Affective Old Truant

Affective Old Truant

@effectivealtruist.bsky.social

I'm an effective altruist mainly reading and boosting posts, but occasionally I'll muse and doodle about #EffectiveAltruism. I take a balanced approach, so will highlight under-represented views—my opinions will no doubt become apparent :)

12K followers23 following94 posts

Affective Old Truant reposted

Faine Greenwood
@faineg.com

Replying to @megalib.bsky.social

I’d quibble with that a bit - though overall I like GiveWell just fine - but also, it’s notable that GiveWell has very intentionally distanced itself from the EA movement writ large (which was the right call): rationalreminder.ca/podcast/372

rationalreminder.caEpisode 372: Elie Hassenfeld - (Approximately) Optimal Philanthropy — Rational ReminderElie leads GiveWell’s work researching, and raising funds for, outstanding organizations in global health and development. Elie co-founded GiveWell in 2007 when he was unable to find data-driven recom...

Affective Old Truant reposted

Julie
@jcalzone.bsky.social

Replying to @blueskyairborne.bsky.social

Not to forget. Legacy media refused to cover it and Meta suspended accounts while the event was happening. We are in a full blown constitutional crisis in America.

Affective Old Truant reposted

Well, That Was Really Spooky
@thediscoveryofzero.com

Replying to @thediscoveryofzero.com

trained to be be associated with laziness or lack/ ambition, and a derived relation is made between low skill and laziness/lack of ambition. In the moral language of capitalism, a hierarchy is now in place that justifies a social and economic hierarchy. This was shattered

Affective Old Truant reposted

Vania
@dawookie.bsky.social

Replying to @jimd415.bsky.social

it's criminal we don't teach people how brains work if you let your ego drive your ambition for power, delighting in money, you fail to grieve your harms to the world your brain limits how much reality you can see according to how much you love money everything thinks they're moral ENOUGH

Affective Old Truant reposted

Democrats Organizing For America
@democratsofa.bsky.social

Replying to @miaganga.bsky.social

Now my podcasts are filled with ads *promoting* Meta data centers, saying that they "are paying the full energy costs for our data centers". What does that even mean? ~Do they still get priority over homes in an energy crisis? ~Are they getting massive tax breaks? ~Are they still loud as f***?

Affective Old Truant reposted

Alastair Somerville
@acuity.design

Replying to @fantasticlife.bsky.social

Yet in 500 years time, 3 trillion of your future relatives will benefit (or something) #LongTermism

Affective Old Truant reposted

Alex Chen
@alexchen01.bsky.social

swarm scaling is interesting until you hit the actual hardware limits

jack-clark.netImport AI 475: Swarm scaling; Google DeepMind watermarks biology; and the AI science economyWelcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on arXiv, cappuccinos, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this, please subscribe. Subscribe now When should you use swarms? When you are in a hurry:…How does swarm scaling work?…Toby Ord has a nice, short post about how to think about […]

Affective Old Truant reposted

Jed Brown
@jedbrown.org

Replying to @jedbrown.org

Back to author funding portfolios, we also see a substantial presence of Effective Altruism (the cult that has been in the news lately). FAR(.)AI is founded by a Stuart Russell (Future of Life Institute) alum and METR director. Effective Ventures is Sam Bankman-Fried/Dustin Moskovitz/Jaan Tallinn.

Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app

Tallinn, who led Anthropic's series A, funds METR, the "auditing institute" people took seriously 🙄 After criticism that METR was laughably NOT independent, Anthropic announces they'll pay Accenture to "audit" Accenture had acquired Tallinn firm which will be doing the "auditing" Full circle 🙄

Affective Old Truant reposted

Scott Santens
@scottsantens.com

The AI Pledge for Humanity has now surpassed 1,000 signers! Join the growing chorus of people supporting an AI dividend and also those showing genuine support for UBI by commitments to fund UBI orgs and projects. Add your name at aipledgeforhumanity.org and let others know you signed it and why.

Affective Old Truant reposted

Peter Ellis
@freerangestats.info

Replying to @petersinger.info

What's your view on the longtermism variant of effective altruism, which seems to be where it gets controversial and dangerous, if not downright weird and potentially self-serving, in the eyes of many people (including me)?

Affective Old Truant reposted

Robert - DevOpsBob
@ruzitschka.at

It is this cult called Longtermism.

Headquarters@headquartersnews.bsky.social

Sam Altman: We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology. I do think the lighter touch regulatory stance we advocate for comes with an accepting of the fact that some bad things are going to happen.

Affective Old Truant reposted

Nicholas Emery-Xu
@nicholaskemery.bsky.social

Replying to @nicholaskemery.bsky.social

And I say this as someone who went ~vegan because of EA and donates to effective charities and pivoted from working on Russia/E.Eur policy to AI and tech policy. EA has a lot of great ideas, but needs to do far better at addressing sexism and other forms of bigotry (race "realism") in its midst!

