Linkpost for July

Effective altruism, rationality, metascience, economics, social justice, fun.

Effective Altruism

Global Poverty

A Center for Global Development article misleadingly claimed that, in spite of emigration, the number of nurses in Nigeria is increasing over time. In fact, the number of nurses in Nigeria is decreasing—the CGD article inexplicably only included emigration to the UK, instead of all emigration. Read the comments for some discussion of whether the number of nurses in Nigeria can be expected to rebound over time.

Mosquitoes—genetically modified so that the females die before maturity—have been released in Djibouti in an attempt to drive extinct an invasive, malaria-spreading species of mosquito. Over a billion genetically modified mosquitoes have been released since 2019.

Animal Advocacy

The news media rarely covers factory farming, in part because there’s rarely “news” about it. “The topic is too obscure for most newspapers, too gruesome for most television shows, and too mundane for most online culture warriors.” This is a big problem, because people mostly disapprove of factory farming—they just never have to think about it. Getting more news coverage of factory farming is a potentially tractable approach to help animals.

Existential Risk

Developing countries should be included in AI governance talks. If they’re included from the start, they’ll be more likely to follow whatever agreements the international community comes to. Their policymakers have valuable expertise in AI-related topics. Leaving out developing countries risks developing countries joining a separate China-led coalition, which makes coordination more difficult. And ethically all countries should get a say in legislation which affects them.

The U.S. military secretly spread anti-vax propaganda in the Phillippines in an attempt to reduce China’s power in the country.

Other Causes

Although Trump and his supporters have said that law enforcement is treating them worse than normal defendants, that just isn’t so. Trump routinely receives consideration and accommodations—such as scheduling court around his son’s graduation—that normal defendants never would.

Particularly Good: Trump’s plan to deport 15 million people would involve deporting all undocumented immigrants and millions of documented immigrants. It “would be the second largest forced displacement of human beings in human history, on par with Britain’s disastrous partition of India, and second only to total forced displacement during World War II.” It would lead to massive inflation, food shortages while crops rotted in the fields for absence of people to pick them, and a surge in crime as law enforcement officers spend all their time deporting immigrants.

The United States has started building its first commercial nuclear power plant that isn’t a light water reactor in forty years.

“The abundance agenda” as an inter-party faction in U.S. politics aimed at reforming regulations that artificially limit the supply of housing, energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and education.

Rationality

Ontological fuzziness: when the line between “thing” and “not thing” is blurry. For example, where exactly does a cloud end?

To make your writing clearer, replace “17th century” with “the 1600s” (and so on). This will also upset people who hear the 20th century referred to as “the late 1900s.” The big problem with this advice—as the author himself points out—is that there is no unambiguous name for the 1600-1609 (etc.) decade.

Metascience

Honeybee research papers used fraudulent data, but experienced scientists encouraged the discoverer not to tell anyone: “They told me that “it is a question of how you want to spend your time” and “a lot of the scientific literature has problems […], science is an imperfect process”.”

Great academic work is produced by Weird Nerds. Unfortunately, academia has become increasingly hostile to Weird Nerds, as it begins to demand more and more skill in playing politics. Relatedly: some circumstantial evidence suggests that STEM Weird Nerds are moving to quant finance and programming jobs.

Misinformation expert Joan Donovan appears to be falsely claiming that Facebook tried to get her fired from Harvard. Donovan’s proposed policies are also terrible: “She is among those advocating for “a public-interest internet,” one where social-media feeds would be required to contain “timely, relevant, and local” news curated by librarians.”

Economics

Modern gift economies: the SCA, open-source software, dinner parties.

I was fascinated by this article about a master’s degree in degrowth. What do people learn? What do they do with the knowledge afterward?

Triplebyte, a once-well-loved startup that pre-interviewed programmers for tech companies, failed because venture capitalists want massive growth, which isn’t really compatible with the inherently small programmer job market. Actionable: the author’s startup, Otherbranch, claims to be just like the old Triplebyte everyone liked.

Full-time college students study very little and learn less. In part, this is because parents want their children to graduate and students want to have a fun time at school—there’s no real demand for a hardcore education.

Social Justice

Laws about pornographic deepfakes ignore that they violate the consent of two people: the person whose face was used and the porn star whose body was used.

American cities rely heavily on nonprofits to provide services. These nonprofits are often corrupt and don’t provide good services, and sometimes lobby the government to get them more money at the cost of the people they’re purportedly serving. I disagree with the section about criminal justice, which pearl-clutches a lot about how hiring people to defuse gang conflicts often involves hiring felons. Yes, they’re the people with connections in gangs!

Tolkien can be interpreted through a queer lens because his books are great art and great art can be understood by many different people in different way.

Fun

Chinese Doom Scroll: pink is also feminine in China. Anecdotes about Traditional Chinese Medicine working; also, everything is a sign of liver cancer. Napping at work, shoes that separate the big toe and the other toes, and presents of garlic for teachers. Red scarves are part of the primary school uniform; they’re “symbolic of the blood our ancestors shed fighting invaders.” People adopt Western holidays because traditional Chinese holidays have been changed to involve too much work. Don’t fantasize about suicide because your parents won’t feel guilty when you die.

The Shire in Lord of the Rights is a “squirearchy”—informal rule by major landowners such as the Bagginses. Hobbit society runs on patron/client relationships of mutual obligation and support, such as that between the Bagginses and the Gamgees. Society is governed by “webs of debts, favors, and obligations, traded back and forth between families, cemented by marriage alliances and social ties”, particularly through the popular hobbit occupations of giftgiving and feasts.

Particularly Good: The USA cricket team played India’s cricket team during the World Cup. “A game between India and America primarily attended by Indian-Americans, who cheered for the country where they were born and for the country where they’ve built their lives. They didn’t seem to find much conflict between those two things. Every major event in the game sent every flag in the stands waving. Hundreds showed up rocking the combo of an India jersey and an American flag.”