Open Thread 410
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This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. Most content is free, some is subscriber only; you can subscribe here. Also:
1: In honor of International Shrimpact Day™, pro-shrimp Substackers are holding a shrimp welfare fundraiser, with 50% matching until December 2. Did you know that $1 can help as many as 21,000 shrimp avoid a painful death? And here is a debate between Jeff Sebo and Lyman Stone, moderated by Peter Singer, on whether shrimp welfare matters.
2: If your response is noooo, charity money should be spent on humans, then good news: pro-human Substackers are holding a human welfare fundraiser, also with 50% matching, until the end of the month. All donations go to homo sapiens, guaranteed!
3: If your response is noooo, I want to spend my money on things that are fun for me personally, then good news: there will be a rationalist community West Coast megameetup on December 5-6 to complement the East Coast megameetup December 19-22 mentioned last time. And tickets are still probably available for the rationalist Solstice celebration (although be warned that this one is being led by Ray, who is on the very pessimistic and apocalyptic end of our community, and may be unusually dark).
4: If your response is noooo, I hate going out and making friends, I want to spend my money sitting in my room and consuming online ragebait, then good news: new subscriber-only ACX post out, Against The Omnipresent Advantage Argument For Trans Sports. One common defense of letting trans people play as their chosen gender in sporting leagues is that - although trans women may have a biological advantage over cis women, and this might make them win so often that it stops being fun for cis women, most sporting victories involve biological advantages that make things less fun for people who don’t have them. For example, tall basketball players have a biological advantage over short basketball players, and it’s probably not very fun being a 5’5 guy who wants to make it in the NBA. In the basketball case, and every other one - Mike Phelps’ long arms, marathoners’ slow-twitch muscle fibers - this is considered fine, and maybe even the whole point of sports. On what grounds do we deny it to transgender people? Everyone I know hates this argument, but I’ve never seen anyone respond to it directly, so I give it a shot.
5: If your response is noooo, I want to be paid money to do important work and change the world, then good news: the Institute for Law and AI summer research fellowship is accepting applications. They pay $1,500/week for a ten week fellowship, with the first week in DC or Berkeley and the next nine remote. They say that “we welcome applicants with various skill sets, experience levels, and degrees of knowledge in US AI, law, and policy” and that “previous Summer Research Fellows have gone on to pursue law and policy roles at the US Department of Commerce, leading AI labs, academia, and think tanks.”