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drethelin comments on Open Thread March 31 - April 7 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: beoShaffer 01 April 2014 01:41AM

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Comment author: Username 04 April 2014 06:00:48PM 4 points [-]

Say that I want to donate to help mitigate X-risk. Using numbers, why should I donate to MIRI over other causes?

Comment author: drethelin 08 April 2014 09:31:53PM 0 points [-]

I don't have numbers but MIRI seems to be addressing x-risk in a way that's more amenable to donation than other means. The most salient theoretically preventable x-risks in my mind are asteroid impact, engineered pandemic, nuclear war, and AI. Of these, I can donate to MIRI where marginal dollars help pay for marginal researchers, but I'm not sure what effect donating to physicians for the prevention of nuclear war would have, and there are already giant agencies searching for asteroids and dedicated to fighting pandemics.