I strongly think that’s the wrong way to phrase the question.
“Don’t expect fame or fortune. The Singularity Institute is not your employer, and we are not paying you to accomplish our work. The so-called “Singularity Institute” is a group of humans who got together to accomplish work they deemed important to the human species, and some of them went off to do fundraising so the other ones could get paid enough to live on. Don’t even dream of being paid what you’re worth, if you’re worth enough to solve this class of problem. As for fame, we are trying to do something that is daring far beyond the level of daring that is just exactly daring enough to be seen academically as sexy and transgressive and courageous, so working here may even count against you on your resume. But that’s not important, because this is a lifetime commitment. Let me repeat that again: Once you’re in, really in, you stay. I can’t afford to start over training a new Research Fellow. We can’t afford to have you leave in the middle of The Project. It’s Singularity or bust. If you look like a good candidate, we’ll probably bring you in for a trial month, or something like that, to see if we can work well together. But please do consider that, once you’ve been in for long enough, I’ll be damned hurt – and far more importantly, The Project will be hurt – if you leave. This is a very difficult thing that we of the Singularity Institute are attempting – some of us have been working on it since long before there was enough money to pay us, and some of us still aren’t getting paid. The motivation to do this thing, to accomplish this impossible feat, has to come from within you; and be glad that someone is paying you enough to live on while you do it. It can’t be the job that you took to make the rent. That’s not how the research branch of the Singularity Institute works. It’s not who we are.”—http://singinst.org/aboutus/opportunities/research-fellow
I strongly think that’s the wrong way to phrase the question.
“Don’t expect fame or fortune. The Singularity Institute is not your employer, and we are not paying you to accomplish our work. The so-called “Singularity Institute” is a group of humans who got together to accomplish work they deemed important to the human species, and some of them went off to do fundraising so the other ones could get paid enough to live on. Don’t even dream of being paid what you’re worth, if you’re worth enough to solve this class of problem. As for fame, we are trying to do something that is daring far beyond the level of daring that is just exactly daring enough to be seen academically as sexy and transgressive and courageous, so working here may even count against you on your resume. But that’s not important, because this is a lifetime commitment. Let me repeat that again: Once you’re in, really in, you stay. I can’t afford to start over training a new Research Fellow. We can’t afford to have you leave in the middle of The Project. It’s Singularity or bust. If you look like a good candidate, we’ll probably bring you in for a trial month, or something like that, to see if we can work well together. But please do consider that, once you’ve been in for long enough, I’ll be damned hurt – and far more importantly, The Project will be hurt – if you leave. This is a very difficult thing that we of the Singularity Institute are attempting – some of us have been working on it since long before there was enough money to pay us, and some of us still aren’t getting paid. The motivation to do this thing, to accomplish this impossible feat, has to come from within you; and be glad that someone is paying you enough to live on while you do it. It can’t be the job that you took to make the rent. That’s not how the research branch of the Singularity Institute works. It’s not who we are.”—http://singinst.org/aboutus/opportunities/research-fellow