EA - Some lesser-known megaproject ideas by Linch

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Some lesser-known megaproject ideas, published by Linch on April 2, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.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 businessman who I knew from my old Vegns in Gaming days. He completely 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.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 reasonsLarge-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-winEA 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 timelinesEA Games 2: Sponsor a number of esports teams with 80,000 Hours, etc, logosGo 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 impostersDynasty: “World leaders or children of world leaders” matchmaking app + concierge service. Maybe if Hunter Biden married Xi Mingze, WWIII would become less likely?The above but for AGI companies. Is Demis Hassabis single? Is Sam Altman?A really big malaria netCovert 1% of the world’s stainless steel to paperclips, as a form of acausal trade/token of good faithTake over the education system of a small European countryImpact IslandAmerica’s Got Talent, except for AI alignmentColonize Mars: backup option for humanity, because bunkers are too cheapPayback: Genetically engineer an army of human-eating chickensFigure out how to resurrect Jeremy Bentham, ask him to do our cause prioritizationFlood the internet with memes/stories of AIs being good to humans, to help balance the training dataMandate 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 suitA really big mirror, to help with climate changeHappy rat farms (might be too expensive tho)Genetically engineer really fast-growing photosynthesizing plants to help combat climate changeGenetically engineer really rapidly breeding locusts to solve the problem of your GMO plants crowding out normal agricultureGenetically engineer really fast and lethal praying mantises to solve your locust problem(Brian Tomasik might be against this)Humane&painless APM-based pesticides/gray goo to help with your praying mantis problemThanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.