So let me jump in and say, I’ve been on Less Wrong since it started, and engaged with topics like transhumanism, saving the world, and the nature of reality, since before 2000; and to the best of my recollection, I have never received any serious EA or rationalist or other type of funding, despite occasionally appealing for it. So for anyone worried about being corrupted by money: if I can avoid it so comprehensively, you can do it too! (The most important qualities required for this outcome may be a sense of urgency and a sense of what’s important.)
Slightly more seriously, if there is anyone out there who cares about topics like fundamental ontology, superalignment, and theoretical or meta-theoretical progress in a context of short timelines, and who wishes to fund it, or who has ideas about how it might be funded, I’m all ears. By now I’m used to having zero support of that kind, and certainly I’m not alone out here, but I do suspect there are substantial lost opportunities involved in the way things have turned out.
So let me jump in and say, I’ve been on Less Wrong since it started, and engaged with topics like transhumanism, saving the world, and the nature of reality, since before 2000; and to the best of my recollection, I have never received any serious EA or rationalist or other type of funding, despite occasionally appealing for it. So for anyone worried about being corrupted by money: if I can avoid it so comprehensively, you can do it too! (The most important qualities required for this outcome may be a sense of urgency and a sense of what’s important.)
Slightly more seriously, if there is anyone out there who cares about topics like fundamental ontology, superalignment, and theoretical or meta-theoretical progress in a context of short timelines, and who wishes to fund it, or who has ideas about how it might be funded, I’m all ears. By now I’m used to having zero support of that kind, and certainly I’m not alone out here, but I do suspect there are substantial lost opportunities involved in the way things have turned out.