By Simon Knutsson
Published Nov. 10, 2019
From Simon Knutsson to info@openphilanthropy.org
date: Oct 31, 2019
subject: Questions about Beckstead, guidelines, grants, and influencing which ideas are mentioned in public
Dear Open Philanthropy Project representative,
I am writing to ask about the type of behaviour I write about here: https://www.simonknutsson.com/
As you can tell, I find the behaviour highly problematic, and it appears to have been done behind the scenes, which makes it worse.
Some background: One of the two documents with guidelines says it is written by Nick Beckstead, and endorsed by 80,000 Hours, CEA, CFAR, MIRI, Open Phil, Nick Bostrom, Will MacAskill, Toby Ord, and Carl Shulman. The other document with guidelines says it is written by “the Effective Altruism Foundation (EAF) and the Foundational Research Institute (Jonas Vollmer, Stefan Torges, Lukas Gloor, and David Althaus)”. I perceive the two guidelines as a pair. For example, the guidelines by Beckstead says, “EAF has written its own set of guidelines intended for people writing about longtermism from a suffering-focused perspective.” When a manager at EAF presented the two guidelines to me, he used phrases such as a “coordinated effort” and “it means that we will promote future pessimism … to a lesser extent.”
Beckstead was one of the grant investigators for the $1,000,000 grant to EAF. Based on a conversation, I gather the grant might not have been made if EAF did not write their guidelines.
I wonder if the Open Philanthropy Project can respond to some related questions, and whether I may share the replies in public. For example, I wonder whether Beckstead influenced or tried to influence what Jonas Vollmer, Stefan Torges, Lukas Gloor, and David Althaus wrote in their guidelines, or the fact that they wrote guidelines at all. If so, was any such activity by Beckstead a part of his work for the Open Philanthropy Project, or was he, for example, acting only as a private person? Was the grant to EAF explicitly or implicitly conditioned on EAF writing guidelines and/or distributing them? Did Beckstead or someone else at the Open Philanthropy Project communicate to anyone at EAF that a grant would be more likely or larger if EAF wrote guidelines? Are there other cases involving EAF or any other grant recipient or potential recipient where someone at the Open Philanthropy Project tried to influence which ideas, for example, about moral philosophy, value or the future, that the recipient talks or writes about in public? (I have more questions.)
Thank you.
Best regards,
Simon
I got a very brief reply by
Michael Levine, Communications Officer
www.openphilanthropy.org
from: Michael Levine <michael.levine@openphilanthropy.org>
to: Simon Knutsson <simonknutsson@gmail.com>
cc: info <info@openphilanthropy.org>
date: Nov 5, 2019
I do not paste the replies by Michael because he did not reply to whether I may share them. The only substantial part of his reply was one sentence saying that they do not have anything to add beyond the grant page.
I e-mailed a few follow-up questions.
from: Simon Knutsson <simonknutsson@gmail.com>
to: Michael Levine <michael.levine@openphilanthropy.org>
cc: info <info@openphilanthropy.org>
date: Nov 5, 2019
Dear Mike,
Thanks for your reply. Just to be clear about a part of what I am asking. Has the Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant and, without saying so in public, conditioned the grant on the following or encouraged the grant recipient to do the following: not publicly endorse or not publicly write favourably about the ideas that the future will be bad overall or likely contain more disvalue than value?
Will you answer that question? If not, why not?
The non-public guidelines written by managers of the organisation (EAF) that the Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant to discourage the reader to write favourably about the following idea: “Given the current trajectory of human civilization, the future will likely contain more disvalue than value.” And the guidelines say, “In general, we recommend writing about practical ways to reduce s-risk without mentioning how the future could be bad overall.” My understanding is that these guidelines are binding for people employed or funded by the grant recipient (EAF).
The guidelines say “Written by the Effective Altruism Foundation (EAF) and the Foundational Research Institute (Jonas Vollmer, Stefan Torges, Lukas Gloor, and David Althaus) with input and feedback from various community members and several EA organizations.” Will you answer whether the Open Philanthropy Project or anyone at the Open Philanthropy Project (e.g., Nick Beckstead) gave input or feedback on these guidelines?
May I share content from this e-mail thread publicly?
Best,
Simon
Again, Michael replied with a few sentences.
from: Michael Levine michael.levine@openphilanthropy.org
to: Simon Knutsson simonknutsson@gmail.com
date: Nov 8, 2019
The only relevant part of Michael’s reply is that they do not have anything to add beyond the grant page.
I tried to reach Nick Beckstead, but I did not see any contact information on his website or on the websites of a couple of the organisations he is listed at, so I gave up. In any case, the activities and replies of the Open Philanthropy Project as an organisation are more important than those of Beckstead as a person.