Research and develop methods for genetically engineering or breeding crops that could thrive in the tropics during a nuclear winter scenario (Adapted from ALLFED, Effective Theses Topic Ideas)
- No location available
-

How should altruistic/philanthropic actors coordinate when there are projects they’d both like to see happen but would both prefer that the other do/fund? (Adapted from Luke Muehlhauser (writing for Open Philanthropy), Technical and Philosophical Questions That Might Affect our Grantmaking)
- No location available
-

What forecasting methods used by private corporations can be adapted for use by altruistic actors?
- No location available
-

What is the state of the art for making crucial data and information visible and salient to leaders at large private corporations? Can these techniques be adapted into interfaces that keep relevant decision makers up to date with the most important information about deployed AI? (Inspired by Richard Ngo, Technical AGI safety research outside AI)
- No location available
-
- [note::This seems related to the chat I had with Michael Johnston about using web scrapers to monitor company welfare commitments]

Why have certain aspects of Chinese civilisation been so long-lasting? Are there any lessons we can draw from this about what makes for highly resilient institutions, cultures, or schools of thought? (Inspired by personal correspondence with an expert)
- No location available
-

Under what scenarios could climate change be an existential catastrophe? E.g. through runaway or moist greenhouse effects, permafrost, methane clathrate, or cloud feedbacks? How likely are these scenarios? (Toby Ord, The Precipice, Appendix F)
- No location available
-

More generally, what environmental problems — if any — pose existential risks? (Adapted from Effective Thesis)
- No location available
- existential_risks, ideas/research,

What are potential risks from geoengineering technologies and which of these technologies — if any — might be promising for mitigating climate change?
- No location available
-

What are the best and cheapest underexplored treatments for cluster headaches and other extremely painful conditions? What does this imply about the causes of extreme suffering? (Adapted from Qualia Research Institute, Volunteer page)
- No location available
-

What is the optimal design of international institutions that are formed to increase global public goods or decrease global public bads? (Global Priorities Institute, Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

How should altruistic/philanthropic actors coordinate when there are projects they’d both like to see happen but would both prefer that the other do/fund? (Inspired by Luke Muehlhauser (writing for Open Philanthropy), Technical and Philosophical Questions That Might Affect our Grantmaking)
- No location available
-

How much do global issues differ in how cost-effective the most cost-effective interventions within them are?
- No location available
-

What were the biggest and most long-lasting changes in cultural value systems throughout history? How did they happen and why? (Inspired by Effective Thesis)
- No location available
-

How frequently and to what extent have technologies caused discontinuous progress on relevant metrics? What are some technologies that have caused these discontinuities? (AI Impacts, Promising research projects)
- No location available
-

How many — if any — significant historical successes have come from people explicitly trying to address challenges 30+ years away? What about in the distant future? (Adapted from Nick Beckstead, How to Compare Broad and Targeted Attempts to Shape the Far Future, slide 36)
- No location available
-

What factors have encouraged companies and countries to engage in risk-taking behaviour and arms races? (Center on Long-Term Risk, Open Research Questions)
- No location available
-

Generate case studies of successes and failures in the history of technological regulation and governance (Adapted from Michael Aird, Some history topics it might be very valuable to investigate). See Katja Grace’s research on the Asilomar Conference and Leó Szilárd for examples of doing this kind of research outside of history academia.
- No location available
- tech governance, progress studies, tech regulation,

What case studies are there for legal rights or other protections being won for beings that didn’t and wouldn’t ever have the right to vote, and what lessons do these have for animal welfare?
- No location available
-

How can “progress” in AI research effectively be tracked and measured? What progress points would signal important technological milestones or the need for a change in approach? (CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda) (See also: the “Assessing AI Progress” section of Centre for the Governance of AI’s research agenda (page 21))
- No location available
-

What are the best heuristics for reliably identifying experts on a topic, or choosing what to believe when apparent experts disagree?
- No location available
-

What types or features of institutions could help enable the representation of the interests of future generations and/or sentient nonhumans in political processes?
- No location available
-

How will geopolitical, bureaucratic, cultural, or other factors affect how actors choose to adopt AI technology for military or security purposes? (CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

What are the best methodologies for evaluating policy options for unprecedented future scenarios? (Inspired by Max Stauffer et al., Research Directions on Improving Policy-making)
- No location available
- policymaking, emerging_technology,

What regulatory and other government approaches can prevent AI technologies from being misused? For example, how — if at all — could compliance with a treaty agreeing to restrictions on the development of lethal autonomous weapons be reliably verified? (Adapted from CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

The replication crisis has cast into doubt important research findings, such as the Stanford prison experiment. What other socially important findings have been undermined? How should we interpret scientific literature post-crisis? (Inspired by Scott Alexander, answer to What are the open problems in human rationality?)
- No location available
-

What disciplinary norms from across different disciplines and traditions lead to the most — and most socially responsible — scientific progress? (Inspired by Richard Ngo, Technical AGI safety research outside AI)
- No location available
-

What are the best policies for handling ‘information hazards’ from dual-use research?
- No location available
-

Generate case studies of successes and failures by social movements (e.g. the anti-GMO movement, the anti-nuclear weapons movement, or the LGBTQ movement) — what happened and how? (Inspired by Sentience Institute, Research agenda)
- No location available
-

Why are some values, institutions, and organisations extremely durable — lasting hundreds of years (e.g. academia) — whereas others change frequently? What are the social mechanisms that explain this? (Effective Thesis)
- No location available
-

Case studies into how institutions and organisations make big, important decisions, or respond to catastrophes.
- No location available
-

