There is this particular case of the forbidden topic and I am throwing everything I got at it to see if the beliefs about it are consistent and hold water.
The problem with that is that Eliezer and those who agree with him, including me, cannot speak freely about our reasoning on the issue, because we don't want to spread the idea, so we don't want to describe it and point to details about it as we describe our reasoning. If you imagine yourself in our position, believing the idea is dangerous, you could tell that you wouldn't want to spread the idea in the process of explaining its danger either.
Under more normal circumstances, where the ideas we disagree about are not thought by anyone to be dangerous, we can have effective discussion by laying out our true reasons for our beliefs, and considering counter arguments that refer to the details of our arguments. Being cut off from our normal effective methods of discussion is stressful, at least for me.
I have been trying to persuade people who don't know the details of the idea or don't agree that it is dangerous that we do in fact have good reasons for believing it to be dangerous, or at least that this is likely enough that they should let it go. This is a slow process, as I think of ways to express my thoughts without revealing details of the dangerous idea, or explaining them to people who know but don't understand those details. And this ends up involving talking to people who, because they don't think the idea is dangerous and don't take it seriously, express themselves faster and less carefully, and who have conflicting goals like learning or spreading the idea, or opposing censorship in general, or having judged for themselves the merits of censorship (from others just like them) in this case. This is also stressful.
I engage in this stressful topic, because I think it is important, both that people do not get hurt from learning about this idea, and that SIAI/Eliezer do not get dragged through mud for doing the right thing.
Sorry, but I am not here to help you get the full understanding you need to judge if the beliefs are consistent and hold water. As I have been saying, this is not a normal discussion. And seriously, you would be better of dropping it and finding something else to worry about. And if you think it is important, you can remember to track if SIAI/Eliezer/supporters like me engage in a pattern of making excuses to ban certain topics to protect some hidden agenda. But then please remember all the critical discussion that don't get banned.
I have been trying to persuade people who don't know the details of the idea or don't agree that it is dangerous that we do in fact have good reasons for believing it to be dangerous, or at least that this is likely enough that they should let it go. This is a slow process, as I think of ways to express my thoughts without revealing details of the dangerous idea, or explaining them to people who know but don't understand those details.
Note that this shouldn't be possible other than through arguments from authority.
(I've just now formed a better intuiti...
Ideally, I'd like to save the world. One way to do that involves contributing academic research, which raises the question of what's the most effective way of doing that.
The traditional wisdom says if you want to do research, you should get a job in a university. But for the most part the system seems to be set up so that you first spend a long time working for someone else and research their ideas, after which you can lead your own group, but then most of your time will be spent on applying for grants and other administrative trivia rather than actually researching the interesting stuff. Also, in Finland at least, all professors need to also spend time doing teaching, so that's another time sink.
I suspect I would have more time to actually dedicate on research, and I could get doing it quicker, if I took a part-time job and did the research in my spare time. E.g. the recommended rates for a freelance journalist in Finland would allow me to spend a week each month doing work and three weeks doing research, of course assuming that I can pull off the freelance journalism part.
What (dis)advantages does this have compared to the traditional model?
Some advantages:
Some disadvantages:
EDIT: Note that while I certainly do appreciate comments specific to my situation, I posted this over at LW and not Discussion because I was hoping the discussion would also be useful for others who might be considering an academic path. So feel free to also provide commentary that's US-specific, say.