<<email several academics to ask if they will take a meeting with me, and asking if they are interested in visiting the digital minds group in the future>>
Are you able to share what you talk about on these calls?
Do you have specific points/questions you want to address with people or do you just reach out for a chat and an intro to see what comes of it?
Context: I’m also a researcher at a (perhaps slightly less) academia-adjacent EA nonprofit/think tank (Sentience Institute) and I only do low-structured networking at events like EAG.
One thing that makes the reaching out easier in my case is that I do have one specific ask: whether they would be interested in (digitally) visiting the reading group. But I also ask if they’d like to talk with me one-on-one about their work. For this ask, I’ll mention a paper of theirs that we have read in the reading group, and how I see it as related to what we are working on. And indicate what broad questions I’m trying to understand better, related to their work.
On the call itself, I am a) trying to get a better understanding of the work and b) let them know what FHI is up to. The very act of preparing for the meeting forces me to understand their work a lot better—I am sure that you have had a similar experience with podcasting! And then the conversations themselves are informative and also enjoyable (for me at least!).
The questions vary according to each person’s work. But one question I’ve asked everyone is:
If you could fund a bunch of work with the aim of making the most progress on consciousness in the next 40 years (especially with an eye to knowing which AIs are conscious), what would you fund? What is most needed for progress?
One last general thought: reaching out to people can be aversive, but in fact it has virtually no downside (as long as you are courteous with your email, of course). The email might get ignored, which is fine. But the best case—and the modal case, I think—is that people are happy that someone is interested in their work.
<<email several academics to ask if they will take a meeting with me, and asking if they are interested in visiting the digital minds group in the future>>
Are you able to share what you talk about on these calls? Do you have specific points/questions you want to address with people or do you just reach out for a chat and an intro to see what comes of it?
Context: I’m also a researcher at a (perhaps slightly less) academia-adjacent EA nonprofit/think tank (Sentience Institute) and I only do low-structured networking at events like EAG.
Great question, I’m happy to share.
One thing that makes the reaching out easier in my case is that I do have one specific ask: whether they would be interested in (digitally) visiting the reading group. But I also ask if they’d like to talk with me one-on-one about their work. For this ask, I’ll mention a paper of theirs that we have read in the reading group, and how I see it as related to what we are working on. And indicate what broad questions I’m trying to understand better, related to their work.
On the call itself, I am a) trying to get a better understanding of the work and b) let them know what FHI is up to. The very act of preparing for the meeting forces me to understand their work a lot better—I am sure that you have had a similar experience with podcasting! And then the conversations themselves are informative and also enjoyable (for me at least!).
The questions vary according to each person’s work. But one question I’ve asked everyone is:
If you could fund a bunch of work with the aim of making the most progress on consciousness in the next 40 years (especially with an eye to knowing which AIs are conscious), what would you fund? What is most needed for progress?
One last general thought: reaching out to people can be aversive, but in fact it has virtually no downside (as long as you are courteous with your email, of course). The email might get ignored, which is fine. But the best case—and the modal case, I think—is that people are happy that someone is interested in their work.
Oh and I should add: funnily enough, you are on my list of people to reach out to! :D