While I don’t have the bandwidth for this atm, someone should make a public (or private for, say, policy/reputation reasons) list of people working in (one or multiple of) the very neglected cause areas — e.g., digital minds (this is a good start), insect welfare, space governance, AI-enabled coups, and even AI safety (more for the second reason than others). Optional but nice-to-have(s): notes on what they’re working on, time contributed, background, sub-area, and the rough rate of growth in the field (you probably don’t want to decide career moves purely on current headcounts). And remember: perfection is gonna be the enemy of the good here.
Why this matters
Coordination. It’s surprisingly hard to know who’s in these niches (independent researchers, part-timers, new entrants, maybe donors). A simple list would make it easier to find collaborators, talk to the right people, and avoid duplicated work.
Neglectedness clarity. A major reason to work on ultra-neglected causes is… neglectedness. But we often have no real headcount, and that may push people into (or out of) fields they wouldn’t otherwise choose. Even technical AI safety numbers are outdated — the last widely cited 80k estimate (2022) was ~200 people, which is clearly very false now. (To their credit, they emphasized the difficulty and tried to update.)
Even rough FTE (full time equivalent) estimates + who’s active in each area would be a huge service for some fields.
Idea for someone with a bit of free time:
While I don’t have the bandwidth for this atm, someone should make a public (or private for, say, policy/reputation reasons) list of people working in (one or multiple of) the very neglected cause areas — e.g., digital minds (this is a good start), insect welfare, space governance, AI-enabled coups, and even AI safety (more for the second reason than others). Optional but nice-to-have(s): notes on what they’re working on, time contributed, background, sub-area, and the rough rate of growth in the field (you probably don’t want to decide career moves purely on current headcounts). And remember: perfection is gonna be the enemy of the good here.
Why this matters
Coordination.
It’s surprisingly hard to know who’s in these niches (independent researchers, part-timers, new entrants, maybe donors). A simple list would make it easier to find collaborators, talk to the right people, and avoid duplicated work.
Neglectedness clarity.
A major reason to work on ultra-neglected causes is… neglectedness. But we often have no real headcount, and that may push people into (or out of) fields they wouldn’t otherwise choose. Even technical AI safety numbers are outdated — the last widely cited 80k estimate (2022) was ~200 people, which is clearly very false now. (To their credit, they emphasized the difficulty and tried to update.)
Even rough FTE (full time equivalent) estimates + who’s active in each area would be a huge service for some fields.