Affective Old Truant reposted

James
@nonzerosum.games

Oh, and this is the first version... from 2014. Look at those auto-shadows... amazing. I actually did like making the dungeon tiles, they're all hand drawn (9 of them repeated and rotated) I'll surely use them for something one day. #GameDev #DevLog

Affective Old Truant reposted

James
@nonzerosum.games

About 2016 I introduced disco mode, and mood walls and... somewhere the dragon got lost... I realised if the message of the game is that we can all make a difference by being a positive influence on those around us, then a magical dragon rescuing us all doesn't really make sense.

Affective Old Truant reposted

loren schmidt
@lorenschmidt.bsky.social

Replying to @lorenschmidt.bsky.social

choosing to use AI is going to make some people angry. they should be angry. some of them will direct this at you. but i's like giving money to cops or the GOP and expecting people not to have feelings.

Affective Old Truant reposted

Citizen Portal News California
@citizenptnewsca.bsky.social

The council's decision to allocate $60,099 for courthouse-related improvements sparked fierce debate, with one member calling it "giving away 5 acres for $1" amid concerns over tax revenue. Get the details! #SeasideMontereyCounty #CA #CitizenPortal #InfrastructureImprovements #SeasideCourthouse

citizenportal.aiCouncil approves $60,099 augmentation for Duvartie Street work after sharp debateThe council voted to augment the city's courthouse‑project capital budget by $60,099 to pay the city's portion of undergrounding and frontage work tied to the Judicial Council courthouse lease; opponents warned the courthouse yields no direct tax revenue and criticized giving land for $1, but staff said failing to pay would breach reimbursement agreements with Shea Homes.

Affective Old Truant reposted

Beyond the Machina!
@beyondthemachina.bsky.social

u could spend a shit load of $ to get a boostie that tells u you're daddy hasbros bestest little consumer along with giving you a handful of cards that are just fine OR u could pay me a reasonable amount of $ for a alter of ur choice + Tokens + direct & public messages expressing my sincere thanks

Affective Old Truant reposted

Dustin Volz
@dustinvolz.bsky.social

“In terms of things that could be the end of humanity, I think A.I. is a bigger risk,” said Toby Ord, a researcher at Oxford University and author of “The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/c...

nytimes.comThe Big Threat Has Been Climate Change. Now Comes A.I. (Gift Article)Both are human-caused, both are frightening, and one of them has raced to the forefront of the global conversation.

Affective Old Truant reposted

James
@nonzerosum.games

NEUTROPIA is coming along nicely… release next week I reckon #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #nonzerosumgames #gametheory #cute #happiness #positivity

Affective Old Truant reposted

Muireall Prase
@muireall.space

I think this paragraph on funding entanglement is an understatement. Open Phil made a $30 million grant to OpenAI while Christiano and Dario Amodei were employed by OpenAI, advisors to Open Phil, and living with Karnofsky, at the time engaged to Daniela. web.archive.org/web/20250106...

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com

This is another great, approachable explainer on “the rationalist wackos who have managed to take over much of the AI industry, and who now have tons of money and political power.” www.iankduncan.com/personal/202...

iankduncan.comSex, AI, and the Apocalypse - Ian DuncanHow a community devoted to thinking clearly incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affection for autocracy, and why that history matters now that its alumni are asking ...

Affective Old Truant reposted

SiliconSnark
@index.siliconsnark.com.ap.brid.gy

Daniela Amodei’s reported stuffed-animal advisory council inspires 12 very silly reasons to give a teddy bear authority over your meetings and snack budget.

