Are there a lot of EA student/university groups (or city-based meetup groups) in Russia? You could send maybe 20 copies to each local EA group, so they can have something to hand out to interested local members.
Alternatively, set up a booth at a Harry Potter convention/meetup (if such things exist)?? Harry Potter fans will be much less influential on world affairs compared to math geniuses. But they will be much more likely to read the book!
[Are kids graduating high school today likely to have read Harry Potter? Or is it mostly people in their 30s (ie, they were children while the books were coming out) who have the highest likelihood of being familiar with the series? Maybe you should target your recipients by age.]
You’re targeting math students and computer scientists, presumably because they are relevant to AI safety research (plus the preexisting knowledge of HPMOR in those fields, and the fact that people with nerdy/futurist personalities are a natural fit for the book). Consider expanding your search to other fields that are relevant for 80,000 Hours career paths:
Microbiologists and materials scientists who might be able to contribute to pandemic defense or advocate against bioweapons development
Nuclear scientists or aerospace engineers? Although my impression is that, while these people might work on important military technology, they don’t have much influence over how it is developed or ultimately used. But these people would be a good personality fit for HPMOR, and might have the same relationship to nuclear and great-power-conflict risks that computer science whiz kids have to AI risk.
Are there some reliable routes that people take in Russia to positions of political/military/strategic influence? For instance, in the USA, I might try to target “all political science & law graduates of Ivy league schools”, while in China, this might be “all Tsinghua graduates who are members of the CCP”. These people probably aren’t a natural fit for HPMOR’s nerdy appeal, but it might be worth considering anyways.
The target audience is unlikely to have issues with the books being about Harry Potter; most of them should’ve seen the movies or read the books[1]. The age might be important because of, e.g., willingness to read weird fanfiction, but I don’t think it’s important because of the prior familiarity with the original Harry Potter.
We’re also targeting winners of national and international olympiads in economics, biology, physics, and chemistry. But I don’t think we’ll have any localized cause-specific materials except for AI Alignment.
It’s a good idea to target people who might have influence in the future. Thanks! From the top of my head, I can’t recall any reproducible routes currently existing in Russia, but I’ll think about that more. I don’t expect a change in a political situation that would result in much more predictable routes[2].
No university EA groups I’m aware of exist in Russia; the city groups had these books when they still existed, but now most Russian EAs communicate online (most of the group organizers have left the country).
Not sure Harry Potter conventions exist really, and a booth doesn’t seem impactful compared to the alternatives (e.g., giving the books to all math/computer science/biology/etc. students who want them). Also, it doesn’t require many physical copies.
I think not being familiar with the original Harry Potter doesn’t reduce the impact of reading HPMOR that much. But everyone in Russia should be generally familiar with the original plot, I think. Like, for many years, a couple of TV stations showed film marathons every New Year.
A fun fact, Navalny’s brother has read HPMOR while in prison, and Navalny’s org, which is probably the leading Russian opposition structure, has helped us with auditing the crowdfunding campaign to ensure it’s non-commercial.
Are there a lot of EA student/university groups (or city-based meetup groups) in Russia? You could send maybe 20 copies to each local EA group, so they can have something to hand out to interested local members.
Alternatively, set up a booth at a Harry Potter convention/meetup (if such things exist)?? Harry Potter fans will be much less influential on world affairs compared to math geniuses. But they will be much more likely to read the book!
[Are kids graduating high school today likely to have read Harry Potter? Or is it mostly people in their 30s (ie, they were children while the books were coming out) who have the highest likelihood of being familiar with the series? Maybe you should target your recipients by age.]
You’re targeting math students and computer scientists, presumably because they are relevant to AI safety research (plus the preexisting knowledge of HPMOR in those fields, and the fact that people with nerdy/futurist personalities are a natural fit for the book). Consider expanding your search to other fields that are relevant for 80,000 Hours career paths:
Microbiologists and materials scientists who might be able to contribute to pandemic defense or advocate against bioweapons development
Nuclear scientists or aerospace engineers? Although my impression is that, while these people might work on important military technology, they don’t have much influence over how it is developed or ultimately used. But these people would be a good personality fit for HPMOR, and might have the same relationship to nuclear and great-power-conflict risks that computer science whiz kids have to AI risk.
Are there some reliable routes that people take in Russia to positions of political/military/strategic influence? For instance, in the USA, I might try to target “all political science & law graduates of Ivy league schools”, while in China, this might be “all Tsinghua graduates who are members of the CCP”. These people probably aren’t a natural fit for HPMOR’s nerdy appeal, but it might be worth considering anyways.
Thanks for the lots of ideas!
The target audience is unlikely to have issues with the books being about Harry Potter; most of them should’ve seen the movies or read the books[1]. The age might be important because of, e.g., willingness to read weird fanfiction, but I don’t think it’s important because of the prior familiarity with the original Harry Potter.
We’re also targeting winners of national and international olympiads in economics, biology, physics, and chemistry. But I don’t think we’ll have any localized cause-specific materials except for AI Alignment.
It’s a good idea to target people who might have influence in the future. Thanks! From the top of my head, I can’t recall any reproducible routes currently existing in Russia, but I’ll think about that more. I don’t expect a change in a political situation that would result in much more predictable routes[2].
No university EA groups I’m aware of exist in Russia; the city groups had these books when they still existed, but now most Russian EAs communicate online (most of the group organizers have left the country).
Not sure Harry Potter conventions exist really, and a booth doesn’t seem impactful compared to the alternatives (e.g., giving the books to all math/computer science/biology/etc. students who want them). Also, it doesn’t require many physical copies.
I think not being familiar with the original Harry Potter doesn’t reduce the impact of reading HPMOR that much. But everyone in Russia should be generally familiar with the original plot, I think. Like, for many years, a couple of TV stations showed film marathons every New Year.
A fun fact, Navalny’s brother has read HPMOR while in prison, and Navalny’s org, which is probably the leading Russian opposition structure, has helped us with auditing the crowdfunding campaign to ensure it’s non-commercial.