One way I think EA fails to maximise impact is by its focus on legible, clear and attributable impact over actions where the impact is extremely difficult to estimate.
Writing Wikipedia articles on and around important EA concepts (except perhaps on infohazardous bioterrorism incidents) has low downside risk and extremely high upside risk, making these ideas much more easy to understand for policymakers and other people in positions of power who may come across them and google them. However, the feedback loops are virtually non-existent and the impact is highly illegible.
For example, there is currently no dedicated Wikipedia page for “Existential Risk” and “Global Catastrophic Biological Risk”.
Writing Wikipedia pages could be a particularly good use of time for people new to EA and people in university student groups who want to gain a better understanding of EA concepts or of EA-relevant policy areas.
Some other ideas for creating new Wikipedia articles or adding more detail to existing ones:
International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science
Alternative Proteins
Governance of Alternative Proteins
Global Partnership Biological Security Working Group
Regulation of gain-of-function biological research by country
Public investment in alternative proteins by country
Space governance
Regulation of alternative proteins
UN Biorisk Working Group
Political Representation of Future Generations
Political Representation of Future Generations by Country
Political Representation of Animals
Joint Assessment Mechanism
Public investment in AI Safety research by country
International Experts Group of Biosafety and Biosecurity Regulators
Tobacco taxation by country
Global Partnership Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa
Regulations on lead in paint by country
Alcohol taxation by country
Regulation of dual-use biological research by country
Write more Wikipedia articles on policy-relevant EA concepts
One way I think EA fails to maximise impact is by its focus on legible, clear and attributable impact over actions where the impact is extremely difficult to estimate.
Writing Wikipedia articles on and around important EA concepts (except perhaps on infohazardous bioterrorism incidents) has low downside risk and extremely high upside risk, making these ideas much more easy to understand for policymakers and other people in positions of power who may come across them and google them. However, the feedback loops are virtually non-existent and the impact is highly illegible.
For example, there is currently no dedicated Wikipedia page for “Existential Risk” and “Global Catastrophic Biological Risk”.
Writing Wikipedia pages could be a particularly good use of time for people new to EA and people in university student groups who want to gain a better understanding of EA concepts or of EA-relevant policy areas.
Some other ideas for creating new Wikipedia articles or adding more detail to existing ones:
International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science
Alternative Proteins
Governance of Alternative Proteins
Global Partnership Biological Security Working Group
Regulation of gain-of-function biological research by country
Public investment in alternative proteins by country
Space governance
Regulation of alternative proteins
UN Biorisk Working Group
Political Representation of Future Generations
Political Representation of Future Generations by Country
Political Representation of Animals
Joint Assessment Mechanism
Public investment in AI Safety research by country
International Experts Group of Biosafety and Biosecurity Regulators
Tobacco taxation by country
Global Partnership Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa
Regulations on lead in paint by country
Alcohol taxation by country
Regulation of dual-use biological research by country
Joint External Evaluations
Biological Weapons Convention funding by country