All of Spiracular's Comments + Replies

Yes, I think a lot of commenters are almost certainly making bad updates about how to judge or how to run an EA org off of this, or are using it to support their own pre-existing ideas around this topic.

This kinda stinks, but I do think it is what happens by default. I hope the next big org founder picks up more nuance than that, from somewhere else?

That said, I don't think "callout / inventory of grievances / complaints" and "nuanced post about how to run an org better/fix the errors of your ways" always have to be the same post. That would be a lot to ta... (read more)

I want to point out that the existence of a libel law that is expensive to engage with, does practically nothing against the posting of anonymized callout posts. You can't sue someone you can't identify.

Love it or hate it: the more harshly libel law is enforced, the more I expect similar things to be handled through fully-anonymous or low-transparency channels, instead of high-transparency ones. And in aggregate, I expect an environment high on libel suits, to disincentivize transparent behavior or highly specific allegations (which risks de-anonymization)... (read more)

Thanks! For me, this does a bit to clear up why buy-in is perceived as such a key bottleneck.

(And secondarily, supporting the idea that other areas of fairly-high ROI are likely to be centered around facilitating collaboration and consolidation of resources among people with a lot of pre-existing experience/expertise/buy-in.)

Thanks for the thoughtful response!

I want to start with the recognition that everything I remember hearing from you in particular around this topic, here and elsewhere, has been extremely reasonable. I also very much liked your paper.

My experience has been that I have had multiple discussions around disease shut down prematurely in some in-person EA spaces, or else turned into extended discussions of infohazards, even if I'm careful. At some point, it started to feel more like a meme than anything. There are some cases where "infohazards" were brought up a

... (read more)

Hello Spiracular,

Is it your impression that whenever you -or talented friends in this area- come up with a reasonably-implementable good idea, that after searching around, you tend to discover that someone else has already found it and tried it?

I think this is somewhat true, although I don't think this (or the suggestions for bottlenecks in the paragraph below) quite hits the mark. The mix of considerations are something like these:

1) I generally think the existing community covers the area fairly competently (from an EA perspective). I think the main... (read more)

Now that we've gone over some of the considerations, here's some of the concrete topics I see as generally high or low hazard for open discussion.

Good for Open Discussion

  • Broad-application antiviral developments and methods
    • Vaccines
    • Antivirals proper
    • T-cell therapy
    • Virus detection and monitoring
  • How to report lab hazards
    • ...and how to normalize and encourage this
  • Broadly-applicable protective measures
    • Sanitation
    • Bunkers?
  • The state of funding
  • The state of talent
    • What broad skills to develop
    • How to appeal to talent
    • Who talent should talk to

Ba

... (read more)