This is a personal contract between Morgante Pell ("I" or "me") and humanity. It is not legally enforcable, but includes built-in accountability mechanisms.
The primary purpose of this contract is to remind myself of my values. In particular, it strikes a balance between normative and positive theories: how can I act as effectively as possible, given the person I am today.
While I haven't upheld many of the clauses, the basic moral philosophy underlying the contract hasn't changed.
- Work is intrinsically valuable. It is hard to live a meaningful life without producing things of value, and I derive signifciant personal satisfaction from building things. Working hard is a virtue, and most of my life is spent working.
- Giving more than I take is important, in relationships and in society. I want to be a net positive force in the world.
- The world is filled with problems, but problems can be solved given time, rational thought, and effort. I seek out high leverage problems.
- Relationships are measured in decades, not hours. I don't spend a lot of time with people, but I am deeply loyal to the people I care about.
- Winning is fun. I enjoy winning, and I enjoy helping others win. Healthy competition is a good thing for society and for individuals.
Life has imbued me with substantial compensation for engaging in this contract. In addition to the basic gift of existence, I have received numerous advantages which put me in the 99th percentile of priviledge worldwide. My personal survival has never been in doubt. In exchange for this tremendous gift, I believe I have an obligation to improve the net utility of humanity.
While there are many debates about what improving net human utility means, there is plenty of low-hanging fruit of utility improvement that debating the direction of improvement is not personally important. In particular, directed effort towards alleviating material deprivation has a tremendous ROI and therefore I align myself with the Effective Altruism movement. Even though some people in the movement have been overly focused on long-term risks, I think the core of focusing on provably effective interventions is sound.
What is more challenging than determining the direction of utility improvement is determing the appropriate velocity. I know how to do good, but how much good does this implicit contract bind me to do? One answer is that any positive net contribution to humanity is sufficient to fulfill my obligations as at the margin humanity is better off with me existing. This sets an absolute minimum for my net contribution.
Another comparison could be through a BATNA framework: if the same advantages has been given to another person, how much net value would they generate for humanity? While this is generally a fairly low bar (most people devote little of their conscious effort to improving humanity) I believe it's an important one to keep in mind. In particular, when it comes to the net value I create for those in my immediate personal life. At a minimum, I should strive to be a better contributor to the lives of those around me than another random human would be.
The final metric could be to try to do the absolute most amount of good possible. This is a lofty goal and is likely unachievable for the vast majority of humans (including myself) who require some aspect of their effort to be translated into personal utility. However, it is a useful upper bound, especially for long-term philanthropy.
Given the moral terms of this contract, it is not immediately obvious that any commitments besides the philanthropic clauses should be necessary. However, the truth is that as much as I might aspire to be a philanthropy-generating robot, I am still human and have normal human desires. That being said, I find it psychologically useful to justify expenditure on myself in terms of their service to this contract's mission.
To do so, it is important to recognize that the primary value I produce is dollars which can be transferred to effective altruism organizations. The primary way I produce those dollars is through my intellectual labor, which means anything which can improve my productivity and life span is valuable for the mission.
My anecdotal experience shows that trying to only work and sleep yields diminishing returns. While I can sustain this lifestyle for some time, it eventually leads to diminished productivity as my reserve of happiness depletes. Additionally, my work requires me to interact with other humans and if I do not dedicate some resources to self-care my interactions with other humans can be so negative as to outweigh the positive value of my philanthrophic contributions. Hence, it is integral to put some resources towards my personal happiness in order to sustain my productivity and not lower the utility of my professional colleagues.
Additionally, as my labor is my primary means of generating value, extending my life span has a tremendous ROI for humanity's utility. Conservatively speaking, under the terms of my philanthropic commitments, every year of productive work I add provides an additional $50,000 2017 dollars towards improving humanity. As such, most of the personal commitments in this contract aim to improve the length of my lifespan while ensuring I also provide value for those around me. In particular, sustaining friendships and finding a romantic partner are both scientifically validated factors in longevity, hence them forming the basis of my social commitments. Of course, most of my health commitments are also designed to improve longevity.