Philanthropists From The United States

"So one crazy analogy to how my morality might turn out to work, and the big point here is I don't know how my morality works, is we have a painting and the painting is very beautiful. There is some crap on the painting. Would I like the crap cleaned up? Yes, very much. That's like the suffering that's in the world today. Then there is making more of the painting, that's just a strange function. My utility with the size of the painting, it's just like a strange and complicated function. It may go up in any kind of reasonable term that I can actually foresee, but flatten out, at some point. So to see the world as like a painting and my utility of it is that, I think that is somewhat of an analogy to how my morality may work, that it's not like there is this linear multiplier and the multiplier is one thing or another thing. It's: starting to talk about billions of future generations is just like going so far outside of where my morality has ever been stress-tested. I don't how it would respond. I actually suspect that it would flatten out the same way as with the painting."

"I think it's somewhat of a happy coincidence so far that most breakthroughs have been good. To say, I see a breakthrough on the horizon. Is that good or bad? How can we prepare for it? That's another thing academia is really not set up to do. Academia is set up to get the breakthrough. That is a question I ask myself a lot is here's an intellectual activity. Why can't it be done in academia? These days, my answer is if it's really primarily of interest to a very cosmopolitan philanthropist trying to help the whole future, and there's no one client and it's not frontier advancing, then I think that does make it pretty plausible to me that there's no one doing it. We would love to change that, at least somewhat, by funding what we think is the most important work."

"I now believe that there simply is no mainstream academic or other field (as of today) that can be considered to be "the locus of relevant expertise" regarding potential risks from advanced AI. These risks involve a combination of technical and social considerations that don't pertain directly to any recognizable near-term problems in the world, and aren't naturally relevant to any particular branch of computer science. This is a major update for me: I've been very surprised that an issue so potentially important has, to date, commanded so little attention – and that the attention it has received has been significantly (though not exclusively) due to people in the effective altruism community."

"My sense is that factory farms do a great deal of damage to the world that isn't included in the prices of their products. This includes environmental impact and cruelty to animals. I know very little about the former; what I know about the latter mostly comes from a book by Peter Singer (note that Prof. Singer promotes the organization I co-founded, GiveWell)."

"I know some effective altruists who see effective altruists] like Holden Karnofsky or what not do incredible things, and feel a little bit of resentment at themselves and others; feeling inadequate that they can't make such a large difference."

"I'd heard people say that he comes across as a bit of an ass online, but is an absolute sweetheart in person. Then I met him and agreed with this sentiment."

"I update negatively on people who mislead (including expressing great confidence while being wrong, and especially including avoidable mischaracterizations of others' views); people who do tangible damage (usually by misleading); and people who create little of value despite large amounts of opportunity and time investment."

"I have more pet peeves than anyone else I know, and one of the very biggest ones is what I call flakes: people who say they'll do something, then back out without giving me the communication I need to adjust my plans. Anyone who's ever stood me up, or even been very late to something without a heads-up phone call, or just forgotten to do something they knew I was counting on them to do, has felt my wrath … thanks to cellphones and email, there is just no excuse."

"I model the world as having most of the impact from extreme cases, 'home-runs'. I think that's true in business, science and social impact. If you have good personal fit, your chances of being that extreme case are dramatically better – you climb the ladder, you get to see and do things that other can't, and you get to make unique contributions."

"I wanted to get my partner Daniela a special and valuable engagement present, but we had long agreed that a diamond ring – or other comparably expensive present – didn't make sense for us. Instead of money, I decided to "spend" a resource more valuable to both of us: time and creative energy."

"I could tell you about my strengths and weaknesses. I'm creative and intelligent and able to rock the boat and do things that can create uncomfortable situations and then not be bothered about it. But I'm not the best diplomat, I don't have a lot of patience for being sunny and making people happy."

"Regarding (b) ["checking boxes I want to check for considering myself a personally moral/ethical person, which is related but not identical to trying for maximum expected positive impact on the world"]: every year, I want to give a significant amount to "charity" as conventionally construed, straightforwardly helping the less fortunate. I generally believe in trying to be an ethical person by a wide variety of different ethical standards (not all of which are consequentialist). And I wouldn't feel that I were meeting this standard if I were giving nothing (or a trivial amount) to known, outstanding opportunities to help the less fortunate, for purposes of saving as much money as possible for adversarial projects (such as political campaigns) and/or more speculative projects (such as work related to artificial intelligence). I think the best giving opportunities in this category are GiveWell's top charities, so I will be giving a portion of this year's donation there, following the recommended allocation."

"If they succeed in destroying our books or even making many of them inaccessible, there will be a chilling effect on the hundreds of other libraries that lend digitized books as we do. This could be the burning of the Library of Alexandria moment—millions of books from our community's libraries—gone."

"He [Kahle] noted that libraries historically tend to grow in societies that prioritize education and decline in societies where power is being concentrated, and he’s worried about where the US is headed. That makes it hard to predict if IA—or any library project—will be supported in the long term."

"The United States, as you point out, has been actually freer than most in terms of offering access to information. It doesn't have to be this way. Openness is not the default in terms of how if you look back in time, or even around the world. We need to show how openness works better. That you end up with companies that thrive better. That you have, with standards, you have more competition that builds more jobs. That openness is a win."

