Thank you, Stuart! Your post strongly resonated with me. :) I agree that EA funding agencies should develop farsighted strategic agendas for the entire process of generating and utilizing knowledge and innovations that are crucial for humanity’s long-term survival and flourishing. I think this process should start with use-inspired basic research on crucial questions. The next step should be to translate the discoveries of that research into new interventions. Then those interventions should be tested on an increasingly larger scale and rigorously compared against the best existing interventions in terms of their cost-effectiveness. Once we have completed those steps to generate better interventions and knowledge about their effectiveness, we can exploit having a substantially improved set of opportunities to do good. A single program of a single funding agency could support all of these steps and thereby coordinate and guide the process of discovery, intervention development, and evaluation research towards what we most need to maximally improve the future of humanity. This farsighted strategic approach is not unheard of. The Development Innovation Ventures program and the Grand Challenges for Human Flourishing program are steps in that direction. I think EA Funding agencies could learn something from the design of those programs and combine their strategic approach with the latest insights and principles of Effective Altruism and good scientific practice. I think that would be extremely valuable.
Unsurprisingly, I really like this article and the simulation-based approach here. :)
Thank you, Stuart! Your post strongly resonated with me. :) I agree that EA funding agencies should develop farsighted strategic agendas for the entire process of generating and utilizing knowledge and innovations that are crucial for humanity’s long-term survival and flourishing. I think this process should start with use-inspired basic research on crucial questions. The next step should be to translate the discoveries of that research into new interventions. Then those interventions should be tested on an increasingly larger scale and rigorously compared against the best existing interventions in terms of their cost-effectiveness. Once we have completed those steps to generate better interventions and knowledge about their effectiveness, we can exploit having a substantially improved set of opportunities to do good. A single program of a single funding agency could support all of these steps and thereby coordinate and guide the process of discovery, intervention development, and evaluation research towards what we most need to maximally improve the future of humanity. This farsighted strategic approach is not unheard of. The Development Innovation Ventures program and the Grand Challenges for Human Flourishing program are steps in that direction. I think EA Funding agencies could learn something from the design of those programs and combine their strategic approach with the latest insights and principles of Effective Altruism and good scientific practice. I think that would be extremely valuable.