COO at Ambitious Impact (Charity Entrepreneurship). I’ve taken the 🔸10% Pledge (@10percentpledge) to give to effective charities.
Joined April 2009
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Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
E/acc's Beff Jezos thinks we should build AGI faster because life accelerates entropy production, and that's supposedly good. 🧵
This is genuinely unprecedented in moral philosophy. Nobody – not Nietzsche, not the transhumanists, not even cosmic pessimists – ever argued that producing disorder faster is the moral good.
This hunger to "convert free energy into entropy" is really the first attempt in history to ground ethics in the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
By its logic, forest fires are morally superior to forests. Nuclear weapons produce a burst of moral value. A star that goes supernova tomorrow beats it continuing to burn steadily for years.
It's so weird that the opposite, preserving pockets of order and complexity for as long as possible, sounds as attractive or more so (though itself leads to perverse outcomes).
The physicists like Jeremy England who studied life and free energy intended only to describe what was happening, never claim it was the moral good.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics describes what does happen, not what should happen. This is-ought gap is philosophy 101.
(Note the universe will reach a maximum entropy state once the last black holes evaporate no matter what we do. Why our goal should be to make it happen a little sooner is beyond me.)
What's going on is simple enough: some SV tech accelerationists wanted their views to sound grounded in fundamental physics so they grabbed some technical terms from a thermodynamics textbook to propose a moral framework so bizarre people are too confused to see what it's really claiming.
If you want to argue for rapid AI development, just make the actual arguments: economic growth, international competition, solving diseases, or just sheer personal excitement to see what happens.
Don't pretend your AI startup is about the heat death of the universe.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
We did it! Dwarkesh's fundraiser raised $2M+ for high impact work to end the worst abuses of factory farming.
I'm so grateful for everyone who contributed. It's a great reminder of how many people want to help end the horrors of factory farming.
We’ve raised $2,027,084 for @farmkind_giving (with matching).
This will improve the lives of over 20 million animals. We’ve increased the global funding for farmed animal welfare by 1%. That’s crazy - the world is really big place!
Thank you all so much for the incredible generosity!
The point of this podcast was not to fundraise for the cause. Originally, it was just to understand how we can reduce (and eventually eliminate) this massive source of unnecessary suffering in the world: close to 100 billion land animals are factory farmed every year.
But it was astounding to learn about how much low-hanging fruit there is to improve the lives of billions of animals (for example, $1 spent on securing corporate commitments against battery cages corresponds to 10 years of animal well-being improved).
There’s <$200M/year of smart philanthropic money spent on this problem globally. Compare that to global health ($50b+/year) or climate change ($15b+/year). The ratio is $1 donated : 40,000 animals.
Even though this particular match has been fully saturated, the ability to have an impact here is truly shocking. There are many individual readers of this tweet who have the opportunity to increase the amount of smart funding our entire civilization dedicates to this issue by double or triple digit percentages.
For those considering contributing much more, please get in touch with [email protected].
Again, thank you so much to everyone who contributed!
Some highlights from the group that helped us cross the $2 million finish line:
@scottgray76: $50,000
@hanrelan: $50,000
@DKokotajlo: $50,000
Anonymous: $50,000
@garymigu: $10,000
Anonymous: $10,082
Anonymous: $10,000
@tszzl: $5,000
@ben_d_norman: $3,791
@a_nnawang: $3,000
@rgblong: $1,500
@jamesnelmore: $1,100
@incredutility: $1,000
@MillsxArt: $1,000
@NathanCalvin: $1,000
@Will_Hackspeare: $1,000
@coulthardm: $1,000
@nsthorat: $1,000
@ericjmichaud: $1,000
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
We’ve raised $2,027,084 for @farmkind_giving (with matching).
This will improve the lives of over 20 million animals. We’ve increased the global funding for farmed animal welfare by 1%. That’s crazy - the world is really big place!
Thank you all so much for the incredible generosity!
The point of this podcast was not to fundraise for the cause. Originally, it was just to understand how we can reduce (and eventually eliminate) this massive source of unnecessary suffering in the world: close to 100 billion land animals are factory farmed every year.
But it was astounding to learn about how much low-hanging fruit there is to improve the lives of billions of animals (for example, $1 spent on securing corporate commitments against battery cages corresponds to 10 years of animal well-being improved).
There’s <$200M/year of smart philanthropic money spent on this problem globally. Compare that to global health ($50b+/year) or climate change ($15b+/year). The ratio is $1 donated : 40,000 animals.