Research and develop methods for genetically engineering or breeding crops that could thrive in the tropics during a nuclear winter scenario (Adapted from ALLFED, Effective Theses Topic Ideas)
- No location available
-

How should altruistic/philanthropic actors coordinate when there are projects they’d both like to see happen but would both prefer that the other do/fund? (Adapted from Luke Muehlhauser (writing for Open Philanthropy), Technical and Philosophical Questions That Might Affect our Grantmaking)
- No location available
-

What forecasting methods used by private corporations can be adapted for use by altruistic actors?
- No location available
-

What is the state of the art for making crucial data and information visible and salient to leaders at large private corporations? Can these techniques be adapted into interfaces that keep relevant decision makers up to date with the most important information about deployed AI? (Inspired by Richard Ngo, Technical AGI safety research outside AI)
- No location available
-
- [note::This seems related to the chat I had with Michael Johnston about using web scrapers to monitor company welfare commitments]

Why have certain aspects of Chinese civilisation been so long-lasting? Are there any lessons we can draw from this about what makes for highly resilient institutions, cultures, or schools of thought? (Inspired by personal correspondence with an expert)
- No location available
-

Under what scenarios could climate change be an existential catastrophe? E.g. through runaway or moist greenhouse effects, permafrost, methane clathrate, or cloud feedbacks? How likely are these scenarios? (Toby Ord, The Precipice, Appendix F)
- No location available
-

More generally, what environmental problems — if any — pose existential risks? (Adapted from Effective Thesis)
- No location available
- existential_risks, ideas/research,

What are potential risks from geoengineering technologies and which of these technologies — if any — might be promising for mitigating climate change?
- No location available
-

What are the best and cheapest underexplored treatments for cluster headaches and other extremely painful conditions? What does this imply about the causes of extreme suffering? (Adapted from Qualia Research Institute, Volunteer page)
- No location available
-

What is the optimal design of international institutions that are formed to increase global public goods or decrease global public bads? (Global Priorities Institute, Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

How should altruistic/philanthropic actors coordinate when there are projects they’d both like to see happen but would both prefer that the other do/fund? (Inspired by Luke Muehlhauser (writing for Open Philanthropy), Technical and Philosophical Questions That Might Affect our Grantmaking)
- No location available
-

How much do global issues differ in how cost-effective the most cost-effective interventions within them are?
- No location available
-

What were the biggest and most long-lasting changes in cultural value systems throughout history? How did they happen and why? (Inspired by Effective Thesis)
- No location available
-

How frequently and to what extent have technologies caused discontinuous progress on relevant metrics? What are some technologies that have caused these discontinuities? (AI Impacts, Promising research projects)
- No location available
-

How many — if any — significant historical successes have come from people explicitly trying to address challenges 30+ years away? What about in the distant future? (Adapted from Nick Beckstead, How to Compare Broad and Targeted Attempts to Shape the Far Future, slide 36)
- No location available
-

What factors have encouraged companies and countries to engage in risk-taking behaviour and arms races? (Center on Long-Term Risk, Open Research Questions)
- No location available
-

Generate case studies of successes and failures in the history of technological regulation and governance (Adapted from Michael Aird, Some history topics it might be very valuable to investigate). See Katja Grace’s research on the Asilomar Conference and Leó Szilárd for examples of doing this kind of research outside of history academia.
- No location available
- tech governance, progress studies, tech regulation,

What case studies are there for legal rights or other protections being won for beings that didn’t and wouldn’t ever have the right to vote, and what lessons do these have for animal welfare?
- No location available
-

How can “progress” in AI research effectively be tracked and measured? What progress points would signal important technological milestones or the need for a change in approach? (CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda) (See also: the “Assessing AI Progress” section of Centre for the Governance of AI’s research agenda (page 21))
- No location available
-

What are the best heuristics for reliably identifying experts on a topic, or choosing what to believe when apparent experts disagree?
- No location available
-

What types or features of institutions could help enable the representation of the interests of future generations and/or sentient nonhumans in political processes?
- No location available
-

How will geopolitical, bureaucratic, cultural, or other factors affect how actors choose to adopt AI technology for military or security purposes? (CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

What are the best methodologies for evaluating policy options for unprecedented future scenarios? (Inspired by Max Stauffer et al., Research Directions on Improving Policy-making)
- No location available
- policymaking, emerging_technology,

What regulatory and other government approaches can prevent AI technologies from being misused? For example, how — if at all — could compliance with a treaty agreeing to restrictions on the development of lethal autonomous weapons be reliably verified? (Adapted from CNAS, Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative Research Agenda)
- No location available
-

The replication crisis has cast into doubt important research findings, such as the Stanford prison experiment. What other socially important findings have been undermined? How should we interpret scientific literature post-crisis? (Inspired by Scott Alexander, answer to What are the open problems in human rationality?)
- No location available
-

What disciplinary norms from across different disciplines and traditions lead to the most — and most socially responsible — scientific progress? (Inspired by Richard Ngo, Technical AGI safety research outside AI)
- No location available
-

What are the best policies for handling ‘information hazards’ from dual-use research?
- No location available
-

Generate case studies of successes and failures by social movements (e.g. the anti-GMO movement, the anti-nuclear weapons movement, or the LGBTQ movement) — what happened and how? (Inspired by Sentience Institute, Research agenda)
- No location available
-

Why are some values, institutions, and organisations extremely durable — lasting hundreds of years (e.g. academia) — whereas others change frequently? What are the social mechanisms that explain this? (Effective Thesis)
- No location available
-

Case studies into how institutions and organisations make big, important decisions, or respond to catastrophes.
- No location available
-