#10 - Nick Beckstead on how to spend billions of dollars preventing human extinction
80,000 Hours Podcast11 Okt 2017

#10 - Nick Beckstead on how to spend billions of dollars preventing human extinction

What if you were in a position to give away billions of dollars to improve the world? What would you do with it? This is the problem facing Program Officers at the Open Philanthropy Project - people like Dr Nick Beckstead.

Following a PhD in philosophy, Nick works to figure out where money can do the most good. He’s been involved in major grants in a wide range of areas, including ending factory farming through technological innovation, safeguarding the world from advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence, and spreading rational compassion.

Full transcript, coaching application form, overview of the conversation, and links to resources discussed in the episode:

This episode is a tour through some of the toughest questions ‘effective altruists’ face when figuring out how to best improve the world, including:

* * Should we mostly try to help people currently alive, or future generations? Nick studied this question for years in his PhD thesis, On the Overwhelming Importance of Shaping the Far Future. (The first 31 minutes is a snappier version of my conversation with Toby Ord.)
* Is clean meat (aka *in vitro* meat) technologically feasible any time soon, or should we be looking for plant-based alternatives?
* What are the greatest risks to human civilisation?
* To stop malaria is it more cost-effective to use technology to eliminate mosquitos than to distribute bed nets?
* Should people who want to improve the future work for changes that will be very useful in a specific scenario, or just generally try to improve how well humanity makes decisions?
* What specific jobs should our listeners take in order for Nick to be able to spend more money in useful ways to improve the world?
* Should we expect the future to be better if the economy grows more quickly - or more slowly?

Get free, one-on-one career advice

We’ve helped dozens of people compare between their options, get introductions, and jobs important for the the long-run future. If you want to work on any of the problems discussed in this episode, find out if our coaching can help you.

Avsnitt(332)

#83 Classic episode - Jennifer Doleac on preventing crime without police and prisons

#83 Classic episode - Jennifer Doleac on preventing crime without police and prisons

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in July 2020. Today’s guest, Jennifer Doleac — Associate Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, and Director of the Justice Tech Lab — is a...

4 Jan 20232h 17min

#143 – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons

#143 – Jeffrey Lewis on the most common misconceptions about nuclear weapons

America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least... not officially.As today's guest — Jeffrey Lewis, founder of Arms Control W...

29 Dec 20222h 40min

#142 – John McWhorter on key lessons from linguistics, the virtue of creoles, and language extinction

#142 – John McWhorter on key lessons from linguistics, the virtue of creoles, and language extinction

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University specialising in research on creole languages.He's also a content-producing machine, never afraid to give his frank opinion on anything ...

20 Dec 20221h 47min

#141 – Richard Ngo on large language models, OpenAI, and striving to make the future go well

#141 – Richard Ngo on large language models, OpenAI, and striving to make the future go well

Large language models like GPT-3, and now ChatGPT, are neural networks trained on a large fraction of all text available on the internet to do one thing: predict the next word in a passage. This simpl...

13 Dec 20222h 44min

My experience with imposter syndrome — and how to (partly) overcome it (Article)

My experience with imposter syndrome — and how to (partly) overcome it (Article)

Today’s release is a reading of our article called My experience with imposter syndrome — and how to (partly) overcome it, written and narrated by Luisa Rodriguez. If you want to check out the links...

8 Dec 202244min

Rob's thoughts on the FTX bankruptcy

Rob's thoughts on the FTX bankruptcy

In this episode, usual host of the show Rob Wiblin gives his thoughts on the recent collapse of FTX. Click here for an official 80,000 Hours statement. And here are links to some potentially relev...

23 Nov 20225min

#140 – Bear Braumoeller on the case that war isn't in decline

#140 – Bear Braumoeller on the case that war isn't in decline

Is war in long-term decline? Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature brought this previously obscure academic question to the centre of public debate, and pointed to rates of death in war to a...

8 Nov 20222h 47min

#139 – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value

#139 – Alan Hájek on puzzles and paradoxes in probability and expected value

A casino offers you a game. A coin will be tossed. If it comes up heads on the first flip you win $2. If it comes up on the second flip you win $4. If it comes up on the third you win $8, the fourth y...

28 Okt 20223h 38min

Populärt inom Utbildning

rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
historiepodden-se
det-skaver
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
nu-blir-det-historia
allt-du-velat-veta
johannes-hansen-podcast
not-fanny-anymore
rss-viktmedicinpodden
roda-vita-rosen
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
sektledare
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
alska-oss
rss-basta-livet
rss-om-vi-ska-vara-arliga
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet