Post

i feel like the small bsky AI community here is not really EA or e/acc but it does seem to have evolved its own three distinct strains: soberminded competent commentary, demoscene manic vibe coding, and pseudo-esoteric horny AI liberationists

okay I gotta ask as an outsider what is EA and e/acc I saw EA and AI in a post earlier and thought it was Electronic Arts... and with this post I've now realised it's not that.

EA is effective altruism. Focused on charities that have most impact, not on a "minimal administrative costs" front but explicitly picking causes that improve quality of life (and save lives) the most per donated amount.

The reputation isn't super clean due to 1) there being many loud longtermists, people who want to focus on saving most lives on long-term. This can be anything from pandemic prevention, to AI regulation, public latches onto and laughs at extinction risk, but it's not the only risk they care about.

EA spun off of rationalists, and there is a large intersection, but ideologically it is separate other than both having people caring about AI safety. Even if one has negative opinions of rationalists, IMO mixing them all into one does more harm than good, discrediting giving to effective causes.