Hello, my name is [name redacted] and I’m a new member here. Or, more accurately, I’ve been here for a little over a month but I haven’t introduced myself yet because writing on a public forum is mildly anxiety-inducing for me. However, I have lately been attempting to become better at things I’m bad at by doing things that make me uncomfortable; this has included applying for an internship at Redwood Research despite not feeling terribly qualified, spending an afternoon using food to entice college students into discussing the merits of not eating meat despite being socially anxious, and now making an introduction post despite my instinctive aversion to doing so.
I am an undergraduate at a non-prestigious state university in the US studying computer science and math. I’m also working part-time as a research assistant to a professor working on a reinforcement learning project. The latter is a fairly recent development, and I find it a somewhat astounding one; about a year ago I was expecting to spend my time at university using scholarship funds to eke out a meagre existence, whereas now I will be making enough money that I could eat out 2-3 times per day (not that this seems like the best course of action). I have briefly considered donating some of my newfound income, but this seems rather unwise considering I am still not exactly financially secure.
Approximately a year ago I read Nick Bostrom’s book Superintelligence, which greatly changed how I viewed the world. I would like to work in AI alignment and am trying to take steps to get there, but I’m not sure if I’m going about it in the right way. If anybody is willing to offer advice that would be appreciated. I am also looking for friends who are similarly interested in positive impact, as I am currently rather lacking in that department.
I am not the best at writing in these sorts of contexts, so I will cap off my introduction by shamelessly plagiarizing myself from when I’ve written in other contexts.
Here’s something: “When I was a small child I was very interested in the notion of being immortal. One of my early unpleasant memories was crying in my bed because one day my cat would die, and then (hopefully at the very least separated by a good number of years), I would die as well. This was quite horrifying to my seven-year-old self, and I liked to shield myself from that by imagining things like being a vampire, or an immortal magical cat. Sometimes I did both simultaneously; memorably, at some point I came up with a vampire cat that, rather than drinking blood, imbibed the color purple for sustenance. This served the double purpose of reducing suffering for other cats, and of ridding the world of my least favorite color. The fact that it would be swimming in my innards did not, apparently, bother my younger self.”
And here’s another thing: “Something else I find amusing is doing things in the vein of: Coming up with the string, “sad bad mad lad fad,” and then trying to picture what that would look like. In this case, I envisioned a phenomenon wherein male youth become violently disillusioned with society and take to the streets to cause mayhem and destruction. It’s only a fad, though. This year the lads are using homemade explosives to destroy public infrastructure in a manifestation of their rage at the unfulfilled promises of the American Dream, Fight Club style, but next year? Who knows? Maybe there’ll be an uptick in anime cosplay?”
I feel sufficiently introduced now, and thus I will take my leave. I would like to reiterate that I am looking for friends, so if anyone reading this finds me to be plausibly friend-worthy I would appreciate it if you sent me a private message.
Welcome to the Forum! This is a great introduction :-)
If you don’t subscribe to the Alignment Newsletter, that seems like a good way to get regular updates on steps you can take. The EA and Open Philanthropy newsletters also feature related opportunities from time to time, though I’m not sure how much they catch that the AN misses.
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of these resources! I just signed up for the Alignment Newsletter.
As a note, the AN link you posted actually doesn’t work, though I was able to figure it out with my fabulous tech skills (the URL has a ] at the end). Here’s a working link, for posterity.
I recommend signing up here to be informed about the next round of the AGI Safety Fundamentals course. If you don’t get accepted the first time, it’s worth applying down the line as they seem to be increasing the number of people that they accept in every iteration (I didn’t get in the first time).
Hello, my name is [name redacted] and I’m a new member here. Or, more accurately, I’ve been here for a little over a month but I haven’t introduced myself yet because writing on a public forum is mildly anxiety-inducing for me. However, I have lately been attempting to become better at things I’m bad at by doing things that make me uncomfortable; this has included applying for an internship at Redwood Research despite not feeling terribly qualified, spending an afternoon using food to entice college students into discussing the merits of not eating meat despite being socially anxious, and now making an introduction post despite my instinctive aversion to doing so.
I am an undergraduate at a non-prestigious state university in the US studying computer science and math. I’m also working part-time as a research assistant to a professor working on a reinforcement learning project. The latter is a fairly recent development, and I find it a somewhat astounding one; about a year ago I was expecting to spend my time at university using scholarship funds to eke out a meagre existence, whereas now I will be making enough money that I could eat out 2-3 times per day (not that this seems like the best course of action). I have briefly considered donating some of my newfound income, but this seems rather unwise considering I am still not exactly financially secure.
Approximately a year ago I read Nick Bostrom’s book Superintelligence, which greatly changed how I viewed the world. I would like to work in AI alignment and am trying to take steps to get there, but I’m not sure if I’m going about it in the right way. If anybody is willing to offer advice that would be appreciated. I am also looking for friends who are similarly interested in positive impact, as I am currently rather lacking in that department.
I am not the best at writing in these sorts of contexts, so I will cap off my introduction by shamelessly plagiarizing myself from when I’ve written in other contexts.
Here’s something: “When I was a small child I was very interested in the notion of being immortal. One of my early unpleasant memories was crying in my bed because one day my cat would die, and then (hopefully at the very least separated by a good number of years), I would die as well. This was quite horrifying to my seven-year-old self, and I liked to shield myself from that by imagining things like being a vampire, or an immortal magical cat. Sometimes I did both simultaneously; memorably, at some point I came up with a vampire cat that, rather than drinking blood, imbibed the color purple for sustenance. This served the double purpose of reducing suffering for other cats, and of ridding the world of my least favorite color. The fact that it would be swimming in my innards did not, apparently, bother my younger self.”
And here’s another thing: “Something else I find amusing is doing things in the vein of: Coming up with the string, “sad bad mad lad fad,” and then trying to picture what that would look like. In this case, I envisioned a phenomenon wherein male youth become violently disillusioned with society and take to the streets to cause mayhem and destruction. It’s only a fad, though. This year the lads are using homemade explosives to destroy public infrastructure in a manifestation of their rage at the unfulfilled promises of the American Dream, Fight Club style, but next year? Who knows? Maybe there’ll be an uptick in anime cosplay?”
I feel sufficiently introduced now, and thus I will take my leave. I would like to reiterate that I am looking for friends, so if anyone reading this finds me to be plausibly friend-worthy I would appreciate it if you sent me a private message.
Welcome to the Forum! This is a great introduction :-)
If you don’t subscribe to the Alignment Newsletter, that seems like a good way to get regular updates on steps you can take. The EA and Open Philanthropy newsletters also feature related opportunities from time to time, though I’m not sure how much they catch that the AN misses.
Thanks for pointing me in the direction of these resources! I just signed up for the Alignment Newsletter.
As a note, the AN link you posted actually doesn’t work, though I was able to figure it out with my fabulous tech skills (the URL has a ] at the end). Here’s a working link, for posterity.
Welcome to the forum!
I recommend signing up here to be informed about the next round of the AGI Safety Fundamentals course. If you don’t get accepted the first time, it’s worth applying down the line as they seem to be increasing the number of people that they accept in every iteration (I didn’t get in the first time).
You might also want to consider booking a call with AI Safety Support or applying to speak to 80,000 hours.