Even though this particular match has been fully saturated, the ability to have an impact here is truly shocking. There are many individual readers of this tweet who have the opportunity to increase the amount of smart funding our entire civilization dedicates to this issue by double or triple digit percentages.
For those considering contributing much more, please get in touch with [email protected].
Again, thank you so much to everyone who contributed!
Some highlights from the group that helped us cross the $2 million finish line:
@scottgray76: $50,000
@hanrelan: $50,000
@DKokotajlo: $50,000
Anonymous: $50,000
@garymigu: $10,000
Anonymous: $10,082
Anonymous: $10,000
@tszzl: $5,000
@ben_d_norman: $3,791
@a_nnawang: $3,000
@rgblong: $1,500
@jamesnelmore: $1,100
@incredutility: $1,000
@MillsxArt: $1,000
@NathanCalvin: $1,000
@Will_Hackspeare: $1,000
@coulthardm: $1,000
@nsthorat: $1,000
@ericjmichaud: $1,000
A group of generous donors have pledged to match ANOTHER $500,000 of donations for @farmkind_giving. Huge thanks to:
@seemaychou & @JedMcCaleb: $250,000
@gauravkapadia: $100,000
@ArielNessel: $50,000 (2nd donation)
@tylermaule: $50,000
The Dahna Foundation: $50,000
If we saturate this next round of matching, we’ll have raised over $2,000,000. This amount would likely improve the lives of over 20 million animals!
Again, it's hard to overstate how neglected this area is, and how crazy cheap the interventions that have spared hundreds of millions of animals from painful lives have been: xitter.cf/dwarkesh_sp/status/195…
I also want to thank everyone who helped saturate the previous matches. A few highlights:
Anonymous: $13,000
@v_maini: $10,000
Anonymous: $10,000
@d_m_ziegler: $5,000
Nick Bostrom: $5,000
Anonymous: $5,000
Anonymous: $5,000
@tessybarton: $3,000
@idavidrein: $3,000
@CFGeek: $2,500
@silas_strawn: $2,000
@tysheaff: $2,000
Anonymous: $2,000
Alexa Stone Fund (@tyler_m_john): $1,500
@Vincessant_: $1,500
@ravioli817: $1,500
@michaeljelly: $1,500
@_sholtodouglas: $1,000 (2nd donation)
@verdadcap: $1,000
@jackm2003: $1,000
@RosieCampbell: $1,000
@sevdeawesome: $1,000
@gauravsett: $1,000
Link to donate below. DM me if you donate over 1k.
We've already raised over $1.35 million dollars! With donation matching, we just need $300k in contributions to reach $2 million!
This is so, so good.
A group of generous donors have pledged to match ANOTHER $500,000 of donations for @farmkind_giving. Huge thanks to:
@seemaychou & @JedMcCaleb: $250,000
@gauravkapadia: $100,000
@ArielNessel: $50,000 (2nd donation)
@tylermaule: $50,000
The Dahna Foundation: $50,000
If we saturate this next round of matching, we’ll have raised over $2,000,000. This amount would likely improve the lives of over 20 million animals!
Again, it's hard to overstate how neglected this area is, and how crazy cheap the interventions that have spared hundreds of millions of animals from painful lives have been: xitter.cf/dwarkesh_sp/status/195…
I also want to thank everyone who helped saturate the previous matches. A few highlights:
Anonymous: $13,000
@v_maini: $10,000
Anonymous: $10,000
@d_m_ziegler: $5,000
Nick Bostrom: $5,000
Anonymous: $5,000
Anonymous: $5,000
@tessybarton: $3,000
@idavidrein: $3,000
@CFGeek: $2,500
@silas_strawn: $2,000
@tysheaff: $2,000
Anonymous: $2,000
Alexa Stone Fund (@tyler_m_john): $1,500
@Vincessant_: $1,500
@ravioli817: $1,500
@michaeljelly: $1,500
@_sholtodouglas: $1,000 (2nd donation)
@verdadcap: $1,000
@jackm2003: $1,000
@RosieCampbell: $1,000
@sevdeawesome: $1,000
@gauravsett: $1,000
Link to donate below. DM me if you donate over 1k.
We've already raised over $1.35 million dollars! With donation matching, we just need $300k in contributions to reach $2 million!
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
10,000 people across the globe have now taken the 🔸10% Pledge 🚀
> $300M already donated
> $1B lifetime committed
10,000 people from 116 countries 🌐
This is a movement of action and optimism, funding work to solve the world’s most pressing problems 🔥
givingwhatwecan.org/pledge
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
“the train will be too noisy for my dead father” is probably the funniest NIMBY argument I’ve ever heard
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
The internet unites in outrage when someone slaughters a majestic jungle animal.
