Hello,
My name is Trent Fowler, and I'm an aspiring futurist. To date I have given talks on two continents on machine ethics, AI takeoff dynamics, secular spirituality, existential risk, the future of governance, and technical rationality. I have written on introspection, the interface between language and cognition, the evolution of intellectual frameworks, and myriad other topics. In 2016 I began 'The STEMpunk Project', an endeavor to learn as much about computing, electronics, mechanics, and AI as possible, which culminated in a book published earlier this year.
Elon Musk is my spirit animal.
I am planning to found a futurist institute in Boulder, CO. I actually left my cushy job in East Asia to help make the future a habitable place.
Is there someone I could talk to about how to do this? Should I incorporate as a 501C3 or an LLC? What are the best ways of monetizing such an endeavor? How can I build an audience (meetup attendance has been anemic at best, what can I do about that)? And so on.
Best,
-Trent
You know, you could do that. By giving them the money.
The Future of Life Institute thinks that a portfolio approach to AI safety, where different groups pursue different research agendas, is best. It's plausible to me that we've hit the point of diminishing returns in terms of allocating resources to MIRI's approach, and marginal resources are best directed towards starting new research groups.