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 Even technical AI safety numbers are outdated — the last widely cited 80k estimate (2022) was ~200 people, which is clearly very false now.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.
One reason a comprehensive version of this would be difficult for insect welfare is that a couple of projects are ‘undercover’. Rethink Priorities have guidance on donating to insects, shrimp and wild animals that might be relevant.
Separately, I understand @JordanStone has a pretty comprehensive sense of who’s who in space governance, and would be a good person to contact if you’re thinking about getting into this field.
Yeah, lists exist for all the people working on space governance from a longtermist perspective, and they tend to list about 10-15 people. I’m like 90% sure I know of everyone working on longtermist space governance, and I’d estimate that there are the equivalent of ~3 people working full time on this. There’s not as much undercover work required for space governance, but I don’t like to share lists of names publicly without permission.
At the moment, the main hub for space governance is Forethought and most people contact Fin Moorhouse to learn more about space governance as he’s the author of the 80K problem profile on space governance and has been publishing work with Forethought on or related to space governance. From there, people tend to get a lay of the land, introductions are made, and newcomers will get a good idea of what people are working on and where they might be able to contribute.
What a wonderful idea! Mayank referred me over to this post, and I think EA at UIUC might have to hop on this project. I’ll see about starting something in the next month or so and sharing a link to where I’m compiling things in case anyone else is interested in collaborating on this. Or, it’s possible an initiative like it already exists that I’ll stumble upon while investigating (though such a thing may well be outdated).
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.
Started something sorta similar about a month ago: https://saul-munn.notion.site/A-collection-of-content-resources-on-digital-minds-AI-welfare-29f667c7aef380949e4efec04b3637e9?pvs=74
One reason a comprehensive version of this would be difficult for insect welfare is that a couple of projects are ‘undercover’. Rethink Priorities have guidance on donating to insects, shrimp and wild animals that might be relevant.
Separately, I understand @JordanStone has a pretty comprehensive sense of who’s who in space governance, and would be a good person to contact if you’re thinking about getting into this field.
Yeah, lists exist for all the people working on space governance from a longtermist perspective, and they tend to list about 10-15 people. I’m like 90% sure I know of everyone working on longtermist space governance, and I’d estimate that there are the equivalent of ~3 people working full time on this. There’s not as much undercover work required for space governance, but I don’t like to share lists of names publicly without permission.
At the moment, the main hub for space governance is Forethought and most people contact Fin Moorhouse to learn more about space governance as he’s the author of the 80K problem profile on space governance and has been publishing work with Forethought on or related to space governance. From there, people tend to get a lay of the land, introductions are made, and newcomers will get a good idea of what people are working on and where they might be able to contribute.
What a wonderful idea! Mayank referred me over to this post, and I think EA at UIUC might have to hop on this project. I’ll see about starting something in the next month or so and sharing a link to where I’m compiling things in case anyone else is interested in collaborating on this. Or, it’s possible an initiative like it already exists that I’ll stumble upon while investigating (though such a thing may well be outdated).