[extropy-chat] Re: SIAI: Donate Today and Tomorrow

[Hal Finney]

Eliezer writes:
> But none of those donors posted their congratulations and agreement to a 
> mailing list, not one.  As far as any of those donors knew, they were 
> alone.

Actually, I did post (on Extropy-Chat) that I had made a donation,
although it was not in the context of "congratulations and agreement".
Donors who read that message could have deduced that they were not alone.

> Suppose that 20 donors *had* posted their agreement on the SL4 list.  You'd 
> feel pretty uncomfortable joining them, wouldn't you?

I don't think so.  I've given similar small donations to groups that I
agree with, like Foresight or the EFF, even though I often read messages
about the good work they are doing.  I don't see why you think such
messages would discourage donations.

> I know that if I 
> said something at a talk and twenty people in the audience stood up and 
> shouted "You're absolutely right!", I'd stand around with my mouth open, 
> completely at a loss for words.

In that specific context it would indeed be unusual for that to happen.
But I'll bet you've written essays and gotten a number of congratulatory
and favorable responses.  Did that unnerve you?

> And you'd also be unnerved, right?  Much 
> more unnerved than if you were at a conference and 20 people asked scathing 
> questions of a speaker.  We're as uncomfortable together as the Raelians 
> are apart.

Aren't you exaggerating here?  Outsiders sometimes accuse Extropians
of cultlike groupthink.  There are certainly matters on which we
largely agree.  Look at the poll I did last week about the Principles.
There was substantial agreement in the rankings.

Remember what you wrote yesterday, about how people hesitate to help
out when they are in groups?  Part of the reason you suggested was that
since no one else was panicking, each person figured there was no reason
to panic.  That's a group-conformist behavior pattern, and you seemed
to be saying that reluctance to support SIAI was part of that pattern.
Now it's the opposite, that it is our non-conformity which is keeping
people from joining the bandwagon of support.

I don't know what the answer is; probably the reasons are complex.
But I think Damien has a good part of the truth when he says that the
reason people don't donate is because ultimately they don't think it's
money well spent.  They don't think that the threat is imminent, or they
don't think that your group will solve the problem.

I suspect that rather than spending so much time explaining to us how
irrational we all are, you would be better off considering your own
strategy.  What are your goals?  Your milestones?  Your deliverables?
The essays are good, I guess, but they don't seem to obviously move
things forward.  It would be helpful if you could point to something
tangible that shows that you are not just a net.crackpot amusing himself.
Get into a position where you can go to donors and say, if we get this
much money, then in six months we will achieve these milestones, and in
12 months these additional ones.  I'll bet you'd do better soliciting
donations with that approach than what you are doing now.

Hal