Weird conferences, being deaf, How To GiveWell, meet-up
I went to a great, pretty weird, intense conference, Effective Altruism Global. New podcast with Sophie Woolley,a theatre maker steeped in Deaf culture. Next meet-up at Chatham House on 28 April, Ldn.
I went to a great, pretty weird, intense conference, Effective Altruism Global. Also hosted a small sustainability dinner. New podcast with Sophie Woolley a theatre maker steeped in Deaf culture as well as hearing culture. Next meet-up at Chatham House on 28 April, London, do come. (Message me or register below)
EAG: intense, weird, great conference
Sustainability Dinner: district heating; govt <-> corporate link
Sophie Woolley podcast: going deaf -> hearing
Links: Climate, Friend raising seed money for salons,
I view EA (Effective Atruism) as one of a very small number of influential movements to appear in the last 20 years and of (some) global influence.
Arguably, the Sunflower movement that lead to Audrey Tang being digital minister in Taiwan has been significant but it is only in one country.
XR / Greta / School strike for Climate, and MeToo have been broadly global (and much larger) but mostly single issue (noted this is simplified and there is intersectionality), Black Lives Matter is not, IMO, global.
EA is multi-issue while under a framework of “doing the most good” this then encompasses suffering (animal welfare, global poverty), climate, pandemics, AI (existential risks), healthcare, economics, institutional decision making (governance, expected value, charity and policy evaluation).
Broadly, I am “pluralist” and “syncretic”. Fancy terms for being able to hold many views, some times conflicting and appreciate they may all contain some truth and value. And so, I’d not I an “EA” but I find some of their thinking valuable and useful.
There were a few pretty astonishing facets to EAG (the Global conference for EA).
First, I have never (maybe with a possible exception of XR) seen such a concentration of high energy, super smart, under 40s, under 30s people really focused on doing good (1500+ people at the conference). Every interaction I had was thoughtful. (XR suffers from many competing ideologies eg degrowth vs markets; and limited philosophical framework).
Second, there were so many people focussed on building things (ideas, projects, companies) and having those things pointed in the direction of doing good. I saw a lot of overlap with what VCs might be doing or thinking, but often without a profit motive. In fact, much of what I heard in the some of the talks would be equally valid for start-up companies. (I spoke to a founder of a charity working on family planning in Nigeria, one founder on lead pollution, another on a mental health app; people studying and writing about progress; those working on existential risk…)
A couple of other observations. EAs speak their own lingo. Some are unique like x-risks and s-risks. Some are unique but can be confused with ordinary language eg long-termism (for EA this can be 1000s or 10,000s years, which ordinary people mostly don’t consider). Some are crossed over from other disciplines: revealed preferences, bayesenian probability, probability weighting statements, expected value, “epistemic honesty” [I somehow liked this one]. The conference blurb does suggest the conference is for those with EA understanding, but I did reflect if on occasion plain English would be quicker and better understood. I was asked what’s your probability estimate of nuclear winter / man-made pandemic / rogue AI ending human civilisation by 2100? This was expected by me, and having a view and why is a useful starting point for a conversation.
EAG was very boy heavy. Presumably as Econ, philosophy, compsci are boy heavy disciplines, and EAG had a relative underweight in arts and culture (partly I guess as hard to measure arts impact).
If you are interested in impact, this movement I view as punching heavily above its weight.
I’d also observe that certain EA aligned people have recently become billionaires. This has led to an influx of money for EA type projects. Sam Bankman-Fried followed an EA plan: make a lot of money then give it away, and the plans success (SBF being one of the richest <30s on the planet, though he is now just >30) is another point in the EA community favour (although the optics of so much money is now debated within EA).
If you’d like to know what a bunch of impactful young people are doing. Check them out. Main site is here and EA will give you a free book if you are interested - link here. I think they’ve learned that trick from religions….
I hosted a dinner with a sustainability theme. Lots to ponder. I would highlight three ideas coming out of the conversation. These brief notes (probably only of interest to specialists):
Corporate Net Zero. There is tension between growth eg revenue growth for a real world business, and a reduction in absolute emissions. Currently not compatible for several types of business. Would shareholders / stakeholder accept crimping of growth to meet absolute emissions reductions? (Probably not). Near term NZ has signalling impact, some real world impact. There are gold standard NZ strategies eg Microsoft, also some good in jump-starting new carbon markets (eg Stripe led initiative). Medium/LT depends…. Some Corporate NetZero might be wasteful… because at a country level - eg in UK - if power goes green / net zero in eg 2035, then corporate power use is net zero. This => corporates should focus on eg heating/cooling and EV fleet, rather than eg new wind/solar installs, if not core business.
Theory of Change. Is govt ←→ corporate interaction more important that voter <-> government and consumer <-> corporate? Query: Do voters and consumers have veto power, but no real influence on “overton window” / policy? Query: influence of suppliers / regulators / employees ? Query: therefore investors (employees) who influence CEOs/management have strong influence? Perhaps this means one needs to work on “govt ←→ corporate interaction” more than voters?
Heating, also climate comms. Is district heating the solution for debcarbonising heat ? Maybe works better in rural than cities [?] Query: just build them and then connect cf. gas network in 1970s, no one was majority gas connected at time - same for heating district ? Is effective retrofit possible ? One view, cautious yes; one view, probably not. Noting on insulation/efficiency - govt programmes on efficiency generally not been a success historically cf skills, possibly need tailored/higher skills for individual properties. Idea: focus on “jobs” rather than “green jobs” - using “green” in comms potentially offputting. Easier to focus on the core messages and let “green” be the co-benefit.
I podcast with Sophie Woolley. What is it like to go deaf and then gain back your hearing?
Sophie is a writer, performer and theatre maker. We have been friends for a while and I have learned a lot about deaf culture and from her personal and creative journeys.
We have a meandering chat about her creative journey, how felt she had to write about her story of going deaf and then gaining hearing again via a cochlear implant. We recorded the podcast while Sophie is in Taiwan. She chats a little on her experience there and Taiwan’s COVID management.
This is a long conversation between friends discussing the complexities of Sophie’s experience. I was particularly intrigued by her thinking on what it might mean to be a cyborg and being augmented, and being part of both Deaf culture and hearing culture. I am still thinking about her comment about captioning AI being her friend and how we can often simply criticise AI in a way we would not critique a human. (But also there’s no need to anthropomorphize AI either).
Read/Watch here. Listen below or wherever you get podcasts.
My friend Anna Gat is raising money for her salon venture. (I am an angel investor already). (Normal caveats apply, not suitable for all etc.) Message for info or reach out to Anna direct. (Twitter).
Neurodiversity:
and,
Falling cost of clean energy
a way to get to <2c
Thr emergent properties and problems of social networks:
Interesting film and talk event
RI / ESG job: Bristol + flex
Review of countries sustainability strategies:
Do you have land for wind farms?
COVID estimates in UK
US VC seed money, a16z
On memes:
