Tiny gains for billions vs saving one life: EA ethics debate reignited
NathanpmYoung · x · 2026-09-20
Stuart Buck pushes back on Eliezer's logic: if you multiply tiny benefits by population size, speeding every phone on Earth by 1/3 of a second would outweigh saving a child's life — implying a very non-EA set of priorities.
Nathan Young responds that in practice we do often choose to help many individuals a little rather than save one life, and defends that tradeoff.
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