Oxford shuts down institute run by Elon Musk-backed philosopher

4 comments

1. From the article: 

    “… in recent years has become mired in scandals related to racism, sexual harassment and financial fraud. Bostrom himself issued an apology last year after a decades-old email surfaced in which he claimed “Blacks are more stupid than whites” and used the N-word” 

   Of course this guy was admired and funded by Musk lol. 

2. Good. This form of “effective altruism” is simply a branch of utilitarianism tailored to justify the actions and morals of the rich and powerful. By focusing on vague long term goals and the not-yet born (who, conveniently, don’t exist yet and are a blank canvas to project ideas on), they justify their immorality and lack of empathy in the present. Those links to eugenics, racism, desire for panopticons and surveillance, rejection of democracy, …, are not an aberration either. They fit in neatly with this notion that those deserving few with loads of money and power should be the ones deciding the future, as only they can look at the long term. Everyone else should just shut up, stop taxing or regulating them and let them get on with it.

   And if, in the process, they conveniently ignore the problems of everyone else while they secure ever bigger pieces of the pie for themselves, then that doesn’t matter because they have “calculated” that, on the balance, they will have been a benefit to humanity at some vague point in the far future. That’s all this is: reputation laundering for oligarchs.

3. I’m as liberal as they come but I must say I’m cautious about cheering in a society where you lose your job over a single email from 20 years ago. 

   Basically every single person in the UK has written something or done something illegal/socially abhorred enough at some point in their life that this could happen to them. 

   How will anyone in the future be a PM without their nudes being maliciously leaked by an ex off an online dating app from 20 years ago?

4. Also, Bostrom’s simulation argument is one of the most overrated pieces of philosophy full of logical holes.