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All of Aayush Kucheria's Comments + Replies

It’s "The EA-Adjacent Forum" now
Aayush Kucheria74
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I'm sorry, but I consider myself EA-adjacent-adjacent. 

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David M78
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Isn't that a bit self-aggrandising? I prefer "aspiring EA-adjacent"

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Most people endorse some form of 'eugenics'
Aayush Kucheria16
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I'm surprised why this post is being downvoted. It takes a controversial topic but seems to talk reasonably through it?

(For those downvoting, maybe mention your reasons?)

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JoelMcGuire51
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I haven't downvoted or read the post, but one explanation is the title "You're probably a eugenicist" seems clickbaity and aimed at persuasion. It reads as ripe for plucking out of context by our critics. I immediately see it cited in the next major critique published in a major news org: "In upvoted posts on the EA forum, EAs argue they can have 'reasonable' conversations about eugenics." 

One idea for dealing with controversial ideas is to A. use a different word and or B. make it more boring.  If the title read something like, "Most people favor selecting for valuable hereditary traits." My pulse would quicken less upon reading.

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CEA statement on Nick Bostrom's email
Aayush Kucheria113
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Here's Bostrom's letter about it (along with the email) for context: https://nickbostrom.com/oldemail.pdf

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Have you ever made a valuable connection with someone via the Forum?
Aayush Kucheria3
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My initial answer was yes. But now that I think about it, all my EA connections have happened off-forum. Mostly on slack, email, and Facebook. Which I feel is kinda weird 🤔

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Clifford
Interesting, thanks! I'd be curious to ask about the connections you have made on slack etc. I'll message you.
Apply to the second ML for Alignment Bootcamp (MLAB 2) in Berkeley [Aug 15 - Fri Sept 2]
Aayush Kucheria2
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I'm thinking of organizing an unofficial version of this in Finland. So this would be nice for sure :)

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How I failed to form views on AI safety
Aayush Kucheria5
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Maybe a typo: the second AI (EA) should be AI (Work)?

AI (EA) did not have to care about mundane problems such as “availability of relevant training data” or even “algorithms”: the only limit ever discussed was amount of computation, and that’s why AI (EA) was not there yet, but soon would be, when systems would have enough computational power to simulate human brains.

Btw, really like your writing style! :)

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Ada-Maaria Hyvärinen
thanks Aayush! Edited the sentence to be hopefully more clear now :)
EA coworking/lounge space on gather.town
Aayush Kucheria8
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Awesome stuff! Have you increased the maximum limit of participants yet? (Asking before sending this to my community group in case it creates problems)

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Arepo
Please do! And I haven't yet - the most users online so far was 6, and the free plan allows up to 25 (unless by concurrent users they mean 'members'?), but I'm very happy to do so if it gets anywhere near becoming a limiting factor! ETA It's substantially more expensive than I thought to do this, so I wouldn't be able to self-fund it, but if we hit the point where we repeatedly need space for 25+ users I'd expect we could get funding from a community group. Or in the worst case scenario we can set up an adjacent space with a 2-way portal between the two.
Case for emergency response teams
Aayush Kucheria3
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This looks like an experiment worth trying out on scale. Will sign up for the team when you start the process!

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Go apply for 80K Advising - (Yes, right now)
Aayush Kucheria5
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At least in my case, they asked me to reach out directly in the future if I wanted further help. I have the impression that they’re trying to help us in the long-term, and not as a one-off favour.

(Would be curious if anybody else has had a different experience!)

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devansh
Yep, this is my understanding as well!
Go apply for 80K Advising - (Yes, right now)
Aayush Kucheria8
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I second this! Initially I was of the opinion that it wouldn’t be helpful to me, but the advisor pointed out a few things I was missing which led me to significantly change my plans :)

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Michelle_Hutchinson
That's really nice to hear!
On the Expanded Implementation of Nuclear Energy: An evaluation of the present technology and its potential to reduce global CO2 Emissions
Aayush Kucheria1
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Thanks for posting this, was quite interesting!

I have one question if you don't mind. The disadvantages you pose for lithium-ion batteries (capacity) and electrolysis with hydrogen (inefficiency) - are they problems that are inherent to the processes or can they potentially be solved?

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policy_nerd
Hi Aayush, thank you for your question and apologies for the delayed reply!  I think "solving" is relative here(: The short answer to your question is that I believe the various processes will become more efficient, but there are physical limits we need to bear in mind, and we shouldn't delude ourselves as to the timelines associated with some of these improvements. As an example: even if we make drastic improvements in the production efficiency of hydrogen (or the processes that use it), electrolysis inherently involves electricity, so using carbon-neutral electricity directly will always be more efficient than converting it to hydrogen first. We should try to capitalize on this efficiency advantage wherever possible. For me personally, an important takeaway from this research is that there really isn't a one-size fits all solution here; we need to find ways for various different technologies to work together effectively to tackle this problem in the short term, while still pushing for the R&D that will address the challenges you mentioned and push those technologies into new sectors.  I hope that was helpful!
The Importance of Those Who Aren't Here
Aayush Kucheria5
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It's interesting how listening to the people who are present is the default approach but not the optimal one. So we need to go against the grain to listen to those who are not present as well.

Another counterintuitive concept I came across on this forum. Thanks for writing this post!

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What EA projects could grow to become megaprojects, eventually spending $100m per year?
Answer by Aayush Kucheria4
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Doing something to democratize randomized controlled trials (RCTs) - thereby reducing the risk involved in testing new ideas and interventions.

RCTs are a popular methodology in medicine and the social sciences. They create a safety net for the scientists (and consumers) to test that the drug works as intended and doesn't turn people into mutants.

I think using this methodology in other fields would be a high-leverage intervention. For example startups, policy-making, education, etc. Being able to try out new ideas without facing a huge downside should be a ... (read more)

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Charles He
I think you should write this up as a full post or at least as a question.  I don't think people will see this and you deserve reasonable attention if its a full time project. Note that my knee jerk reaction is caution. The value of RCTs is well known and they are coveted. Then, in the mental models I use, I would discount the idea that it could be readily distributed.  For example, something like the following logic might apply: * An RCT, or something that looks like it, with many of the characteristics/quality you want, will cost more than the seed grant or early funding for the new org doing the actual intervention. * Most smaller projects start with a pilot that gives credible information about effectiveness (by design, often much cheaper than an RCT). * Then "democratizing RCTs", as you frame it, will basically boil down to funding/subsidizing smaller projects than bigger ones. I'm happy for this reasoning to be thoroughly destroyed and RCTs available for all!