TL;DR
We want to hear ideas for physical engineering projects - that is, hardware prototypes moving around atoms (not just bits) - from the EA and/or longtermist community. Submit here!
Introducing Reslab
There has been a lot of talk about EA needing to take more large-scale action recently (e.g. Longtermist EA needs more Phase 2 work). And there likely exist cases where it would be helpful for action plans to start with small-scale hardware prototypes/MVPs. We came across such a case recently: as participants on SHELTER Weekend, we realised that the smallest scale MVPs for civilizational shelters often required technical implementation and tests.
We are starting Resilience Lab (or ‘Reslab’) to build capacity for prototyping hardware ideas with relevance to areas identified as important to the long-term future.
At this stage, we would love to hear from people with more project ideas, or an interest in working on someone else’s submitted idea. We will award $200, $150, and $50 prizes to the first-, second-, and third-best ideas respectively!
Long-term goal
Our intent is to develop a long-term resource to support EA and/or longtermist hardware projects. If successful, this pilot project would lead to a dedicated space with more full time staff and projects spinning out.
Which projects are suitable?
Any projects that:
- Are primarily focused on EA and/or longtermist cause areas, and
- Could make substantial progress with materials funding of up to $100k and project ownership by a junior mechanical engineer and intern for six months.
To give you a better sense of what we’re interested in, here are some ideas we have for possible projects:
- Scaling of mushroom manufacturing techniques.
- Positive pressure air filtration system kits.
- Disinfection treatment testing.
- PPE development and testing.
- ALLFED technical development projects (e.g. open source hardware designs for greenhouse construction, seaweed farming, or food processing).
Submit your hardware project ideas here!
The deadline to be considered for prizes is January 31st, 2023.
Just want to flag that "hardware" is a bit misleading, as I think people often/mostly use it as shorthand for computer hardware , especially with communities' focus on AI/compute. Maybe disambiguate it straight after TL;DR or in TL;DR.
Sorry about that! Changed in TL;DR to "physical engineering projects."
(Note that these prototypes could plausibly use electronics etc.. So might not make sense to rule out computer hardware, although of course we want to be clear that the scope is broader.)