There is a passage in William James’ essay, The Moral
Philosopher – which, by the way, is an excellent analysis of that species we
now call the “pundit” or the opinion writer – which sums up the delusion called
“effective altruism” and even predicts its course, from the principles it
begins with:
“A look at another peculiarity of the ethical universe, as
we find it, will still further show us the philosopher's perplexities. As a
purely theoretic problem, namely, the casuistic question would hardly ever come
up at all. If the ethical philosopher were only asking after the best
imaginable system of goods; he would indeed have an easy task; for all demands
as such are prima facie respectable, and the best simply imaginary world would
be one in which every demand was gratified as soon as made. Such a world would,
however, have to have a physical constitution entirely different from that of
the one which we inhabit. It would need not only a space, but a time, "of
n-dimensions," to include all the acts and experiences incompatible with
one another here below, which would then go on in conjunction-such as spending
our money, yet growing rich; taking our holiday, yet getting ahead with our
work; shooting and fishing, yet doing no hurt to the beasts; gaining no end of
experience, yet keeping our youthful freshness of heart; and the like. There
can be no question that such a system of things, however brought about, would
be the absolutely ideal system; and that if a philosopher could create
universes a priori, and provide all the mechanical conditions, that is the sort
of universe which he should unhesitatingly create.”
This is the set of motives that drove that EA excrescence,
FTX, and its creator and monster, Sam Bankman-Fried. Frankenstein becomes his
own monster, in a variant of Mary Shelley’s cautionary romance.
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