We've asked people to publish a post if they want to submit an entry for the creative writing contest.
However, when it comes to recommending certain entries — those originally published outside the Forum, especially by someone other than the submitter — people have expressed reasonable concerns about:
- Violating copyright or other norms by sharing someone's work in full on another website without permission from the author or the original publisher.
- Creating top-level posts for work they aren't sure is a good fit for the contest.
So we've created this thread for people to submit first published elsewhere without creating top-level posts.
In general, we'd still prefer top-level posts, since those are more likely to reach readers. But we understand the concerns we've heard, and we'll still consider submissions for the contest if you share links to them in a comment here.
(If you are submitting original content, please use a top-level post rather than leaving a comment. I promise that you won't be cluttering the Forum, and you're welcome to use a pseudonym if you'd prefer.)
I think this is a really cool work/parable: "That Alien Message." It's by Eliezer Yudkowsky, so I don't know if it's too well known to count, but it still seems worth collecting in this context. (The topic, or "relevance" from an EA point of view, of the story is a spoiler, but should be pretty clear.)
There are several Yudkowsky stories that involve EA-adjacent elements, although perhaps all of them are too well-known to count -- "Three Worlds Collide" is probably the most complex exploration of abstract ethical ideas, although it's more making a statement about the complexity of human value systems than about taking action in an EA direction. It's also a complex multi-chapter story too long to read in one sitting.
There are also Yudkowsky's "Dath Ilan" stories, which take place in a semi-utopian world where civilization is much better at coordination. ... (read more)