Well, you make good points about the Bay… it would be kinda hard to make the money work (though I’ve dealt with privation before), and it would be a correlated bet… I think part of why I want to be there, is to have any sort of like-minded community at all, instead of mouldering in my house all day, every day. I am highly motivated by other people.
I do think you’re right that technical research is not really the right path. There’s too much investment in that, compared to advocacy.
I am an American, but it’s hard to see a theory of change that actually routes through me? I can… vote, call my Congressperson, show up to protests… I’m going to PauseCon in DC, but I don’t see how that leads to a sustainable trajectory of change, including one that hopefully could get me paid. I am not skilled or resourced enough, I think, to go organizing all on my own, and I don’t have anywhere near the credentials to be an AI safety lobbyist or an assistant to one, not that there’s much funding for that in the US anyways. Unless you propose I move to a swing state and district specifically to influence the representative there...?
I am curious about the other opportunities you have in mind.
A lot of elites have impostor syndrome. You’re an elite, you went to Cambridge. I saw an article on EA Forum where someone said they weren’t good enough because they “weren’t in the top half of Oxford.” As someone who is, I’m pretty sure, an actual impostor (outside of being in intellectual sync with LW and the like), this is rather frustrating to listen to. You have the credentials, accomplishments, and connections to back up your ambitions, and the talent and family background to have gotten to where you are in the first place, and I do not. I don’t see how I can grow when I don’t have that kind of wealth.
Well, you make good points about the Bay… it would be kinda hard to make the money work (though I’ve dealt with privation before), and it would be a correlated bet… I think part of why I want to be there, is to have any sort of like-minded community at all, instead of mouldering in my house all day, every day. I am highly motivated by other people.
I do think you’re right that technical research is not really the right path. There’s too much investment in that, compared to advocacy.
I am an American, but it’s hard to see a theory of change that actually routes through me? I can… vote, call my Congressperson, show up to protests… I’m going to PauseCon in DC, but I don’t see how that leads to a sustainable trajectory of change, including one that hopefully could get me paid. I am not skilled or resourced enough, I think, to go organizing all on my own, and I don’t have anywhere near the credentials to be an AI safety lobbyist or an assistant to one, not that there’s much funding for that in the US anyways. Unless you propose I move to a swing state and district specifically to influence the representative there...?
I am curious about the other opportunities you have in mind.
A lot of elites have impostor syndrome. You’re an elite, you went to Cambridge. I saw an article on EA Forum where someone said they weren’t good enough because they “weren’t in the top half of Oxford.” As someone who is, I’m pretty sure, an actual impostor (outside of being in intellectual sync with LW and the like), this is rather frustrating to listen to. You have the credentials, accomplishments, and connections to back up your ambitions, and the talent and family background to have gotten to where you are in the first place, and I do not. I don’t see how I can grow when I don’t have that kind of wealth.
I’ll send you a DM!