“Taking ethics seriously, and enjoying the process” by kuhanj

Oct 8, 2025

54:08

forum

Ask episode

view_agenda

Chapters

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

Here's a talk I gave at an EA university group organizers’ retreat recently, which I've been strongly encouraged to share on the forum. I'd like to make it clear I don't recommend or endorse everything discussed in this talk (one example in particular which hopefully will be self-evident), but do think serious shifts in how we engage with ethics and EA would be quite beneficial for the world.

Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

To set context for this talk, I want to go through an Our World in Data style birds-eye view of how things are trending across key issues often discussed in EA. This is to help get better intuitions for questions like “How well will the future go by default?” and “Is the world on track to eventually solve the most pressing problems?” - which can inform high-level strategy questions like “Should we generally be doing more [...]

---

Outline:

(00:32) Part 1: Taking ethics seriously

(04:26) Incentive shifts and moral progress

(05:07) What is incentivized by society?

(07:08) Heroic Responsibility

(11:30) Excerpts from Strangers drowning

(14:37) Opening our eyes to what is unbearable

(18:07) Increasing effectiveness vs. increasing altruism

(20:20) Cognitive dissonance

(21:27) Paragons of moral courage

(23:15) The monk who set himself on fire to protect Buddhism, and didn't flinch an inch