Comments
Do you think it might be a good idea to make brain simulations of subcortical areas (like the ventral tegmental area, periaqueductal gray, and others) that "produce" affects (good or bad experiences, like the 7 basic emotions described by Jaak Pankseep, homeostatic affects like hunger or sleepiness or food satiation, or sensory affects like physical pains or disgust) in order to make aligned AIs?
We want AIs that have the same values and goals that humans have. But humans seem to have different goals and values at times. We can differ so much that we have wars. So it seems pretty hard to make AIs that are perfectly aligned with every human's goal. And we also need these goals to be intelligible for AIs (be reward functions with specific numbers). How will we do that?
I am very unsure, but I think that it isn't possible to make AGIs that are completely aligned with all humans' goals and values. I think the best we may muster is making AGIs that have affects, because our values and goals come from those basic affects we have. And I think we may make such AIs with brain simulation (with neurons similar in function to human neurons).
Do you think this is a terrible idea?
I know this question is not worth your time to answer it, but I'll ask anyway: should I apply to Charity Entrepreneurship's Incubation Program?
I'm a 21 year-old woman who studied psychology and who now works as a factory worker, which could be a sign of poor decision making skills. I composed about 200 short musical pieces on my own, which could be seen as a sign of autonomy. And I read some articles on this forum and on other EA sites over the past 1,5 years. So, I'm average on these criteria.
I'm afraid that if I apply and for some bizzare reason I pass the evaluation then I'll need to explain to my mother and sister what the heck is Charity Entrepreneurship and why did I apply for this and whether they are terrorists or something and that I shouldn't apply for foreign jobs because who knows who these people are and that we don't have the money to go abroad and that I'm an incompetent mess who'll definitively make things worse and so on. And I'm afraid that in this situation I'll need to tell CE that I can't really become a founder, even if, for some straight up weird reason, they would want me to be.
I know that I can't improve my decision making skills without making decisions on my own. My options are these: apply now, apply next year and gain more skills meanwhile, apply some years later when I'll live independently, don't apply at all if I see that my personal fit is poor. I think the least reasonable option is the first one.
But I could be wrong. What if I could pass the evaluations this year and my family would be okay with this? What if I wait a few years and civilisation declines and I can't do as much good stuff as I could have done if I applied earlier?
So, should I tell my family about CE and its Incubation Program and then decide whether to apply or not? Are my chances of passing not poor, or should I learn and practice more skills before applying? Does CE tell anyone to apply, even if they think they are a poor fit? Is my family reasonable in its concerns?
I have no way of telling how the family side of this will go for you, but I can speak to the other half as someone who has just been through the application myself. CE prefer for as many people as possible to apply, and have confidence in their own ability to filter people out based on personal fit with the programme (which is, I must stress, different from whether you are 'good enough' for it). The first step of the application should take about 30 minutes and is a bunch of multiple-choices questions and short answers. IMO, this is the best way of answering your question about whether your chances are good.
Although the full application process is spread across a few months, the actual commitment is low and ramps up as you progress. So if you are chosen for the second stage, the take-home task should take a couple of hours, the third stage is a 45-minute asynchronous interview, the fourth stage should take a couple days, and it caps off with an hour-long interview. You have no chance of wasting your time here, because you'd be spending so little time on it.
The default advice within EA is to err on the side of applying. I think that is generally good advice, at least as a starting point.
Do you need to tell your family about applying before doing so? If not, at what point in the process do you think you would need to? If my memory serves, the acceptance rate for the incubation program is pretty low, so you may be experiencing anxiety over something (telling your family) that has a low probability of happening even if you apply. It may be more efficient to just apply and defer consideration of whether to tell your family unless and until you progress in the selection process.
One reason I think the default advice is often correct is that EA application processes are unusual. I don't know what jobs you've applied for in the past, but it's likely the process here would be significantly different. If you've taken a standardized test, you probably didn't do as well on your first exposure as you did after getting to a certain level of comfort and familiarity. I think that's probably true of most EA application processes as well.
The other advantage of applying would be that the application process can itself help you determine fit. You might learn that the incubation program just isn't a good fit for you at all. If so, that's good to realize -- it isn't for everyone, for most people, or for me personally! Learning that now would help you narrow down what would be a good fit for you and would help you prioritize the skills needed for better-fit paths. Or you might decide after learning more that it is a potential good fit for you in the abstract, but that you have specific skill gaps to work on. That would also be good information to have.
You could try CE's quiz(zes) first:
I don't know what your family is like, but are you sure you aren't making charity entrepreneurship in general, and CE/AIM (the organization) to be less socially acceptable and admirable than they are? The point is to help people (or animals).
And if it turns out to be hard to explain or hard for them to accept, do you think:
In my view, although I don't know your particular situation that well, there isn't much downside to applying now.
I think they'd pay for your flight if you made it to the final stage; if not just post on the forum and someone else will. They cover your expenses while in the UK.
Some unsolicited advice: If you're doing repetitive manual labor, escaping into something with more learning / career capital should be your top priority. If you DM me your CV and university transcript, I'd consider hiring you for your current salary or slightly more. I'm currently hiring for a project manager / virtual administrator. This way, you'd get to learn how to manage the operations of a charity and see if it's a good fit for you