https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/in-continued-defense-of-effective

Here’s a short, very incomplete list of things effective altruism has accomplished in its ~10 years of existence. I’m counting it as an EA accomplishment if EA either provided the funding or did the work, further explanations in the footnotes. I’m also slightly conflating EA, rationalism, and AI doomerism rather than doing the hard work of teasing them apart:

Global Health And Development

Saved about 200,000 lives total, mostly from malaria1

Treated 25 million cases of chronic parasite infection.2

Given 5 million people access to clean drinking water.3

Supported clinical trials for both the RTS.S malaria vaccine (currently approved!) and the R21/Matrix malaria vaccine (on track for approval)4

Supported additional research into vaccines for syphilis, malaria, helminths, and hepatitis C and E.5

(The list goes on from there, that's just the top of the list)

The murder of united healthcare CEO by manifold user Luigi Mancione caused Anthem to reverse their decision to only pay for anesthesia during the originally scheduled time for a surgery.

I believe that counts as a Manifold user solving a social ill.

@MarkBowen unless something meaningfully changes after the murder I don't believe this solved anything. The decision was reversed for other reasons and there was a huge outcry about it even before the murder.

Brian Thompson was killed Dec 4th and the earliest report I was able to find about the reversal is Dec 5th, I don't believe such a big company works that fast.

I'll do it guys don't worry.

🧡

Just like with almost every other group, I will always trust rationalists' tendencies to overestimate themselves.

I'll have no mercy.

Let's bet against narcissistic nerds, in the Valhalla of narcissistic nerds!

I’m always hesitant to lock up my funds in long-term markets, so let’s get to it and figure out how to close this market as soon as possible.

Gonna start a new movement: effective narcissism?

There is a self interested objective in making the world a better place

narcissistic orgying tech nerds rise up ✊

@SemioticRivalry This person "Ben" is commenting on the Internet, which was made by tech nerds.

@nathanwei sure, but not the orgying ones

@MartinRandall Are we sure about that?

@MartinRandall It is literally run by furries.

I thought the orgying nerds was talking about the FTX shenanigans 😂

Where can we find the original article that inspired the comment?

@TheAllMemeingEye https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/08/technology/prediction-markets-manifold-manifest.html

@SemioticRivalry Thanks :)

Every user should be betting on themselves here!!!

There isn’t any one sized fits all solution for social ills, broadly speaking, so it depends on what the “social ills” are, and whether they are amendable to a technical solution.

Of course, one could argue that the problem of social ills might well have no solution, technical or otherwise, particularly as new problems are always going to emerge regardless of what new technologies or social policies we implement…

If it's just any Manifold user, then I think Manifund makes it much more likely. I mean, would mostly curing cavities count for this market? It's looking pretty good already.

@Sailfish Aella counts as "orgying nerd", I agree.

otoh, ben-from-the-article-comments is right about some of the actionables that will help social ills. anybody working on exactly those things? I suppose GiveDirectly, ACLU, EFF, etc. charities are a part of this?