JordanStone's Quick takes

I'm thinking about organising a seminar series on space and existential risk. Mostly because it's something I would really like to see. The webinar series would cover a wide range of topics:

• Asteroid Impacts
• Building International Collaborations
• Monitoring Nuclear Weapons Testing
• Monitoring Climate Change Impacts
• Planetary Protection from Mars Sample Return
• Space Colonisation
• Cosmic Threats (supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares)
• The Overview Effect
• Astrobiology and Longtermism 

I think this would be an online webinar series. Would this be something people would be interested in? 

I have written this post introducing space and existential risk and this post on cosmic threats, and I've come up with some ideas for stuff I could do that might be impactful. So, inspired by this post, I am sharing a list of ideas for impactful projects I could work on in the area of space and existential risk. If anyone working on anything related to impact evaluation, policy, or existential risk feels like ranking these in order of what sounds the most promising, please do that in the comments. It would be super useful! Thank you! :)

(a) Policy report on the role of the space community in tackling existential risk: Put together a team of people working in different areas related to space and existential risk (cosmic threats, international collaborations, nuclear weapons monitoring, etc.). Conduct research and come together to write a policy report with recommendations for international space organisations to help tackle existential risk more effectively. 

(b) Anthology of articles on space and existential risk: Ask researchers to write articles about topics related to space and existential risk and put them all together into an anthology. Publish it somewhere. 

(c) Webinar series on space and existential risk: Build a community of people in the space sector working on areas related to existential risk by organising a series of webinars. Each webinar will be available virtually.

(d) Series of EA forum posts on space and existential risk: This should help guide people to an impactful career in the space sector, build a community in EA, and better integrate space into the EA community. 

(e) Policy adaptation exercise SMPAG > AI safety: Use a mechanism mapping policy adaptation exercise to build on the success of the space sector in tackling asteroid impact risks (through the SMPAG) to figure out how organisations working on AI safety can be more effective. 

(f) White paper on Russia and international space organisations: Russia’s involvement in international space missions and organisations following its invasion of Ukraine could be a good case study for building robust international organisations. E.g. Russia was ousted from ESA, is still actively participating on the International Space Station, and is still a member of SMPAG but not participating. Figuring out why Russia stayed involved or didn’t with each organisation could be useful. 

(g) Organise an in-person event on impactful careers in the space sector: This would be aimed at effective altruists and would help gauge interest and provide value. 

Greetings! I'm a doctoral candidate and I have spent three years working as a freelance creator, specializing in crafting visual aids, particularly of a scientific nature. However, I'm enthusiastic about contributing my time to generate visuals that effectively support EA causes. 

Typically, my work involves producing diagrams for academic grant applications, academic publications, and presentations. Nevertheless, I'm open to assisting with outreach illustrations or social media visuals as well. If you find yourself in need of such assistance, please don't hesitate to get in touch! I'm happy to hop on a zoom chat

I am a researcher in the space community and I recently wrote a post introducing the links between outer space and existential risk. I'm thinking about developing this into a sequence of posts on the topic. I plan to cover:

1. Cosmic threats - what are they, how are they currently managed, and what work is needed in this area. Cosmic threats include asteroid impacts, solar flares, supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, aliens, rogue planets, pulsar beams, and the Kessler Syndrome. I think it would be useful to provide a summary of how cosmic threats are handled, and determine their importance relative to other existential threats.
2. Lessons learned from the space community. The space community has been very open with data sharing - the utility of this for tackling climate change, nuclear threats, ecological collapse, animal welfare, and global health and development cannot be understated. I may include perspective shifts here, provided by views of Earth from above and the limitless potential that space shows us. 
3. How to access the space community's expertise, technology, and resources to tackle existential threats. 
4. The role of the space community in global politics. Space has a big role in preventing great power conflicts and building international institutions and connections. With the space community growing a lot recently, I'd like to provide a briefing on the role of space internationally to help people who are working on policy and war. 

Would a sequence of posts on space and existential risk be something that people would be interested in? (please agree or disagree to the post) I haven't seen much on space on the forum (apart from on space governance), so it would be something new.

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/events/cJnwCKtkNs6hc2MRp/panel-discussion-how-can-the-space-sector-overcome 

This event is now open to virtual attendees! It is happening today at 6:30PM BST. The discussion will focus on how the space sector can overcome international conflicts, inspired by the great power conflict and space governance 80K problem profiles. 

I searched google for "gain of function UK" and the first hit was a petition to ban gain of function research in the UK that only got 106 signatures out of the 10,000 required. 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/576773#:~:text=Closed%20petition%20Ban%20%E2%80%9CGain%20of,the%20consequences%20could%20be%20severe.

How did this happen? Should we try again?