Biorisk and information hazard workshops for iGEM competitors
Biorisk and Recovery from Catastrophe, Empowering Exceptional People
iGEM competitions are interdisciplinary synthetic biology competitions for students. They bring together the best and brightest university students with a considerable interest in synthetic biology. They already have knowledge and skills in bioengineering and many of them will likely choose it as a career path and will be very good at it. Educating them on biorisks and especially information hazards would therefore be a great contribution to safeguarding. They could also be introduced to EA ideas and rationalist approaches in general, bringing talented young people on board.
You might be interested to know that iGEM (disclosure: my employer) just published a blog post about infohazards. We currently offer biorisk workshops for teams; this year we plan to offer a general workshop on risk awareness, a workshop specifically on dual-use, and potentially some others. We don’t have anything on general EA / rationality, though we do share biosecurity job and training opportunities with our alumni network.
Biorisk and information hazard workshops for iGEM competitors
Biorisk and Recovery from Catastrophe, Empowering Exceptional People
iGEM competitions are interdisciplinary synthetic biology competitions for students. They bring together the best and brightest university students with a considerable interest in synthetic biology. They already have knowledge and skills in bioengineering and many of them will likely choose it as a career path and will be very good at it. Educating them on biorisks and especially information hazards would therefore be a great contribution to safeguarding. They could also be introduced to EA ideas and rationalist approaches in general, bringing talented young people on board.
You might be interested to know that iGEM (disclosure: my employer) just published a blog post about infohazards. We currently offer biorisk workshops for teams; this year we plan to offer a general workshop on risk awareness, a workshop specifically on dual-use, and potentially some others. We don’t have anything on general EA / rationality, though we do share biosecurity job and training opportunities with our alumni network.