I guess the worst that could happen is that he’ll tell me that he doesn’t have the time to answer my questions.
Since you have said you want to improve the quality of consideration of these issues, I would suggest considering the downsides of souring people on the topic with what they might perceive as unpleasant criticism from laymen. More generally (for the whole project), there is risk of giving people initial or memorable exposure to such ideas through unsolicited emails. There are tight limits on what you can convey in a short email, and on credibility. On the other hand, consider that Nick Bostrom’s academic book on the subject, exploring all these issues in great detail (including dissection of SIAI core claims), will be available next year.
It would be unfortunate if a lot of high-powered researchers developed more negative associations with the topic from this surveying, associations that interfere with consideration of future, more detailed discussion.
Since you have said you want to improve the quality of consideration of these issues, I would suggest considering the downsides of souring people on the topic with what they might perceive as unpleasant criticism from laymen. More generally (for the whole project), there is risk of giving people initial or memorable exposure to such ideas through unsolicited emails. There are tight limits on what you can convey in a short email, and on credibility. On the other hand, consider that Nick Bostrom’s academic book on the subject, exploring all these issues in great detail (including dissection of SIAI core claims), will be available next year.
It would be unfortunate if a lot of high-powered researchers developed more negative associations with the topic from this surveying, associations that interfere with consideration of future, more detailed discussion.