What I think are neglected are science that is ambitious, with low probability of success (e.g. Hsu’s cognitive genomics work, Ioannidis’ statistics work), and work bridging new research to humanitarian applications (e.g. using machine learning to classify medical images, or to detect online fraud or risks to security). These are overlapping sets.
In paradigm shifts, I mean adaptation to different ways of doing things. e.g. working to develop BCI and brain implants, or to apply deep learning in machine learning. These things have occurred too slowly. The replication problems are mostly in soft sciences like psychology, and arise from systemic problems with study pre-registration. The causation of these problems is somewhat entangled, but they’re not the exact same problem. Both should be fixed.
My point is: there are a range of important structural changes that effective altruists might want to make in science.
What I think are neglected are science that is ambitious, with low probability of success (e.g. Hsu’s cognitive genomics work, Ioannidis’ statistics work), and work bridging new research to humanitarian applications (e.g. using machine learning to classify medical images, or to detect online fraud or risks to security). These are overlapping sets.
In paradigm shifts, I mean adaptation to different ways of doing things. e.g. working to develop BCI and brain implants, or to apply deep learning in machine learning. These things have occurred too slowly. The replication problems are mostly in soft sciences like psychology, and arise from systemic problems with study pre-registration. The causation of these problems is somewhat entangled, but they’re not the exact same problem. Both should be fixed.
My point is: there are a range of important structural changes that effective altruists might want to make in science.