EA should be renamed to: Possibly An Idea Or A Movement Sometimes A Community That Attempts Altruism In An Effective Way Though There Is Much Uncertainty And It Is Not Utilitarianism...

...But It Is Pretty Utilitarian (PAIMSCAAEWTTMUNUPU)

This is a short post. Perhaps it would make more sense for the EA Forum, but I’m very sensitive about the idea so I’d prefer to try it out in a safe space. Every once in a while, effective altruists (or rather, those who work in the effective altruist space or consider themselves interested in or affiliated with the idea in some shape or form, though they may not necessarily identify as an 'effective altruist' themselves) will pose the question: Should effective altruism be renamed?

As those before me have pointed out, the current name faces some downsides:

• Effective altruism, as a name, can evoke defensiveness in some, a sense of superiority, or can frustratingly come across as an implicit suggestion that all other altruism is ineffective.

• People on Twitter like to joke, "Woah, EA Games has changed a lot," or, "yeah, I hate EA too, ever since they ruined The Sims haha" in response to tweets about EA, and I can’t take it anymore.

EA needs a name that communicates what it’s about, while demonstrating appropriate epistemic humility. Although, that is not to necessarily imply that EA specifically "is" something, and what it "is" is debatable, whether it be a movement or a community or a cluster concept or just a thing people do and there are conferences and groups and organisations and a lot of t-shirts. A fun fact about my girlfriend is that she has so many EAG t-shirts that she started using them as tissues to blow her nose, because she doesn’t like to buy kleenex (this is a literally true fact, and it is devastating to watch every time). But anyways.

I’d like to propose the name that I’ve already put in the title of this post:

Possibly An Idea Or A Movement Sometimes A Community That Attempts Altruism In An Effective Way Though There Is Much Uncertainty And It Is Not Utilitarianism But It Is Pretty Utilitarian (PAIMSCAAEWTTMUNUPU)

Strengths of this name

• To my knowledge, the acronym is unique.

• It demonstrates humility up-front (not just about whether EA is “good,” but whether it is even something).

• It preemptively addresses the utilitarianism confusion.

• No competition with Electronic Arts. Although before the name change, I think they should consider doing an EA-related collaborative project, because that would be very funny.

I'm weakly excited for this initiative and would make a pitch for this to be prioritised by CEA or another relevant body (the collective consciousness, perhaps). Note that it's not entirely clear to me who would be responsible for changing the name of EA. It may simply be in the hands of whoever is agentic enough to unilaterally declare the change.