Do you want to do a debate on youtube? I'm looking for polite, truth-seeking participants.

By Nathan Young @ 2024-10-10T09:32 (+19)

I am testing a new debate format and am looking for people to debate any of the following (or make a case for other things):

• Policy decisions
• EA Cause prioritisation
• What should/will happen in Taiwan/Ukraine/Gaza
• US elections
• Economics
• Animal consciousness

The debate would happen via a video call and then be put on my youtube (and I guess other places if you want). 

Why am I asking for volunteers?

Most debates are bad, at least in part because the people who have them just want to win. Go on youtube and you can find 10s of debates with bad faith arguments and a descent into insults. These debates are usually about either US politics, trans issues or religion. 

I think a debate will go much better if it starts with a pair of people who both have some moderate care for the truth and have reputation locked into being open and polite. The work of having good discussions is hard enough, without making it harder.

What is the format?

I am testing a new format, which I ran at Manifest (and which many seemed to enjoy^[1]):

• Poll the two people debating
• Find things they agree and disagree on
• Introduce the debaters and the things they agree on
• Take a specific area they disagree on
• Each debater gets [2 x 5] minutes where they are in control. They can speak or ask questions
• As the moderator, I uphold their boundaries during this time - they can't be interrupted.
• Sometimes I will write key cruxes on a shared whiteboard
• After the time is up for that topic, we move onto another specific disagreement
• There is no mechanism to figure out who has "won"

Optiona additions I might try later.

• @Katja Grace might sometimes help and try and disentangle cruxes. I am interested in having active moderation^[2]
• Give both candidates M10,000 on manifold and require that they bet it during the debate on markets relating to the debate which I will create
• Some kind of live LLM based fact checking
• Some kind of "throw to the audience" fact checking if I do a livestream

So do you have a view on these topics and want to discuss it?

The format aims to be relaxed and not require you to manage your own boundaries. If I do my job well, you don't have to worry about someone being rude, taking more time than allotted or shifting the question around. I hope this might allow participants more space to focus on the discussion.

1. ^{^}

   Including @Eliezer Yudkowsky who asked if I could run one with him. He seems pretty hard to please.

2. ^{^}

   I don't intuitively think I'd be very good at this. I think Katja would probably be very good.