Effective Altruism and Posthumanism both seek to improve the world and consider a broad range of moral concerns. Effective Altruism is more focused on direct action and measurable impact, while Posthumanism is more concerned with understanding and addressing the ethical implications of technology and challenging traditional notions of human identity.
| Attribute | Effective Altruism | Posthumanism |
|---|---|---|
| Core Principles | Prioritization, impartial altruism, open truthseeking, and a collaborative spirit; cause prioritization to distribute resources based on what will do the most good, regardless of the beneficiary; honesty, transparency and pledging a percentage of income to effective causes. | Challenges traditional notions of human identity and existence; rejects anthropocentrism; emphasizes interconnectedness of humans, technology, and the natural world; recognizes the dynamic and evolving nature of human existence; questions boundaries between humans and non-human entities. |
| Scope of Moral Concern | Impartial reasoning, giving equal weight to everyone's well-being; consideration of non-human animals, advocating for animal welfare issues like ending factory farming; future generations as beneficiaries, working to reduce existential risks. | Broadens moral consideration beyond humanity to include non-human entities like animals, plants, ecosystems, and even technological entities; recognizes the inherent worth and moral standing of these previously marginalized beings and systems. |
| Focus of Action | Donating to effective charities and choosing careers that maximize positive impact; financial donation, with some leading frugal lifestyles to donate more; donating to effective organizations, using careers to earn for donations, direct labor contributions, or starting ventures. | Seeks to understand the implications of emerging technologies on human identity and relationships; promotes a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between humans, technology, and the environment; aims to foster a culture of responsibility and stewardship towards these interconnected systems. |
| Impact Measurement | Identifying cost-effective interventions; using evidence and reason to guide actions for the greatest chance of success; using research to determine which interventions are most effective. | Emphasizes understanding and accounting for the ways in which research and technology shape the world and our understanding of it, rather than direct impact measurement. |
| Long-Term Vision | Positively influencing the long-term future by reducing existential risks; future people matter morally, there could be a vast number of them, and our actions can affect how good or bad the future is. | Envisions a future where humanity transcends its biological and cognitive limits; explores possibilities beyond the human experience, including the integration of technology and non-human perspectives; some envision new forms of human existence through human-machine hybridity. |
| Emphasis on Rationality | Using evidence and reason to benefit others as much as possible; applying evidence and reason to determine the most effective ways to improve the world; using reason and evidence to form conclusions. | Acknowledges the limitations and fallibility of human intelligence; recognizes that bodies are more affective than rational and that reason is not exclusive to humans. |
| Consideration of Existential Risks | Risks to the survival of humanity over the long-term future; reducing risks of astronomical suffering (s-risks); reducing existential risks to humanity. | Acknowledges potential existential risks arising from advanced technologies like AI; emphasizes the need to navigate these risks while exploring the potential benefits. |
| Technological Optimism | Ties to Silicon Valley's technology industry; belief that artificial intelligence is the main obstacle; potential benefit to society if AI abilities are controlled. | Varies; some strands, like transhumanism, are more optimistic about technology's potential to solve human problems; critical posthumanism offers a more cautious engagement with technology, considering its potential social and ethical implications. |
| Anthropocentrism vs. Transhumanism | Improving the well-being of sentient beings, including humans and animals; focus on the suffering of non-human animals. | Critiques anthropocentrism; transhumanism is seen as an intensification of humanism, retaining a focus on Homo sapiens; critical posthumanism rejects human exceptionalism and instrumentalism. |
| Practical Implementation | Choosing careers that tackle pressing problems, donating to effective charities, starting new organizations, and building communities; checking how much good we can do using our money; open-mindedness and responding to persuasive arguments and good evidence. | Involves integrating ethics into technology design, fostering diverse and inclusive development teams, and establishing accountability and transparency frameworks; includes promoting education and awareness about the implications of emerging technologies. |
| Ethical Considerations | Believing that helping others is important; not necessarily saying that doing everything possible to help others is obligatory and doesn't advocate violating people's rights; allowing reason, rather than emotion, to determine how we live. | Includes the potential for unequal access to human enhancement technologies, the risk of unintended consequences, and the need for careful consideration of the implications for human identity and society; encourages thinking outside the interests of our own species and taking the rights of different things seriously. |
| Community and Movement | 21st-century philosophical and social movement; diverse community working on helping those alive today, protecting future generations, improving animal welfare, or growing the EA movement itself; building a community around the ideas of EA. | A philosophical and intellectual movement with roots in poststructuralism, postmodernism, and science and technology studies; key figures include Donna Haraway, Katherine Hayles, and Rosi Braidotti. |
| Price | Not available | Not available |
| Ratings | overall: Not available, performance: Not available | Not available |