I'm confused. What does it mean to "promote altruistic behaviors"? Do they value people being helping, instead of just/mostly people being helped?
My $8,000 idea is: "Listen to Robin Hanson's advice before passing a law or ratifying a constitution." Not that he said anything specific about the subject, but the reason I say that is that I had just read this:
Fiercely industrious, the new migrant workers knew that one thing might prevent them from creating profitable homesteads from the rainforest: the discovery of uncontacted tribes, whose land is protected from development under the Brazilian constitution.
As a result, frontiersmen who first came across the Akuntsu in the mid-1980s made a simple calculation. The only way to prevent the government finding out about this indigenous community was to wipe them off the map.
I certainly could have told them that would happen, but this was an easy one...
This example is to illustrate my confusion: what does it mean to maximize altruism (the intent or process) rather than outcomes? The most well-meaning clause in a constitution led directly to genocide of the group it was supposed to protect.
A challenge recently posted on Innocentive seemed to me like something that may interest many LWers: "Models Motivating and Supporting Altruism Within Communities", with a grand prize of $8000. To quote from the challenge:
Further details are available on innocentive.com. I think that it would be a nice opportunity for our LW decision theory experts.
[For anybody who decides to participate: the links I provided contain a referral string so that, in case you win a prize, I can match your donation to the SIAI with the same fraction of my referral award ;) Please use them to register.]