Fair enough. I'll ask there too! Thank you

I was thinking that too. Not sure if that's what he's looking for , but it definitely would be a start.
Assuming we did use Reddit, do you know if the posts and content are something that could be exported to another site if we ever decided to migrate off of Reddit?

Motivations behind question: Novel. I'm curious to hear what Peter Singer thinks about arguments that explain away free will due to prior causality, and how this is reconciled with the Drowning Child argument. I still want to do good, and believe the argument cannot be falsified, but I'm curious to hear his thinking. For me, I believe doing good is right for a number of reasons, and whether or not free will exists, it doesn't matter to me (choice or not), because I will donate, and share EA, and buy into the argument.

Whether I had any choice in the matter... well who knows?

I would love to hear what Peter thinks about the free will debate and the ideas posed by Robert Sapolsky in Determined.

Epistemic Status of Paraphrase below:  Read Sam Harris' Free Will essay, and listened to a number of podcasts on free will, as well as this one mentioned partially. 

For those who don't know, Sapolsky is claiming a hard deterministic stance, and explains why downward causation still does not account for the idea of free will, because for this common idea to exist, the constituents would need to somehow become different. For example, wetness is an emergent property of water because wetness only exists with many water molecules involved... but this doesn't mean that somehow the water molecules become O2H instead of H2O when they become wet. 
But this is what is being claimed in free will debates. Our consciousness doesn't magically exhibit structural changes bearing free will. The feeling of free will arises but not some structural change. 

Anyway, that's my paraphrase of what I heard in the conversation between Sam Harris and Sapolsky recently. Figured it was worth a shot posting this question, but I understand it is somewhat irrelevant and respect if it is passed over. 

Cheers,
and I do truly hope this finds you well

Thank you. I looked at that yesterday. and I think it's a great idea to have a post like that where people can "drop" in their ideas without having to commit much to them.

It's a bit of a think tank for forum posts huh?

As to your comment about my question, "If something is worth saying, it's worth saying more than once." agreed.

Your music analogy reminds me of something I once wondered when I first started learning guitar chords... "If there are a limited number of chords, won't we eventually run out of songs?" But now I realize there's a lot more to it than just the chords and even melody and lyrics. Guitar pedals, amplifier settings, added instruments, vocal frying, and other techniques allow for a huge variety of songs with the same-ish chords. Ideas are a bit like that too.



 

Hi @saulius,

That's an interesting take. I've thought about that before whenever I've been exposed to a lot of new information and felt information overload. 
Some part of me has wondered "do we really need hundreds of ways to explain a single quote/book/concept" but as @MichaelStJules said above, "Having alternative write ups that are more accessible/attractive to some people, because people have different preferences over writing structure, styles, lengths, etc." so I've changed my mind a bit about this.

I wonder if part of that thinking is due to a sort of scarcity mindset around internet resources.... worth reading more about perhaps.

Still, I appreciate the article you linked, and your take.

Hi @Amber Dawn,

First, thank you.

Second, it's ironic that you used this example, "I feel like what you are doing is similar to how some EAs are like 'oh I won't apply to that job because I don't want to waste the org's time and surely I'm not a good candidate'" as I have literally said that to my brother before. Your thoughts have changed my mind on the topics discussed, and I appreciate this. Sometimes, all it takes is someone laying out the argument, showing some of the absurdities of it, and then I see it in a whole new light. 

As a result of the discussions on this post, I intend to write more on the forum and my blog.

I recently wrote an article yesterday where I outlined some of my reasons for writing, no coincidence, including learning by writing.

Again, thank you for your well-thought-out response and rational encouragement!

- Aaron

Hi Riley,

Thank you. I think you're right to call attention to the idea of writing for the intrinsic nature of the act. It is something I enjoy very much, and find it brings a certain quality of peace to my mind that is unlike any other.

"Other people may not have been exposed to these ideas, so you might be able to do more to improve the average quality. " This is also a point that is worth taking into account and acting out. I have a Substack, which I haven't written on as much as I'd planned to simply because I wasn't certain of the quality of work I was putting out. I knew I could do better, but I guess the harm of putting out something not entirely fleshed, isn't something predictable and might not be worth worrying about.

Thank you for your reply
 

"Having alternative write ups that are more accessible/attractive to some people, because people have different preferences over writing structure, styles, lengths, etc." 

This is an interesting benefit I hadn't thought of yet I find myself encountering this often when I jump from website to website while learning something.  Sometimes, as @Alexander David mentioned above, "the way you express it, the way you summarize it, the particular point you emphasize, etc" bears some importance.

I'm glad you made this point because it brought to mind some of the books I'd read in the past that reiterate the same physics or pop-psychology lessons in different tones or wording, but the reading is no less enjoyable and some lessons bear repeating too. 

Thank you,

Aaron

Hi Alexander,

Thank you! You add an important point which is that the packaging of the ideas matters. I think what you said here is more or less the same idea "the way you look at the issue, the way you express it, the way you summarize it, the particular point you emphasize, etc." This phrasing of packaging isn't my concept but rather comes from the author Mark Manson.  I'm glad this reminded me of it.

Yours was an encouraging response, I appreciate it greatly. 

Hi @JDBauman,

Thank you for getting in touch with me. I shared that website with the local church.

I'm very happy to see that there is a thriving community of Christians involved with EA and effective charity.

- Aaron