Large projects related to resilient foods or other things ALLFED advocates
I haven’t checked their latest ideas or tried to vet them, but I think they have some ideas for pretty ambitious, large projects that could plausibly make a big dent in some global catastrophic or existential risks
Thanks for your further suggestions! We actually briefly looked at the ALLFED website and their publications but had the sense that many ideas were still in the modelling/​research phase so we didn’t include them. The new 80k episode goes into a bit more detail (e.g. funding conversion kits for paper mills to enable quick repurposing for glucose production), so anybody more familiar with their work is very welcome to share potential megaproject ideas.
ALLFED has nearly completed our prioritization, and given the amount of commercialization that has already been done on resilient foods, we think we are ready to partner with other companies to do piloting of the most promising solutions in a way that is valuable for global catastrophes (e.g. very fast construction). Repurposing a paper mill for sugar (and protein if the feedstock is agricultural residues) is a good large project. But there is also fast construction of pilot scale of natural gas (methane) single cell protein and the fast construction of pilot scale hydrogen single cell protein (splitting water or gasifying a solid fuel such as biomass). Furthermore, there is the backup global radio communication system that would be extremely useful for loss of electricity scenarios.
I think there still is quite a bit of research to be done, especially analyzing cooperation scenarios and the potential of resilient food production by country. This could help inform country-level response plans. This could be facilitated by setting up a research institute on resilient foods. Another possibility is running an X prize for radical new solutions.
I’d also highlight:
Much bigger EA orgs—either new ones or substantially scaled versions of existing ones
E.g., make something like Rethink-Priorities-in-2030 but in 2023 instead
Large consultancies of various types
See https://​​forum.effectivealtruism.org/​​posts/​​CwFyTacABbWuzdYwB/​​ea-needs-consultancies
Large projects related to resilient foods or other things ALLFED advocates
I haven’t checked their latest ideas or tried to vet them, but I think they have some ideas for pretty ambitious, large projects that could plausibly make a big dent in some global catastrophic or existential risks
Thanks for your further suggestions! We actually briefly looked at the ALLFED website and their publications but had the sense that many ideas were still in the modelling/​research phase so we didn’t include them. The new 80k episode goes into a bit more detail (e.g. funding conversion kits for paper mills to enable quick repurposing for glucose production), so anybody more familiar with their work is very welcome to share potential megaproject ideas.
ALLFED has nearly completed our prioritization, and given the amount of commercialization that has already been done on resilient foods, we think we are ready to partner with other companies to do piloting of the most promising solutions in a way that is valuable for global catastrophes (e.g. very fast construction). Repurposing a paper mill for sugar (and protein if the feedstock is agricultural residues) is a good large project. But there is also fast construction of pilot scale of natural gas (methane) single cell protein and the fast construction of pilot scale hydrogen single cell protein (splitting water or gasifying a solid fuel such as biomass). Furthermore, there is the backup global radio communication system that would be extremely useful for loss of electricity scenarios.
I think there still is quite a bit of research to be done, especially analyzing cooperation scenarios and the potential of resilient food production by country. This could help inform country-level response plans. This could be facilitated by setting up a research institute on resilient foods. Another possibility is running an X prize for radical new solutions.