If there isn’t already a wiki for the cause that you are interested in helping, then consider starting one.
Most people reading this are probably well aware of the awesome power of wikis. LW’s own wiki is awesome, and LW would be a whole lot less awesome without its wiki.
What we need is a wiki that lists all the people and groups who are working towards saving the world, what projects they are working on, and what resources they need in order to complete these projects. And each user of the wiki could create a page for themselves, listing what specific causes they’re interested in, what skills and resources they have that they’re willing to contribute to the cause, and what things they could use someone else’s help with. The wiki could also have useful advice like this LW post, on how to be more effective at world-saving.
I already made a few attempts to set up something like this, but these involved ridiculouslycomplicatedsystems that probably wouldn’t have worked as well as I hoped. It would probably be a much better idea to start with just a simple wiki, where users can contribute the most important information. We can add more advanced features later, if it looks like the features will be worth the added complexity.
Maybe the wiki will end up saying “Just donate to SIAI. Unless you’re qualified to work for SIAI, there really isn’t much else you can do to help save the world.” But even in this case, I think it would be really helpful to at least have an explanation why there is no point trying to help in any other way. And even then, we could still use the wiki for projects to generate cash.
I find it really disturbing that the cause of saving the world doesn’t have its own wiki. And none of the individual groups working towards saving the world have their own wiki. SIAI doesn’t have a wiki. Lifeboat doesn’t have a wiki. FHI doesn’t have a wiki. H+ doesn’t have a wiki. GiveWell doesn’t have a wiki. Seriously, how did the cause of saving the world manage to violate The Wiki Rule?
Several years ago, Eliezer started the SL4 Wiki, and that was awesome, but then somehow after a few months, everyone lost interest in it, and it died. Then I tried to revive it, by importing all of its content to MediaWiki, and renaming it the transhumanist wiki. But noone other than me made any significant effort to edit or add content to the wiki. And even I haven’t done much with the wiki in the past few months.
A few weeks ago, H+ contacted me, expressing interest in making the transhumanist wiki an official part of the humanityplus website, but I haven’t heard any more about that since then.
Oh, and there’s also the Accelerating Future People Database. This is a database of people who are working towards saving the world. This is a critical component of the system that I was describing, but we also need a list of projects, and a list of ways for volunteers to help.
Does anyone here think that a wiki like this would be a good idea? Does anyone here have any interest in helping to create such a wiki? If I created a wiki like this on my own, would anyone have a use for it? Is there some other reason I’m not aware of, why creating a wiki like this would be a very bad idea?
Does anyone here think that a wiki like this would be a good idea? Does anyone here have any interest in helping to create such a wiki? If I created a wiki like this on my own, would anyone have a use for it? Is there some other reason I’m not aware of, why creating a wiki like this would be a very bad idea?
Some people, when faced with a problem, say, I know—I’ll start a wiki! Now they have 2 problems.
I said something similar yesterday, and I have a short essay, Wikipedia And Other Wikis about why forking off WP is a bad idea (which is a related bad idea).
Maybe the wiki will end up saying “Just donate to SIAI. Unless you’re qualified to work for SIAI, there really isn’t much else you can do to help save the world.”
If this is the answer then the SIAI should simply conclude this in a paper. Or EY should write a new sequence that concludes that supporting the SIAI is the rational choice if you want to save the world. I believe a Wiki would just add to the confusion. A wiki is good as a work of reference or a collaborative focal point for people working on a certain project. But when it comes to answering a certain question, a Wiki might lead people astray.
I’m still puzzled by the fact that saving the world is not much dealt with on Less Wrong. What would be a better way to exemplify rational choice than concluding what to do when you want to save the world. On Less Wrong rationality is an abstract concept that is seldom used to tackle real life decisions.
Another obvious suggestion:
If there isn’t already a wiki for the cause that you are interested in helping, then consider starting one.
Most people reading this are probably well aware of the awesome power of wikis. LW’s own wiki is awesome, and LW would be a whole lot less awesome without its wiki.
What we need is a wiki that lists all the people and groups who are working towards saving the world, what projects they are working on, and what resources they need in order to complete these projects. And each user of the wiki could create a page for themselves, listing what specific causes they’re interested in, what skills and resources they have that they’re willing to contribute to the cause, and what things they could use someone else’s help with. The wiki could also have useful advice like this LW post, on how to be more effective at world-saving.
I already made a few attempts to set up something like this, but these involved ridiculously complicated systems that probably wouldn’t have worked as well as I hoped. It would probably be a much better idea to start with just a simple wiki, where users can contribute the most important information. We can add more advanced features later, if it looks like the features will be worth the added complexity.
Maybe the wiki will end up saying “Just donate to SIAI. Unless you’re qualified to work for SIAI, there really isn’t much else you can do to help save the world.” But even in this case, I think it would be really helpful to at least have an explanation why there is no point trying to help in any other way. And even then, we could still use the wiki for projects to generate cash.
I find it really disturbing that the cause of saving the world doesn’t have its own wiki. And none of the individual groups working towards saving the world have their own wiki. SIAI doesn’t have a wiki. Lifeboat doesn’t have a wiki. FHI doesn’t have a wiki. H+ doesn’t have a wiki. GiveWell doesn’t have a wiki. Seriously, how did the cause of saving the world manage to violate The Wiki Rule?
Several years ago, Eliezer started the SL4 Wiki, and that was awesome, but then somehow after a few months, everyone lost interest in it, and it died. Then I tried to revive it, by importing all of its content to MediaWiki, and renaming it the transhumanist wiki. But noone other than me made any significant effort to edit or add content to the wiki. And even I haven’t done much with the wiki in the past few months.
A few weeks ago, H+ contacted me, expressing interest in making the transhumanist wiki an official part of the humanityplus website, but I haven’t heard any more about that since then.
Oh, and there’s also the Accelerating Future People Database. This is a database of people who are working towards saving the world. This is a critical component of the system that I was describing, but we also need a list of projects, and a list of ways for volunteers to help.
Does anyone here think that a wiki like this would be a good idea? Does anyone here have any interest in helping to create such a wiki? If I created a wiki like this on my own, would anyone have a use for it? Is there some other reason I’m not aware of, why creating a wiki like this would be a very bad idea?
Some people, when faced with a problem, say, I know—I’ll start a wiki! Now they have 2 problems.
I said something similar yesterday, and I have a short essay, Wikipedia And Other Wikis about why forking off WP is a bad idea (which is a related bad idea).
tl;dr: network effects are a bitch
If this is the answer then the SIAI should simply conclude this in a paper. Or EY should write a new sequence that concludes that supporting the SIAI is the rational choice if you want to save the world. I believe a Wiki would just add to the confusion. A wiki is good as a work of reference or a collaborative focal point for people working on a certain project. But when it comes to answering a certain question, a Wiki might lead people astray.
I’m still puzzled by the fact that saving the world is not much dealt with on Less Wrong. What would be a better way to exemplify rational choice than concluding what to do when you want to save the world. On Less Wrong rationality is an abstract concept that is seldom used to tackle real life decisions.
Can we quantify that? What has it achieved?
The LW wiki has made it approximately one order of magnitude easier to find the best content from LW.
You could try to quantify that by:
the time it takes to find a specific thing you’re looking for
the probability of giving up before finding it
the probability that you wouldn’t even have bothered looking if the information wasn’t organized in a wiki.
maybe more
Yeah, but in terms of actually having achieved more downstream subgoals, like getting more people familiar with rationality?