have practices aimed at influencing reproduction, including expectations about choosing tall and robust wives — many societies have incorporated some form of eugenic thinking into politics and social policy.

The Nazi regime, for example, explicitly pursued eugenic policies. But even deciding that eugenics must be prohibited as an acceptable social or political practice is itself a political decision.

And the proper place to examine, debate, define, criticize, and understand such ideas is precisely the university.

Future of Life, Centre for Existential Risk, Radical Xchange Foundation...it's a huge network. And they position their ideas quite well with political parties, the European Commission and national governments. The AI Safety/Security Institutes that are being built are not 100% EA, but mix it effectively with other ideas.

If you are interested in TESCREAL and read English, it makes more sense to read the original by @timnitGebru and @xriskology https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636 and related works. They are much more politically solid.

The whole givewell stuff is flawed also (among many factors) because it thinks in terms of charity, not solidarity. They do not see other people as their equals.

Seems nothing was learnt (or the realisation dawns so slowly that lots if damage is done first) from what grew in academia and then expanded into common delusion and The Holocaust when the elite began funding scientific investigations into eugenics.

"You got dollars?
We'll make a place for you at our university!"

#Eugenics #Nazis #Fascism #CarnegieMellon #OxfordUniversity #FutureOfHumanityInstitute #FHI #NickBostrom #EliezerYudkowsky #TESCREAL #BjornLomborg

Cool, but can we have a better source?

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"the swedish EA with the racism scandal, no no that one the other one"

At some point it turned out neoliberal ideology and capitalism was never up for debate in the community and climate change was deemed a boring, practically already solved issue that you should not invest your 40000 hours of lifetime work into. Nowadays I recognize more inherent flaws.

But still, it should kind of make sense in a way and a lot of people just spend their 10% without turning into monsters.

...and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_for_the_Study_of_Existential_Risk is on dodgy #TESCREAL ground too. I had a very hard time taking anything in Luke Kemp's "Goliath's Curse" seriously because of his affiliation with that latter group.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/19/oxford-future-of-humanity-institute-closes

you still love to see it, though

Good! F*cking pseudo science.

https://rainermuehlhoff.de/en/KI-und-der-neue-Faschismus-Reclam-Buch/