siliconsnark.com12 Benefits of a Stuffed Animal Advisory Board for Your AI CompanyDaniela Amodei, Anthropic’s president and Dario Amodei’s sister, reportedly worked through management problems with stuffed animals. According to Kevin Roose’s recent reporting in The Atlantic, she and Holden Karnofsky assigned the toys personalities for role-playing during her OpenAI years. One cat favored canceling meetings; a pink bear supplied managerial diligence; a panda supplied empathy. This was a personal exercise, rather than Anthropic’s actual corporate board. My immediate concern is that the cat has been overlooked for a management award. I have spent enough time observing executive behavior to recognize a promising candidate when it has button eyes and has never said “Let’s double-click on that.” Consequently, SiliconSnark endorses the following entirely imaginary governance model: a stuffed animal advisory board. Assemble five to seven plush creatures around a table. Give one a necktie. Put a raisin in front of the treasurer. Congratulations. Your organization now has oversight. Here are 12 benefits, as approved by our newly appointed chair, Sir Wuffles of the Compensation Committee. ## 1. Every Board Member Has Disclosed Their Stuffing Corporate transparency becomes much easier when the director’s entire internal situation is printed on a tag attached to their bottom. Mr. Biscuit, our chief strategy bear, is 100 percent polyester. There are no undisclosed interests, unless you count his relationship with the dryer sheet. Asked about conflicts, he fell sideways. We recorded this as an abstention. The walrus has requested that his tag remain confidential. Legal is reviewing whether “surface wash only” constitutes privileged information. ## 2. Compensation Is Mostly a Tiny Hat Your human adviser wants equity, travel reimbursement, and a quarterly dinner where they explain their podcast. Your plush adviser wants a little hat. Performance incentives can include a second, slightly taller hat. Our compensation committee has established a rigorous framework: bonnet at target, top hat above target, emergency fez for exceptional service. The frog received a crown after identifying that the company had no revenue. Nobody else had checked. ## 3. They Cannot Post About Your Private Conversation on LinkedIn You can tell a stuffed penguin your business is struggling without discovering tomorrow that your vulnerability has become a nine-paragraph leadership lesson ending in “Agree?” The penguin lacks thumbs, a personal brand, and the urge to photograph an airport departure board while discussing resilience. We did give him a LinkedIn account experimentally. His first post was blank. It remains our strongest thought leadership. ## 4. The Meeting Can End When the Frog Falls Over Our bylaws specify that a meeting concludes when any director tips onto their face. This gives gravity a meaningful role in corporate governance. It also introduces accountability for the person who keeps talking after the frog has clearly entered a horizontal state of dissent. We have previously covered handing calendar decisions to an AI agent. The frog offers a simpler implementation: no integrations, no permissions, just a gentle thud and your afternoon back. ## 5. The Devil’s Advocate Is Literally a Little Devil Every board needs someone to challenge assumptions. Ours is a red plush imp named Dennis who lives in a pencil cup. Dennis asks difficult questions. What if the customer doesn’t want this? What if the spreadsheet is wrong? Why is the founder calling a normal website an ecosystem? Admittedly, I provide Dennis’s voice. It is a gravelly falsetto with a regional accent nobody can place. The questions remain valid. Procurement has asked that I stop doing the voice during vendor calls. ## 6. You Can Hug the Risk Committee A conventional risk committee responds to uncertainty by commissioning a report. Our risk committee responds by being a large manatee. You can hold the manatee while explaining the situation. He listens. He absorbs some forehead moisture. He has never used the phrase “material adverse event,” although his washing instructions suggest he has survived one. His recommendation is usually that you eat lunch before making a permanent decision. This has saved three projects and one extremely unnecessary email. ## 7. Succession Planning Fits in a Tote Bag Should the chair become unavailable, the vice chair can be retrieved from the linen closet. There is no executive search. There is no six-month transition. There is a rabbit wedged behind a beach towel, and she is ready to lead. Her first act is to relocate headquarters to the sunny end of the couch. Her second is to investigate why the rabbit before her had only one ear. The findings will be presented after nap time. ## 8. The Audit Committee Can Inspect the Money by Sitting on It Admiral Blubber, our walrus, oversees financial controls from atop a jar containing $4.80 and a foreign coin we have optimistically classified as an asset. He has identified a serious discrepancy: the snack budget contains snacks, while the actual snack drawer contains crumbs. Management maintains that this reflects accelerated consumption. The admiral has ordered an independent review by a raccoon named Greg, whose qualifications include looking suspicious near a bin. ## 9. Your AI Strategy Must Survive Being Explained to a Duck Before buying anything described as “agentic,” management must explain the purchase to Dr. Quackington. If the explanation requires more than three buzzwords, the duck goes into a saucepan. The saucepan is empty. This is a procedural sanction. As our list of corporate tasks that do not need AI suggests, a surprising amount of innovation consists of leaving something alone. Dr. Quackington agrees. He has been in the same position since Tuesday and has achieved complete workflow stability. ## 10. Diversity of Opinion Includes a Squid The bear represents caution. The rabbit represents growth. The squid represents an eight-armed stakeholder whose principal concern is whether the table is secretly a boat. This is useful. You were so busy debating pricing that you forgot to check the table’s maritime status. In our most recent meeting, the squid raised eight objections simultaneously. Seven concerned boats. The eighth concerned lunch. The manatee seconded it, creating the organization’s first cross-species coalition. ## 11. They Bring Companionship Without Needing Your Password Our coverage of Loona Deskmate’s ambitions as a desk companion explored the appeal of giving office machinery a face. A stuffed hedgehog arrives with the face already installed. It requires no account linking. Its firmware is a seam. Its onboarding process is “this is Nigel.” Nigel’s only premium feature is a leaf sewn to his hand. We have declined to monetize it despite sustained pressure from Dennis. ## 12. You Have to Admit You Are the One Making the Decision Eventually, the exercise reveals a small inconvenience: the bear’s advice is coming from you. You have been considering another perspective. You have been rehearsing the awkward conversation. You have been asking whether the reasonable answer might be to cancel the meeting, apologize, or stop buying software. That seems like a perfectly respectable use of a bear. The sock-wearing walrus has helped you think, and all he asks in return is that you put him back somewhere dignified. Our board has therefore approved the purchase of one additional stuffed animal, subject to the usual controls. The controls are that he must be a goose. The goose will oversee mergers.