The top comments seem mostly critical at the moment. This video was posted today and already has 1.2 million views (>100x the number of active EAs as of 2019!), so it might be useful to examine the reception from this video’s general audience. Some of the critique so far:
The video is titled “Is Civilization on the Brink of Collapse?”, but it doesn’t directly answer this question and instead focuses on the consequences of civilizational collapse and a road to recovery.
Comparisions are mainly made to ancient civilizations. They don’t bear much resemblance to modern society, which is more technologically developed and thus robust to risks such as pandemics.
Skepticism towards AI being an x-risk (AGI won’t be developed for a very long time and is difficult to build)
The video seems like a sponsored PR effort advancing WWOTF’s agenda.
The video was poorly researched:
The Bronze Age collapse was not mentioned, despite being a crucial civilizational collapse which regressed scientific and technological development.
The definition of “civilization” at the beginning of the video excludes societies which didn’t have hierarchies or abolished them.
Omission of some important extinction scenarios, like supervolcano eruptions or asteroid impacts.
The video is Eurocentric and doesn’t mention other cultures or empires.
The video is too optimistic/futuristic; it offers scientifically possible but implausible solutions for rebuilding civilization, and doesn’t demonstrate how to overcome social and political hurdles.
This video and “The Last Human – A Glimpse Into The Far Future” place too much emphasis on hypothetical future people, which distracts from suffering in the present.
Topics I Haven’t Had Time to Write About
Thanks to Jason Hausenloy for encouraging me to concretize and post these ideas.
EA Topics
Anecdotes of Parental Pressure on Career Choice
I haven’t seen much discussion of this, but parental pressure may play a large impact on the career choices of young EAs.
Impacts of Consumption in EA
Some EA individuals and organizations in the Bay Area spend a lot to increase their productivity. What are the climate/labor/animal welfare effects of consumption on e.g. Ubers, DoorDashing all meals.
Anecdotes on the Flynn Campaign from OR-06 Constituents
We’ve seen retrospectives of Carrick Flynn’s candidacy on the EA Forum, but it seems useful to gather more anecdotes from outsiders, particularly those engaged in electoral politics or living in OR-06.
Earthquake Prep Guide
Many EAs live in earthquake-prone regions, such as California. Is earthquake risk significant enough to warrant individual preparedness? If so, a preparedness guide similar to Finan Anderson’s on nuclear preparedness may be useful.
Anecdotes of Failed Targeted Outreach
There have been 4 occasions for which friends who I thought would be interested in EA and potentially valuable contributors, bounce off of the ideas/movement. Gather anecdotes and improving EA/outreach seems important.
Liberal Arguments for AI Safety
I haven’t seen a compelling writing in support of AI Safety from a liberal perspective, e.g. discussion of why regulation of unfettered development/technological progress is important.
How much influence can individual state/federal senators/representatives/assemblypeople have on AI safety policy?
How university students should balance community building vs. building skills for direct work
Non-EA Topics
Advantageous Political Geography
Despite winning more than 50% of the popular vote, President Biden won in just 2 out of the 8 congressional districts in Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. Despite winning a third of the popular vote in the 2018 US House of Representatives elections in California, Republicans won just 7 of 46 seats—and this map was constructed by an independent redistricting commission! What influences how political geography favors parties?
Berkeley CS Course Staff
My favorite courses have been Berkeley CS courses, which are mostly taught by undergraduate students who are generally between 19-22 years old—they who don’t have teaching credentials and are much younger than any K-12 teacher I’ve had. How can undergrads teach and organize these courses so well?
Colorado is not a Rectangle
Colorado looks like this:
Yet its border with New Mexico has this ~half mile indent:
why!?
Discoveries Ahead of Their Time
Nuclear weapons were developed 3-4 decades before the RSA cryptosystem, despite the former seeming much more technically complicated to develop than the latter. What other developments retrospectively seem ahead/behind their time?