Some lesser-known megaproject ideas

Linch2 Apr 2023 1:14 UTC
19 points
4 comments1 min readLW link

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.

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. EA Games 2: Sponsor a number of esports teams with 80,000 Hours, etc, logos

  5. 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

  6. Dynasty: “World leaders or children of world leaders” matchmaking app + concierge service. Maybe if Hunter Biden married Xi Mingze, WWIII would become less likely?

  7. The above but for AGI companies. Is Demis Hassabis single? Is Sam Altman?

  8. A really big malaria net

  9. Covert 1% of the world’s stainless steel to paperclips, as a form of acausal trade/​token of good faith

  10. Take over the education system of a small European country

  11. Impact Island

  12. America’s Got Talent, except for AI alignment

  13. Colonize Mars: backup option for humanity, because bunkers are too cheap

  14. Payback: Genetically engineer an army of human-eating chickens

  15. Figure out how to resurrect Jeremy Bentham, ask him to do our cause prioritization

  16. Flood the internet with memes/​stories of AIs being good to humans, to help balance the training data

  17. 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

  18. A really big mirror, to help with climate change

  19. Happy rat farms (might be too expensive tho)

  20. Genetically engineer really fast-growing photosynthesizing plants to help combat climate change

    1. Genetically engineer rapidly breeding locusts to solve the problem of your GMO plants crowding out normal agriculture

    2. Genetically engineer really fast and lethal praying mantises to solve your locust problem

      1. (Brian Tomasik might be against this)

    3. Humane&painless APM-based pesticides/​gray goo to help with your praying mantis problem

Linch2 Apr 2023 1:14 UTC
19 points
4 comments1 min readLW link
Crossposted from EA Forum (132 points, 1 comment)