last-year medical student EA-local-group coordinator since 2016
mschons
Karma: 34
The State of Brain Emulation Report 2025 launched.
Earlier this year we hosted a X-Risk Strategy workshop with the Convergence Team in Cologne (https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/cPZ9w2Wxxu2kA9EDg/workshop-strategy-ideas-and-life-paths-for-reducing) with around 20 participants from around Germany.
The overall rating was on a scale from −3 to +3 with 0 indicating an average workshop event at ~ +2. We had overall a very positive feedback from participants with a wide range of backgrounds:
“I believe the workshop has helped me to internalize the goal of reducing X-risks. As a result, I anticipate that I will take more concrete steps towards a career in this area than I otherwise would have.”
“I really got a motivational boost, especially thanks to the conversation I had with Justin in the evening.
It has become stronger (just meeting like minded people had a lot of influence) but also the possibility of negative impact is now more prominent and I will take it into account more.”
”I am still of the opinion that X-Risk is one of the most important causes to tackle, possibly even stronger now. I enjoyed being among other Effective Altruists and I feel as if I have a better impression of the community now.”
″I am now more motivated to self-study and maybe try and build something before continuing my university studies.”
...Negative feedback included ‘no major insights’ or’ too much focus on helping non-math people understanding models’ which is somehow expected in a diverse crowd.
As an organizer of this event I’m likely to be biased but this event was
helpful and valuable to novices (I cannot say that we had real experts around) and educated them about risks and potential downsides of this topic
considered valuable from people with a strong interest in AI safety. And I got much positive feedback from people from other EA communities for hosting such an event.
All in all, I would be surprised seeing major downsides to this event and I’m pretty confident that participants will benefit overall.
Hi, MD here.
The collection of questions feels pretty
randompersonalized (EDIT) - even if I would wanted to I could not really see where I should start and where I should stop. I believe that most of these questions should be answered like a good obstetrician/gynecologist who knows you and not by someone without rigorous medical training who volunteers to comb through google scholar. Some prompts:Here are some links for non-medicine trained people:
Oral contraception: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1814214?resultClick=1
Long acting contraception: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2519616?resultClick=1
Endometriosis (if you have severe pain during menstruation go to a special clinic for that): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2719310?resultClick=1
Vasectomy: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2685157?resultClick=1
Many women do not make a break. But this should be discussed with your obstetrician/gynecologist.
Nothing “relevant” new in the contraception space available for males to my knowledge.
For the UTI issue: shower your genital area before and after sex (seems more important for the female), both wash your hands depending on what you are doing with them and (as female) drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of D-Mannose ideally before each intercourse and on a regular basis (every other day). I spent a non trivial amount of time researching this a 2-3 years ago and it is definitively superior to Cranberry (but I am too lazy to look up the literature now and link it here).
So go ahead and visit (or spend the money on private calls with) good physicians (if you mistrust your healthcare system you could for instance look up those people who where involved in writing up the medical guidelines in your country on the topics that itch you the most). It will be more adjusted to your needs and the professional will help you to separate the relevant from the mere interesting.