Society

Introducing Effective Altruism- a recent social/ philosophical movement which focus on non-trivial application of rationality & evidence to maximize impact on the world.

Outline

Effective Altruism is a recent social/ philosophical movement which focus on non-trivial application of rationality & evidence to maximize impact on the world. Drawing from Peter Singer’s (& others’) utilitarian-ish ethics, the movement has become very influential- attracting speakers/ promoters such as Elon Musk, Jann Tallin, who’s who of AI, etc. The movement’s epicenters are Oxford & Silicon Valley.

Some of the currently most popular themes being discussed in EA include:

• Scale up proven health treatments in the developing world, for example anti-malaria bed net distribution
• Give cash to the world’s poorest people
• Opening borders to a larger number of migrants, especially those escaping poverty or persecution.
• Research the safe use of technologies that have the potential to do great amounts of good, or might do a lot of harm, such as artificial intelligence.
• Help animals in factory farms, for example by persuading people to be vegetarian, changing animal welfare regulation, or inventing meat substitutes.
• Reform the US criminal justice system to prevent crime more effectively while causing less unnecessary suffering.
• Reduce carbon emissions, or research geoengineering, in order to lower the risk of catastrophic climate change.
• Increasing support for effective altruism itself, in order to get more effective work on the areas listed above.

Speaker bio

I’m a Data science professional- with stints in Humanities, Public policy, Precision agriculture, & Logistics. Used to run/ be activitely involved in freethought/ political philosophy/ futurism (meetups/ events in Bangalore). Co-authoring a book on policy, philosophical, ethical aspects of technology & entrepreneurship- sponsored by YourStory Media.

I’m parallely involved with few folks at Center for Effective Altruism (Oxford)- chiefly to work towards organizing an Effective Altruism global in India in recent future.

Links

• centreforeffectivealtruism.org | eaglobal.org/videos | 80000hours.org
• fb.com/ankurpandey42 | LinkedIn.com/in/ankurpandey42