Executive summary: The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) achieved notable successes in its mission from 2005-2024 through long-term research perspectives, interdisciplinary work, and adaptable operations, though challenges included university politics, communication gaps, and scaling issues.
Key points:
Long-term research perspectives and pre-paradigmatic topics were key to FHI’s impact, enabled by stable funding.
An interdisciplinary and diverse team was valuable for tackling neglected research areas.
Operations staff needed to understand the mission as it grew in complexity.
Failures included insufficient investment in university politics, communication gaps, and challenges scaling up gracefully.
Replicating FHI would require the right people, intellectual culture, and shielding from constraints, not just copying its structure.
The most important factor is pursuing the key topics and mission, even as knowledge and priorities evolve.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) achieved notable successes in its mission from 2005-2024 through long-term research perspectives, interdisciplinary work, and adaptable operations, though challenges included university politics, communication gaps, and scaling issues.
Key points:
Long-term research perspectives and pre-paradigmatic topics were key to FHI’s impact, enabled by stable funding.
An interdisciplinary and diverse team was valuable for tackling neglected research areas.
Operations staff needed to understand the mission as it grew in complexity.
Failures included insufficient investment in university politics, communication gaps, and challenges scaling up gracefully.
Replicating FHI would require the right people, intellectual culture, and shielding from constraints, not just copying its structure.
The most important factor is pursuing the key topics and mission, even as knowledge and priorities evolve.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.