Effective Altruism Forum
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James Brobin

Software Engineer @ Laboratory For Atmospheric and Space Physics
233 karmaJoined Working (0-5 years)Seeking workBoulder, CO, USA
jamesbrobin.substack.com/
Interests:
LongtermismFlourishing futuresBuilding effective altruismAI governance

Bio

Participation
1

 Hi! I'm a twenty three year old ex-software engineer. I like to write about EA and do independent research related to it. I'm particularly interested in longtermism, and how we navigate the transition to a post-AGI society.

My blog is named James Brobin's Substack, and it includes stuff that I haven't posted on this forum.

How others can help me

I'm looking for opportunities that make use of writing or research skills, such as communicating about effective altruism or doing research related to longtermism. If you have any projects I find interesting, I may be able to help out for free.

I'm also looking for someone who can exchange feedback on writing with me.

How I can help others

If you want to discuss anything I've written on the forum, don't be afraid to reach out.

Also, I've done a lot of research on EA's presence on YouTube. If you are making YouTube videos or are hoping to do so, feel free to reach out for feedback or suggestions.

Comments
41

Review of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
James Brobin1
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I see. Yeah, I expressed what I was thinking incorrectly here. What I meant was that our preferences are slightly abnormal compared to what you would expect but not extraordinarily alien.

In our ancestral environment, we developed a taste for sugary things because berries, which are sugary, are good for us. Knowing this, you would expect that we would eat berries but not ice cream. The fact that we eat ice cream is somewhat abnormal. That said, it is not extraordinarily alien. If we, for instance, devoted our entire lives to eating as much sugar as is physiologically possible without dying, that would be very alien.

I should have said that their argument implies that AIs might have weird preferences but not extremely bizarre ones.

Thanks for catching that!

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EAAs Lack A Long-Term Perspective
James Brobin1
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Yeah, I guess my definition of long-term is more like twenty to a hundred years.

Thanks for sharing your personal experience! As an outsider, I feel like I haven't seen many of those sorts of projects, but it's cool to see that people are actually doing them!

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Propose a debate topic - I'll run one
James Brobin1
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No, I haven't! Thanks for sharing it!

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How to Improve EA's Presence on YouTube
James Brobin*3
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That's an interesting approach to trying to improve EA's presence! I really wish more people knew about EA, so I'm glad to see you're helping with that!

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Propose a debate topic - I'll run one
Answer by James Brobin8
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"EA animal activism's current interventions neglect creating meaningful change over longer time horizons (10 - 20 years)."

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What do you want to see from the Forum team this year?
James Brobin1
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I'd like to see an event on the Forum dedicated to finding other possible EA cause areas and interventions. It seems like EA has some calcification in terms of mainly focusing on global health, factory farming, pandemics, and AI. It would be interesting to hear other important topics that aren't as commonly discussed.

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