Comment on OpenWorm and differential technological development

Thu, 22 May 2014 05:24:44 GMT

I agree with Luke. It's funny that Tyler, a pundit, says that pundits are useless for reducing existential risk.

Funding concrete projects is often relatively easy. People can see it and get excited about it. Asking to fund higher-level research is harder.

Concrete work is what governments do. OpenWorm is not going to compete with Obama's $3 billion BRAIN Initiative. Pundits make these issues political, raise awareness, and thereby lead to huge amounts of funding down the road.

As for the question of whether to favor WBE: I'd be nervous about it. It could also accelerate non-WBE AI through spillover technology, enhancing interest in general in these topics, etc. I don't have a clear opinion, but the fact that the question is so hard suggests to me that this isn't the most cost-effective place to push. There are many other donation targets where the benefits clearly outweigh the risks.

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