Fanatical EAs should support very weird projects

Abstract

This piece presents an exploration of the philosophical concept of fanaticism within the context of Effective Altruism (EA). It posits that EAs who accept fanaticism, defined as the pursuit of long shots with significant enough expected value, might favor eccentric projects such as creating quantum branches, converting people to a certain religion, or pursuing unconventional research. The author argues that while fanaticism is rational and straightforward in theory, its implementation leads to bizarre implications, making it an unreasonable choice. The difference between rationality and reasonability is emphasized, and the need to state that not all decisions should be based solely on expected value is proposed. The author concludes that at least some low probabilities should be disregarded despite the high value they promise, challenging conventional EA strategies. – AI-generated abstract.