Below is a list of megaproject ideas that didn’t quite make the cut enough to be added to the database. I compiled this list last year and sent it last November to a prominent businessperson who I knew from my old Veg*ns in Gaming days. He promptly ignored me, and I was later informed that he actually wasn't very good at League of Legends, which I guess tells you something about the epistemic character and moral fiber of people who disagree with me.
- Genetically engineer octopodes for intelligence and alignment, helps with understanding AGI better and also for creating successors to the human species if we die out for non-AGI reasons
- Large-scale bioethics-to-AI-ethics transition pipeline: Create fellowships and other prestigious programs to help bioethicists transition to AI ethics. This reduces dumb bioethics decisions (decreasing biorisk) while increasing general perceived annoyance/uncoolness of doing AI research (decreasing AI risk). win-win-win
- EA Games 1: Invent a highly addictive game that’s optimized for very smart amoral people, plaster ads for it near AGI labs to slow down AI timelines
- EA Games 2: Sponsor a number of esports teams with 80,000 Hours, etc, logos
- Go to Los Angeles and hire thousands of Hollywood wanna-be actors to pretend to be EAs; help solve the imposter syndrome problem in EA by having actual imposters
- Dynasty: “World leaders or children of world leaders” matchmaking app + concierge service. Maybe if Hunter Biden married Xi Mingze, WWIII would become less likely?
- The above but for AGI companies. Is Demis Hassabis single? Is Sam Altman?
- A really big malaria net
- Covert 1% of the world’s stainless steel to paperclips, as a form of acausal trade/token of good faith
- Take over the education system of a small European country
- Impact Island
- America’s Got Talent, except for AI alignment
- Colonize Mars: backup option for humanity, because bunkers are too cheap
- Payback: Genetically engineer an army of human-eating chickens
- Figure out how to resurrect Jeremy Bentham, ask him to do our cause prioritization
- Flood the internet with memes/stories of AIs being good to humans, to help balance the training data
- Mandate all AI/bio labs carry GCR insurance, ~10T payout if people can demonstrate they pose a >1% existential risk + courts can order a halt to all progress during a suit
- A really big mirror, to help with climate change
- Happy rat farms (might be too expensive tho)
- Genetically engineer really fast-growing photosynthesizing plants to help combat climate change
- Genetically engineer rapidly breeding locusts to solve the problem of your GMO plants crowding out normal agriculture
- Genetically engineer really fast and lethal praying mantises to solve your locust problem
- (Brian Tomasik might be against this)
- Humane&painless APM-based pesticides/gray goo to help with your praying mantis problem
this is the type of ambitious thinking this community needs. Cheems be gone!