Yet billions of sentient, emotionally and intellectually complex animals are tortured by industrialized factory farms. Here's @dwarkesh_sp with @Lewis_Bollard on how to help improve conditions:
Just $1 can help avert 10 years of farmed animal suffering.
I decided to give $250,000 as a donation match to @farmkind_giving after learning about the outsized opportunities to help. FarmKind directs your contributions to the most effective charities in this area.
Please consider contributing, even if it’s a small amount. Together, we can double each other's impact and give a total of $500,000. Use the link below to donate with my match.
Bluntly, there are some listeners who are in a position to give much more. Given how neglected this topic is, one such person could singlehandedly change the game for 10s of billions of animals.
If you’re considering donating $50k or more, please reach out directly to @Lewis_Bollard and his team by DMing him, or emailing [email protected]
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
People don’t appreciate how effective corporate campaigns have been on animal welfare.
As opposed to policy change (often gets gridlocked by the meat industry) or moonshot cultivated meat tech (might be decades away from being competitive).
This is a pro-market story! We can improve the lives of billions of animals by convincing food companies that consumers would prefer them to use meat from farms with marginally more expensive but far lower suffering practices.
@Lewis_Bollard: US has gone from less than 10% cage-free to 47% cage-free. This transition has already spared over 200 million hens A YEAR from these battery cages.”
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
I’m eating lab grown meat the second it’s mass market ready. It’s biologically identical to animal meat and will reduce suffering more than any technology in the history of our planet as long as enough people switch over from factory farmed meats.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Even though we’ve already raised over $1,125,000, we’ve continued to have matchers step up (more about them later). So keep donating, knowing you're doubling your impact.
Thanks to everyone who donated over the weekend! Highlighting a few below:
Anonymous: $125,000
@Somersetkapital: $50,000
@MichaelSesser: $25,000
@AdrienLE: $10,000
@davisblalock: $10,000
@inerati: $6,000
@jimcox25: $5,000 (a 2nd donation!)
@tenad0me: $5,000
@Shripriya: $5,000
@CalaverasAI: $5,000
@mfgrp: $5,000
@nanransohoff: $5,000
@chelcott9: $3,000
Anonymous: $2,000
@rina_gyro: $2,000
@maithra_raghu: $2,000
@escliu: $1,500
@AvitalBalwit: $1,000
Anonymous: $1,000
@AbieRohrig: $1,000 (a 2nd donation!)
@itsFelipeDoria: $1,000
@LucioMelito: $1,000
@aidanprattewart: $1,000
@JamesOzden: $1,000
@DaCaveOfWonders: $1,000
@nearcyan: $1,000 (a 2nd donation!)
@AndrewYatzkan: $1,000:
@_sholtodouglas: $1,000
If you donated over $1k, please DM me. And if you already DMed me about a donation but I missed it, please ping me again.
It's been incredible to see all the generosity!
Exciting news! We saturated my $250,000 match!
@patrickc is very generously contributing another $250,000 to extend the donation match!
If we saturate Patrick’s match, we’ll have raised over $1 million dollars for @farmkind_giving!
Thank you so much to the latest round of contributors, who pushed us over $260,000. Highlighting a few below:
@yasminrazavi: $25,000
@dmdohan: $7,500
@cHHillee: $5,000
@ChrisPainterYup: $3,000
@AsaCoopStick: $3,000
@wilhelmscreamin: $3,000
@transmissions11: $2,500
@JeppeKirkBonde: $2,500
@andresjz_swp: $1,200
@AbieRohrig: $1,000
@alasdairpr: $1,000
@synecdotally: $1,000
@MeadowsRichard: $1,000
@dccockfoster: $1,000
@incredutility: $1,000
@AdamK133: $1,000
@RobKnight_: $1,000
Let’s now saturate the new matching funding from @patrickc! Link to donate w match below.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Dwarkesh's fundraiser to fight factory farming has now raised over $1M! ($535K doubled by the match.)
I'm very grateful to @dwarkesh_sp, @patrickc, and all the other generous donors!
This funding will impact millions of animals' lives.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
We're just getting started Lewis!
Dwarkesh's fundraiser to fight factory farming has now raised over $1M! ($535K doubled by the match.)
I'm very grateful to @dwarkesh_sp, @patrickc, and all the other generous donors!
