“Scouts need soldiers for their work to be worth anything” by Holly_Elmore

Since I started PauseAI, I’ve encountered a wall of paranoid fear from EAs and rationalists that the slightest amount of wrongthink or willingness to use persuasive speech as an intervention will taint the person's mind for life with self-deception-- that “politics” will kill their mind. I saw people shake in fear to join a protest of an industry they thought would destroy the world if unchecked because they didn’t want to be photographed next to an “unnuanced” sign. They were afraid of sinning by saying something wrong. They were afraid of sinning by even trying to talk persuasively! The worry about destroying one's objectivity was often phrased to me as “being a scout/not being a soldier”, referring to Julia Galef's book Scout Mindset. I think we have all the info we need to contradict the fear of not being a scout in her metaphor. Scouts are important for [...] --- First published: November 7th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/efE6K5QCfzNTSb5pf/scouts-need-soldiers-for-their-work-to-be-worth-anything --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.