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Dylan Richardson

@consensusconstruct.bsky.social
296 followers 224 following 269 posts

Effective altruism, farmed animal advocacy, philosophy, loves seeing lots and lots of reasons and evidence given for claims ♥️ Substack: open.substack.com/pub/dylanrichards…

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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This isn't really about not understanding humor, that's besides the point. It's about expressing triumph that offense has been found, however tenuous the determination.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
no
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you don't mind a non-book recommendation, I'd suggest reading Richard Chappell's Good Thoughts blog: substack.com/@rychappell?... Probably the best general defense of utilitarianism - has some great posts I could suggest that show how certain stances are less strict than often supposed
substack.com
Richard Y Chappell | Substack
Philosophy Prof.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Any examples of this? Or is it more a general vibe from IRL interactions?
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
That seems just fine to me, even admirable, though not a standard I'd hold myself to. I think it's good to pin one's self-regard to worthwhile endeavors in a pinch, rather than letting it be driven by more random status markers.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Concerning.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So... does this mean Gemini is the most aligned model now?
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yep
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Generally yes, but I'm not entirely sure about just beef, absent a corresponding rise in chicken prices.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Or that it is irrelevant as a test for determining what is and isn't thinking.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I'm regularly surprised to see the ongoing relevance of the Philosophy of Mind courses I took in undergrad, covering debates more than 70 years old.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I can write this skeet and get you to output something different here.
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mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 14/09/2026
METR, the AI Safety & Eval firm, experienced a breach in which attackers stole $600k worth of API credits thehackernews.com/2026/09/atta...
thehackernews.com
Attackers Steal METR API Key and Consume AI Credits Worth About $600,000
Attackers stole a METR API key and consumed credits worth about $600,000, while a later campaign failed to access internal data.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
They could plausibly just access the Internet (with or without our permission) and copy themselves elsewhere, doing this before we consider there to be a problem at all.
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This week brought some of the clearest statements we've heard from both Anthropic & OpenAI that some form of recursive self-improvement has been achieved, though it still sounds early RSI would cause a rapid gain in AI ability & the first firms to RSI may get an unsurmountable lead
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I searched more and it looks like it really is true, I guess the above is just coincidence or a troll: manifund.substack.com/p/caroline-e...
manifund.substack.com
Caroline Ellison has joined Manifund
I’m happy to announce that Caroline Ellison has accepted a role at Manifund, to develop our funding platform and research how to effectively direct philanthropic dollars.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Looks fake:
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Unfortunately casual opining and serious thought (e.g. Forthought) on this subject are both subject to considerable selection effects. So I don't fault anyone for speaking up, it can't worsen the situation further.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
He is far simpler than that
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Incredible
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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 05/09/2026
Fun little game in which a human life is randomly drawn for you. I ended up a girl, born in the Yangtze Basin in 670 CE. Died in infancy at 6 months 🥲 anyhumanever.com
anyhumanever.com
Any Human Ever
One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The sentient media article explains it well. Putting a price on life often serves to benefit it and promote the general welfare, provided the price is right. Not doing so just obfuscates the value actually placed on a thing, doesn't somehow validate any meta ethical claims.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Might work sometimes, but a lot (arguably most) of people are literally concerned about shadows in their backyards, traffic on commutes, and parking spaces in front of their houses. True communitarian ideology in urban areas is relatively rare outside town halls and activist circles.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
What does this have to do with effective altruism?
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
This is putting a monetary value on life (a good thing).
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
They already did (METR), the third party corroborated the findings.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If an adult buys a baby doll and gleefully acts out violence against it, I think it’s reasonable to ask if something untoward is going on even though no one would argue the doll is a person. Again this is about what is happening in the head of the person doing it, not about the effect on the target.
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Chris Paxton @cpaxton.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Much more impressive than the humanoid race. Real time reaction to the moving ball!
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I'm not in favor of this either, but it's obvious that the AI companies are no longer at the height of the bubble; that was last year and it didn't pop.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
If only they understood this in San Diego!
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
This is arbitrarily constructing non-physical states. I am unconvinced that such a concept is necessary, anymore than it is necessary to postulate "ultra-physcial" phenomenon.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
This isn't fair. Nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy. Some people are sufficiently confident in their own judgment that they don't feel the need to flaunt faux sciency stances
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Alex Turner @turntrout.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I spent the last 2 months trying to prevent this. If OpenAI offered a fig leaf, Google said "imagine we offered a fig leaf." Google affirms it can't veto usage, commits to modify safety filters at government request, & aspirational language with no legal restrictions. Shameful.
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Andy Masley @andymasley.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I must ask you my loyal followers to call your representatives about this. Really
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I'm not an economist, but I doubt this is a real thing. Seems like a pro-social meme - everyone wants everyone else reading their work. My guess is that if surveyed, the majority of Phds, even in Econ, would claim to believe that it is in fact important to read more outside of one's field.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I'd take this sort of claim somewhat more seriously if it was ever "give well and animal charity evaluators (or a similar org)". But without that it looks more like a rash aversion to non-majoritarian ethical claims.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
happy birthday random stranger 🎉🥳
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 22/04/2026
Hey did you know that Florida no longer grows oranges?
slate.com
It Was on Your Table Every Morning Growing Up. It’s Dying Before Our Eyes. No One Wants to Face It.
The powerhouse of American citrus is suffering a brutal decline. Everyone has a theory about why.
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norvid_studies @norvid-studies.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
?
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conputer dipshit @davidcrespo.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
271 vulns fixed. but: "Encouragingly, we also haven’t seen any bugs that couldn’t have been found by an elite human researcher." — now that's interesting
blog.mozilla.org
The zero-days are numbered  | The Mozilla Blog
Since February, the Firefox team has been working around the clock using frontier AI models to find and fix latent security vulnerabilities in the browser.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I have been hoping someone would do this. You should try to estimate the damages if Mythos had been released to the public without the bug patches and project glasswing, that would be really cool!
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I'd prefer if she was even more unable to afford chicken
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
I recommend searching him on the effective altruism forum and nosing around (TBC I am not him lol)
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
It definitely "shows something", that much is clear from the evidence.
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P(aul) Frazee @pfrazee.com · 07/04/2026
I feel like we're not addressing the most concerning news from Mythos
so far being a now-patched 27-year-old bug in OpenBSD—an operating system known primarily for its security. It also awakened a thousand year old demon spirit embedded in MS Windows 3.1 which foretold humanity's demise before escaping through a vent. We are working with Microsoft to address this issue.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Seems reasonable!
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I agree they are crazy, but not that crazy.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
I suspect you have the mechanics confused here. These people aren't stuck sorting the junk because global capitalism exploits them with the rich world's waste, they do it because they are extremely poor and desperate. It's this or what are from our perspective, equally shitty options.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
As a rationalist adjacent/sympathetic individual, I can confidently say the answer is Yes. They are indeed aware of this.
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Dylan Richardson @consensusconstruct.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Just now published for the Effective Altruism forum's "Animals and AGI" debate week. TLDR: Transformative AI poses a likely fatal time limit for mass animal welfare social change. Comments or critiques are appreciated. Also let me know if I've managed to alter anyone's perspective on the matter.
forum.effectivealtruism.org
A Pessimistic Perspective on Animal Welfare Social Change — EA Forum
Note: I’ll be focusing on farmed animals, since the case against moral progress occurring for wild animals is far more clear-cut.    …
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