"Here's the problem with the web — this is so cool, it's worth it. The internet is decentralized in the sense that you can kind of nuke any part of it and it still works. That was its original design. The World Wide Web isn't that way. You go and knock out any particular piece of hardware, it goes away. Can we make a reliable web that's served from many different places, kind of like how the Amazon cloud works, but for everybody? The answer is yes, you can. You can make kind of a pure to pure distribution structure, such that the web becomes reliable. Another is that we can make it private so that there's reader privacy. Edward Snowden has brought to light some really difficult architectural problems of the current World Wide Web. The GCHQ, the secret service of the British, watched everybody using WikiLeaks, and then offered all of those IP addresses, which are personally identifiable in the large part, to the NSA. The NSA had conversations about using that as a means to go and... monitor people at an enhanced level that those are now suspects. Libraries have long had history with people being rounded up for what they've read and bad things happening to them. We have an interest in trying to make it so that there’s reader privacy."

"If you think research is expensive, try disease."

"During the first term of the Obama administration, no fewer than eighteen billionaires came together under the Koch brothers' leadership to oppose the president's initiatives and move this country in an extreme right-wing direction. Some of the other billionaires involved were Richard Mellon Scaife, an heir to the Mellon banking and Gulf oil fortunes; Henry and Linda Bradley, defense contractors; John M. Olin, involved in chemicals and munitions; the DeVos family, the founders of the Amway corporation; and the Coors brewing family of Colorado."

"I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen."

"More and more parents are coming to realize their children are suffering at the hands of a system built to strangle any reform, any innovation, or any change. . . . This realization is becoming more evident as the momentum builds for an education revolution."

"More and more studies show that kids are actually stoppers of the disease and they don’t get it and transmit it themselves, so we should be in a posture of — the default should be getting back to school kids in person, in the classroom"

"I have decided to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues."

"I would imagine that there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies."

"June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people [whose 2-year service contracts expire] will still be using an iPhone a month later. ... I'm on a 10-year plan here. They are going to run out of gas way before we are."

"We have said all along that we think we need strategic partnerships to achieve our goals. We won't be successful as a lone wolf out there. We're not that good."

"We're not afraid of change. Most companies, when they become successful, resist change no matter what. I believe it's less risky, long-term, to embrace change."

"The world is changing.... I don't, as a consumer, want advertising that's not relevant. If we're going to take a side let's take the side of the consumer."

"I think we really have to stand for something. I think we give the customer better value."

"We live in the greatest country in the world, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting."

"My father built the skyline of New York City"

"Sure, technically it belongs to Denmark. But aside from the dozens of Danish soldiers who died alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, what have the Danes really done for us lately? Stephen Miller (from that special category of American military-age males who nevertheless somehow Perpetually Evaded the GWOT, or PEG), Marco Rubio (PEG), Don Jr. (PEG), and Eric Trump (also PEG) all agree Greenland is critical to U.S. national security, and if you have to die for it, that’s a sacrifice they are fully prepared to let you make. Be advised: Greenland, as part of Denmark, has access to the most formidable fixed and scatterable obstacles known to humankind — which, according to a redacted memo from Epstein to Trump, also double as excellent field-expedient butt plugs."

"My father's simple message - It's not an anti-Muslim message, it's [an] anti-terror message. You know, we have ISIS and they're running rampant around the world and we have to do something about it."

"We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

"Where are Republicans! Have some backbone. Fight against this fraud. Our voters will never forget you if you're sheep!"

"Minnesota get out and vote."

"Any senator or any congressman on this side that does not fight tomorrow, I’m telling you will not, their political career is over because the MAGA movement is going nowhere."

"I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.’ And she says, ‘Oh really, another city was just hit’"

"I want to also thank my beautiful wife"

"She hates him."

"It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. [...] Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes. Restricting a woman's right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life."

"The slogan 'My Body, My Choice' is typically associated with women activists and those who align with the pro-choice side of the debate. [...] But if you really think about it, 'My Body, My Choice' applies to both sides – a woman's right to make an independent decision involving her own body, including the right to choose life. Personal freedom."

"Had I been fully informed of all the details, naturally, I would have immediately denounced the violence that occurred at the Capitol Building."

"What I like about Trump is his wife — her beauty, her style and her charisma. I haven't met her, but I hear many good things about her. Even the Democrats have nothing bad to say about her."

"As with all First Ladies who preceded me, it was my obligation to record the contents of the White House’s historic rooms, including taking archival photographs of all the renovations. Several months in advance, I organized a qualified team of photographers, archivists and designers to work with me in the White House to ensure perfect execution. As required, we scheduled January 6, 2021, to complete the work on behalf of our nation."

"I'm working my ass off on the Christmas stuff that, you know, who gives a fuck about Christmas stuff and decorations but I need to do it, right?"

"And then I do it, and I say I'm working on Christmas and planning for Christmas. And they say, 'What about the children that are separated?' Give me a fucking break."

"Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president"

"I could say that I'm the most bullied person on the world"

"...when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms... He has since tested negative."

"But we need to vet them. We need to know who they are, Chain migration, he doesn't want to just cut it off completely. We need to vet the people, and we need to make sure that they believe in our system"