This funding will impact millions of animals' lives.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Anyone who opposes building new houses in UK is deeply wrong, but I had assumed this was 10k in rental income per month. It says a lot about the state of Britain that we're making a big fuss over someone getting 10k *a year* from rental income.
🚨 NEW | Green leadership contender Adrian Ramsay is a landlord who rakes in £10,000 from rental income.
(Source: @PoliticsJOE_UK)
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Last month's hearing in Boston on self-driving car was like a parody of the attitudes @DKThomp and @ezraklein critiqued in Abundance.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Honestly the thing that motivated me to do this episode was learning that there's less than $200M/year of smart philanthropy on factory farming - GLOBALLY.
Just to explain how fucking crazy that is:
1. It's insane how cheap the interventions that will spare BILLIONS of animals from gruesome, painful fates have been.
Less than $200M has been spent getting corporate commitments that have already spared more than 400M hens from battery cages, and securing pledges that will spare billions more over the years to come. That’s < $1 per 10 years of animal well-being improved.
Another example: In-ovo sexing (which determines the sex of eggs pre-birth) has already saved 200M male chicks from maceration at birth (with the potential to spare 7 billion every year). And it only cost ~$10 million to get off the ground.
2. 80 billion land animals are factory farmed every year. That means the ratio is $1 donated : 40,000 animals.
3. Compared to the amount of private philanthropy alone on global health ($50b+/year) or climate change ($15b+/year), the <$200M/year of smart money spent on factory farming is nothing.
—
The way we treat factory farmed animals is one of the worst atrocities in history. And unfortunately, the problem is on track to get worse every year.
The case for optimism: Given how neglected this issue is, the scope of impact even one individual can have is absolutely massive.
To be blunt, there are individual readers of this tweet who could DOUBLE the amount of smart money our entire civilization dedicates to this issue. Even with a few million dollars, you could single-handedly improve the lives of millions of factory-farmed animals.
DM @Lewis_Bollard if you want to explore contributions over $50k.
Just $1 can help avert 10 years of farmed animal suffering.
I decided to give $250,000 as a donation match to @farmkind_giving after learning about the outsized opportunities to help. FarmKind directs your contributions to the most effective charities in this area.
Please consider contributing, even if it’s a small amount. Together, we can double each other's impact and give a total of $500,000. Use the link below to donate with my match.
Bluntly, there are some listeners who are in a position to give much more. Given how neglected this topic is, one such person could singlehandedly change the game for 10s of billions of animals.
If you’re considering donating $50k or more, please reach out directly to @Lewis_Bollard and his team by DMing him, or emailing [email protected]
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
The end of factory farming is neither inevitable nor impossible. It depends on the actions we all take.
@dwarkesh_sp and my interview on this and what we can do about it drops tomorrow! Here’s the teaser.
Before I interviewed @Lewis_Bollard, I had assumed that factory farming was on its way out (especially given new tech like cultivated meat around the corner).
Unfortunately this is far from inevitable: factory farms are already incredibly efficient machines for making meat (the most efficient broiler chickens convert 1.38 kg of grain into an astonishing 1 kg of flesh).
I'd previously assumed that cultivated meat will soon trounce factory farming just on raw economics. Growing meat around a whole creature and mind cannot be the most efficient way to produce tasty flesh, right? Lewis thinks we may be many decades away (at least) from this outcome.
Evolution has spent on the order of tens of millions of years optimizing human intelligence. And in order to try replicating this feat, AGI labs have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Evolution has spent far longer than that (basically the entire time) figuring out how to convert food into meat efficiently.
Of course, tech on farms historically has favored more suffering (think gestation crates, battery cages, and overgrown broiler chickens). Improving the conditions on factory farms also requires corporate commitments and regulations against the most cruel practices. Every year we're factory farming about 2% more land animals globally. On the default trajectory, the amount of raw suffering in the world is likely to keep increasing.
But there are reasons to think this can change. New technologies like in-ovo sexing have already saved hundreds of millions of male chicks from gruesome fates, with the potential to save billions more. And corporate commitments to go cage-free have already spared well north of 500 million hens from torturous battery cages (again, with the potential to help tens of billions more).
Full episode with @Lewis_Bollard out tomorrow.
Devon Fritz🔸 retweeted
Fairlife, a brand that didn't exist before 2012, is now the 2nd most popular milk in the US. It's a reflection of how dairy manages to continually rebrand & reinvent itself. But the reality behind Fairlife, like all dairy, is an unmitigated horror show
story by @KennyTorrella
