Through EA, I’ve learned some really useful and relevant information that seems to be absent from everyday, normal people discussions. Issues like mental privacy and neurotech, mitigating the risk of future pandemics, whatever the heck happened at OpenAI in November, etc.
As a former teacher and social media scroller, I’ve been thinking about ways to get accurate and important info into the hands and minds of the public through mediums that are engaging and motivating. Some other EAs and I are brainstorming topics for short-form video content (reels/tiktoks) that would do exactly this. Here’s how NPR’s Planet Money does it with economic concepts.
So, what would you teach the general public? And in the spirit of EA, with what information could large groups of non-specialized people do the most good?
Also, if you’re interested in advising as a subject matter expert, creative collaborator or anything else, please let me know.
The scientific method as it actually exists. How it works, why it works, and how to tell a good rigorous study from a flawed one. How people can abuse the veneer of science to fool or mislead.
The core of EA is (or should be) evidence based reasoning, but I do not think the general public understands why we hold some evidence (randomised controlled trials) to be so much better than others (anecdotes from your mates).