Open thread: January - March 2025

Hi, I'm Alistair – I'm intending to spend more time reading and posting on the Forum, so wanted to introduce myself here.

I think I came across EA online during early 2020 during the first Covid-19 lockdown, and I remember feeling it was such an obviously good idea that I was surprised that no one had come up with it before about 2008! EA was a significant influence on my decision to go vegan and my coming to consider our use and treatment of sentient non-humans to be a moral atrocity. It also sparked my concern about AI safety.

I'm currently lead organiser of the AI, Animals, & Digital Minds conference in London in June 2025, and would love to speak to people who are interested in the intersection of those three things, especially if they're in London.

I'll be co-working in the LEAH Coworking Space and the Ambitious Impact office in London in 2025, and will be in the Bay Area in California in Feb-Mar for EAG Bay Area (if accepted) and the AI for Animals conference there. Please reach out by DM!

Interested in:

• Sentience- & suffering-focused ethics; sentientism; painism; s-risks
• Animal ethics & abolitionism
• AI safety & governance
• Activism, direct action & social change
• Trying to make transformative AI go less badly for sentient beings, regardless of species and substrate

Bio:

• From London
• BA in linguistics at the University of Cambridge
• Almost five years in the British Army as an officer
• MSc in global governance and ethics at University College London
• One year working full time in environmental campaigning and animal rights activism at Plant-Based Universities / Animal Rising
• Now pivoting to the (future) impact of AI on biologically and artifically sentient beings

Hello, I'm new to the forums but not new to EA. I've been interested in EA ever since graduating college with a degree in Philosophy (concentration in ethics and morality) in 2009. I've always wanted to make an impact for the good after growing up poor and experiencing a small taste of the suffering poverty causes. 

Philosophy helped me find meaning in reducing the suffering of others, which provides a tangible purpose for myself and creates positive change. I would like to pick up my education in EA and participate more in the community.

I lost sight of my goals in EA after working on my "career" and prioritizing success. I haven't achieved as much success as I initially wanted, but I figure it's better to get back into EA sooner rather than wait for that success to manifest.  

I'd like to build a portfolio of charitable causes and rekindle my giving efforts. Joining this forum is a step in that direction, and I hope to continue my education and participation in EA and make a positive change.

Looking forward to discussions,

Christopher.  

Hello everyone, I'm Luoluo. I learned about this community from a book called "8000 Hours". I'm really interested in the principles of effective altruism.

I started paying attention to environmental issues when I graduated from college in 2022, and then I began to focus on AI issues. These two topics are among the most pressing global problems I think we're facing. However, I'm still young and haven't studied any related fields, so it's hard for me to contribute my wisdom to these issues.

I hope to see the following discussions in this community:

1. Discussions on global environmental issues, especially climate change.
2. The development and utilization of new energy sources. For example, nuclear energy and the use of space technology to develop new energy.
3. Discussions on curbing AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and the possibilities of using AI to address global problems like environmental issues.

Hi, I'm Daniel and I donate mostly to global health causes following GiveWell's recommendations (including their old deworming recommendations).  My impression is the GiveWell-recommended charities are more impactful, in expectation, than charities recommended by The Life You Can Save, which is not quite as stringent and admits more charities.
However, disruptions to USAID mean than donations to some programs facing shortfalls would likely be more effective now than normally, and potentially ahead of the GiveWell recommendations.  How do you think the effectiveness of e.g., AMF would compare with this new Rapid Response Fund if I donate now?  I can see compelling arguments both ways and am not sure how to decide.
Thank you for your thoughts!

Those expected value arguments about low probability but very high yield opportunities (moonshots) being more valuable than lower yield, but more certain ones, always rubbed me the wrong way. I suppose because in a very real sense, a 1% odds outcome might as well be 0% odds, specially for something that will only be attempted once, but I was also thinking about the economy. I suspect the overwhelming majority of economic activity is directed at lower risk, lower yield opportunities, and that it is necessary for things to be this way for the economy to function: there is some optimal proportion of the economy that should be dedicated to moonshots of course, but I wonder what that is. And similarly for altruism, there is probably some optimal proportion of altruistic effort that should be directed to moonshots, relative to effort on lower risk, lower yield stuff.

Has anyone written about this, about what would be the best proportion of moonshots to non-moonshots in EA? In the economy? My point is that it's not as simple as saying moonshots are better.

I also recently read someone saying that the worst case with a moonshot is that nothing happens, but that is not true, the moonshot has opportunity cost, all the time, effort, and money spent on it could've been used on something else.

There is an Avaaz signature campaign to "Establish National Licensing systems for AGI before it is fully achieved" (started by the director of the Millennium Project, Jerome Glenn) you may want to sign.

I'm not sure how fitting such a petition is for the forum, that's why I put it here. If somebody more involved (forum admins, maybe?) thinks it is worth for it to have a real post, please do it.