I had not heard about that movement, but here is their own introduction: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism https://w

I had not heard about that movement, but here is their own introduction: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-e... At first glance, terms like "long-term" and "altruism" resonate with me, as I care much more whether we can avoid the heat death in 500 million years than about what happens tomorrow. Also the main "doctrine" seems to be one I can agree with, namely to find "unusually effective ways" of helping so that with the same ressources, more positive impact can be achieved. (I did the same when I had to decide which charity to support - since I am not a millionaire, but experienced at research, I focused on identifying highly effective charities to avoid wasting my humble charitable contributions.) However, where things get problematic is when utilitarian ethics get adopted, a paradigm considered problematic in philosophy because it tries to quantify good in order to measure how to maximize it, and the most good to the most people can often result in outcomes that people of good will agree are unethical, namely the suppression or extermination of minorities. For example, the link above compares pandemic deaths with terrorism deaths and concludes that pandemic deaths are the big ticket numbers and in comparison terrorism deaths are small. While the numbers reported are possibly statistically correct, I would personally object if one drew the conclusion from them that a small number of deaths does not matter, or that they mattered less than larger number of casualties. Utilitarian ethics, which is often appealing to engineering minds who are used to think in terms of optimizing a variable, has issues with protecting minorities and with justice [1]. From a recent article in the WSJ, it appears that NIST have larger problems than a potentially strange leader: the building substance of the Gaithersburg campus is rotten to the core, to the extent that equipment got destroyed from dampness or water damage etc. A complete overhaul seem due, yet plans exist to cut -- rather than expand -- its funding. [1] https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/calculating-consequences-the-utilitarian-approach/ https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision...