Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
scottaaronson.blog
Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#2> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history.
No.
His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge.
He was a fraud, a con man.
There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism interest was authentic. It could easily been a way of connecting to important people like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#3> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
Effective altruism seems to be a sort of cult that’s way for elites (that is, the upper class) to both make themselves feel better and to give them yet another vector of superiority over people.
In Sam Bankman-Fried’s case, he seems to have let it be a justification for the huge risks and likely criminal actions he took.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#4> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
Effective altruism seems to be a sort of cult that’s way for elites (that is, the upper class) to both make themselves feel better and to give them yet another vector of superiority over people. In Sam Bankman-Fried’s case, he seems to have let it be a justification for the huge risks and likely criminal actions he took.
SBF literally said he would wager the world for another world with 51% odds.
There's no amount of money that will satisfy someone like that, even if his EA statements were heartfelt. Why would he give a billion dollars to charities, when he could risk it, flip it into $20B, and give it to charity? Why would he give $20B to charity when he could risk it, and flip it into $150B? etc...
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#5> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
I always saw it as a rebranding of "trickle down", but for private companies and individuals.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#6> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
Similarly, I don't think it's correct to characterize SBF's background as 'middle class'. Apparently, both of his parents are Profs at Stanford Law School. Most likely, they are wealthy or even rich and SBF could benefit from their network, gaining access to the American elites without too many questions asked.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#7> To my mind, though, it’s important not to minimize the gravity of the fateful decision by conflating it with everything that preceded it. I confess to taking this sort of conflation extremely personally. For eight years now, the rap against me, advanced by thousands (!) on social media, has been: sure, while by all accounts Aaronson is kind and respectful to women, he seems like exactly the sort of nerdy guy who, still bitter and frustrated over high school, could’ve chosen instead to sexually harass women and hinder their scientific careers.
This seems like such an oddly prickly and defensive bit to throw into the middle of the essay? I have no idea why Aaronson is nervous about being associated with SBF ("both were affiliated with the same large research university at some point in time" hardly seems damning), nor what on earth these charges about disrespect to women are about. Am I missing something?
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#8There's a guy in the clear stealing billions of dollars and nothing happens.
People go to prison for stealing a car, this is literally 1000000 times bigger and he's not even arrested.
He belongs to prison for a life time.
All the other talk about crypto / regulation is just hiding how corrupt the system is for not arresting this guy instantly.
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#9> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
Well he was into EA when he was a nobody at University… I doubt that it was all for show.
Generally, in public downfalls like this, people over ascribe the causes to moral turpitude. There aren’t enough details here to say either way yet. There is a good book about this sort of thing Mistakes were made (but not by me). [1]
I think the blog post is very good, providing a unique perspective, and wonderfully written.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Mistakes-Were-Made-But-Not/dp/1491514...
Re: Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience
#10> In the course of 2-3 days last week, SBF’s estimated net worth went from ~$15 billion to a negative number, possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history. No. His net worth was never $15B. His net worth might have been negative - less than that homeless living in a tent under the bridge. He was a fraud, a con man. There's no reason to assume his entire Effective Altruism inte…
> ... possibly the fastest evaporation of such a vast personal fortune in all human history.
That title would probably go to Zucc after the most recent set of earnings. But the previous title holder was none other than Mr. Cyber Hornets himself, the man who just about popped the Dot Com bubble - Michael Saylor.
Saylor lost $6B in a single day (and $10B in 2 weeks) after reporting that his firm had cooked the books in 2000 and his 1999 profit was actually a loss. This was the largest single-day decline in history at the time. [1]
He was fined $8.2M banned from running a public company (just kidding, of course). [2] You'll never imagine what line of work he got into next.
[edit] $6B in 2000 dollars is ~$10.38B in 2022 dollars, and similarly the $10B over 2 weeks would be ~17.31B adjusting for inflation. So it looks like Mr Cyber Hornets still gets to slide in at number two.
[1] https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2000/03/michael-saylor.h...