Thanks for writing this David. Its been on my todo list for a while to write down project ideas like this. I think some of these ideas are useful and worth doing, and getting those out in the open is great.
On the other hand, I think its actually pretty hard to find research which is directly good for reducing biorisk. In my experience the space of ideas which “seem maybe useful” is much larger than the set of projects which actually directly help, on more reflection. This is a general problem and not intended to be a specific critique of the ideas you shared.
I think there is a broader set of projects which are not causing direct good in the world, but are still worth doing to build skills at this type of research. I think its often better for these projects to look like speculatively good direct impact projects, rather than something wholly made up just for learning. But I think its really important to be clear when a project is in this category. Eg “I don’t think this project would be worth your time if you didn’t learn a lot from it, but I think you will so I still recommend it”.
In my opinion the tone of this post makes it sound like these ideas have been more well-vetted/ more strongly in the “directly good to do” category of projects then I assess them to be. (Speaking as a “biosecurity EA” and an individual who cares about this stuff, only, not trying to represent an organizational opinion.)
In case it is helpful for future readers to have an independent— but extremely rough/ not strongly held—assessment of these, I would put 30% in the category of “probably not worth doing even for skill building unless you have very specific goals and circumstances” 65% in the “plausibly worth doing if you think you will learn stuff” and 5% in “plausibly I would recommend someone doing this even if I thought they wouldn’t learn much” category. I think its important to share ideas for (and do!) projects in all these categories, but I would be sad if someone thought they were more widely endorsed as directly useful by “biosecurity EAs” then I believe they actually are.
I’d be interested in more specific private feedback on which projects you don’t think would not be useful, or ideas for other things you think people with those skill sets could do that would be more useful. Cross-checking you intuitions with others would be good—for each of these projects, someone else working actively in biosecurity thought the project would be useful. And I think that it’s easy to have a narrow view of what is useful—I wouldn’t have thought people would want many of these answers until they explained that they did, and often why.
That said, if someone is interested in working directly on things that are substantially important, and has a track record for doing so, there are people who want to hire them already, and they have plenty of opportunity for collaboration with biosecurity EAs. I didn’t, and don’t, think that we need to provide that set of people lists of things to work on—and I would agree that this isn’t the set of highest priority tasks, many of which require funding and support, or have other reasons that people cannot pick them up as side projects. This list is geared towards things that people with a diverse skill set can do as an initial step, which active biosecurity researchers have said would show them someone is capable of doing useful research, while avoiding information hazards.
Makes sense- possibly I’d change my mind about many of these after hearing the motivation. The second half of your response make me believe that we actually don’t disagree that much RE a lot of the projects in here being good substantially or primarily because they could help establish a research track record or be a good learning opportunity.
Thanks for writing this David. Its been on my todo list for a while to write down project ideas like this. I think some of these ideas are useful and worth doing, and getting those out in the open is great.
On the other hand, I think its actually pretty hard to find research which is directly good for reducing biorisk. In my experience the space of ideas which “seem maybe useful” is much larger than the set of projects which actually directly help, on more reflection. This is a general problem and not intended to be a specific critique of the ideas you shared.
I think there is a broader set of projects which are not causing direct good in the world, but are still worth doing to build skills at this type of research. I think its often better for these projects to look like speculatively good direct impact projects, rather than something wholly made up just for learning. But I think its really important to be clear when a project is in this category. Eg “I don’t think this project would be worth your time if you didn’t learn a lot from it, but I think you will so I still recommend it”.
In my opinion the tone of this post makes it sound like these ideas have been more well-vetted/ more strongly in the “directly good to do” category of projects then I assess them to be. (Speaking as a “biosecurity EA” and an individual who cares about this stuff, only, not trying to represent an organizational opinion.)
In case it is helpful for future readers to have an independent— but extremely rough/ not strongly held—assessment of these, I would put 30% in the category of “probably not worth doing even for skill building unless you have very specific goals and circumstances” 65% in the “plausibly worth doing if you think you will learn stuff” and 5% in “plausibly I would recommend someone doing this even if I thought they wouldn’t learn much” category. I think its important to share ideas for (and do!) projects in all these categories, but I would be sad if someone thought they were more widely endorsed as directly useful by “biosecurity EAs” then I believe they actually are.
I’d be interested in more specific private feedback on which projects you don’t think would not be useful, or ideas for other things you think people with those skill sets could do that would be more useful. Cross-checking you intuitions with others would be good—for each of these projects, someone else working actively in biosecurity thought the project would be useful. And I think that it’s easy to have a narrow view of what is useful—I wouldn’t have thought people would want many of these answers until they explained that they did, and often why.
That said, if someone is interested in working directly on things that are substantially important, and has a track record for doing so, there are people who want to hire them already, and they have plenty of opportunity for collaboration with biosecurity EAs. I didn’t, and don’t, think that we need to provide that set of people lists of things to work on—and I would agree that this isn’t the set of highest priority tasks, many of which require funding and support, or have other reasons that people cannot pick them up as side projects. This list is geared towards things that people with a diverse skill set can do as an initial step, which active biosecurity researchers have said would show them someone is capable of doing useful research, while avoiding information hazards.
Makes sense- possibly I’d change my mind about many of these after hearing the motivation. The second half of your response make me believe that we actually don’t disagree that much RE a lot of the projects in here being good substantially or primarily because they could help establish a research track record or be a good learning opportunity.
Happy to chat more about this.