One could frame EA as the project of human alignment - of deconfusing ourselves about what we care about and figuring out how to actualize it. And there seems to be an interconnected bundle of problems at the core of this project:
These questions are particularly important, as we seem to live at the hinge of history and at a time of a growth in consciousness research[1]. They're interconnected but require a range of disciplines perhaps too wide for a single person to fully grasp - which suggests there could be a great added value in stronger cooperation.
So if you like impossible problems and want to work on them together, you're warmly welcome at the Mind & Values Research Group. The group is about the intersections of EA, cognitive science, the nature of consciousness and intelligence, moral philosophy and the formulation & propagation of ethical and rational principles.
How can these areas help nudge humanity in a positive directions?
1. The philosophy of mind angle
Deconfusing humanity about what we mean by values and intelligence could:
2. The social change angle
Which points against neglectedness but to brain research opening new possibilities and to existing (cognitive) resources to utilize. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/1/41 https://www.proquest.com/docview/2703039855/fulltextPDF/3152D39660CF4000PQ/1?accountid=16531
See Sotala or Superintelligence, pp. 406: Should whole brain emulation research be promoted? which indicates figuring out how human coherent extrapolation volition looks like could be of particular importance.
An example here could be the research discussed in the 80k Hours podcast with Sharon H. Rawlette and her Feeling of Value.
Sounds an awful lot like LessWrong, but competition can be healthy[1] ;)
I think this is less likely to be true of things like "places of discussion" because splitting the conversation / eroding common knowledge, but I think it's fine/maybe good to experiment here.