We’re testing out a new service to connect people interested in using their careers to mitigate global catastrophic biological risks with people who work in the field. If you’re interested, please sign up here.
This is a follow-up project to my post last month, where we experimented with encouraging people to reach out to an “EA Professional” in the area of their interest. Depending on how well this goes, we may expand this out to advice in other areas.
More information is covered in the FAQ below. If you have thoughts or suggestions, We’d be happy to hear them.
FAQ
Who is this service for?
This service is for anyone who is seriously interested in working on mitigating catastrophic biological risks, like the risk of an engineered pandemic. If you’re unsure, you can read the 80,000 Hours problem profile on this here.
You don’t need to have any prior experience in the field; we have advisors prepared to talk to people at different career stages.
How should I prepare?
To get the most out of this service, we recommend that you prepare some questions to discuss with the advisor, and read some background materials if you haven’t already. Here are some articles we think are particularly useful as background for people interested in biosecurity:
- Reducing global catastrophic biological risks - 80,000 Hours
- Why experts are terrified of a human-made pandemic — and what we can do to stop it
- 'Future risks' chapter of The Precipice, Introduction and 'Pandemics' section
- Concrete Biosecurity Projects (some of which could be big)
Questions advisors might be able to help you with:
- I’ve read the relevant introductory literature but I’m not sure what my next step should be — do you have any suggestions?
- I have a specific career / education decision before me; do you have any input?
- I have a background in [supply chain management], how might I contribute to the field?
- Do you have any advice for how I can best test my fit for work in [X aspect of biosecurity work, e.g., US policy]?
Is this a good use of my/the advisor's time?
You won’t be wasting anyone’s time. The advisors here have decided that this is a good use of their time — if a call gets set up, you can assume everyone wants to be there. And the form is quick — less than 5 minutes to fill out.
How will you select who can have a call?
We hope to match most people with advisors. However, advisors have limited availability, so we’ll prioritize advisees based on relevance to their stated interests and backgrounds.
How are advisors selected?
Advisors were selected on the recommendation of a senior member of the EA biosecurity community.
Why this service?
I think speaking to more experienced people makes it more likely you’ll enter the field by providing inspiration, giving permission, and suggesting concrete ideas about what to do next. I want to lower the barrier to entry for people thinking of entering this field to chat with someone more experienced.
Why biosecurity specifically?
We’re currently running this as a test. In the future, we might expand to more fields.
Who’s running this?
This is an experimental project of the Centre for Effective Altruism.
Can I get advice on something else?
If you haven’t already considered getting career advice from 80,000 Hours, we highly recommend booking a 1:1 call. You can also check out this informal service to connect people to EA professionals in different areas.
If you would like to get advice on a specific area or from someone working in a particular field, we’d love to hear from you - please let us know here.
How can I ask more questions?
You can comment on this post or email forum@effectivealtruism.org.
Hi Tessa,
Thanks for your feedback. I agree that my comment was imprecise, and too sweeping, a common failure here.
It's true that we've had some success managing drugs, guns and traffic safety. Some success is acceptable with these factors because drugs, guns and reckless driving are limited forces which don't have the power to threaten the system as a whole. So we make mistakes, try to learn the lessons, improve upon past efforts, and continue forward. This is the pattern of progress which has characterized human history to date.
My contention is that such limited management success is not adequate with vast powers such as genetic engineering, because such technologies do pose a risk to the system as a whole. Starting with, say, Hiroshima, we've entered a new era where the traditional "mistakes>fixes>more progress" paradigm is becoming obsolete, a relic of the past.
I'm willing to learn, and agree that I obviously don't know every genetic engineering professional. Can you introduce us to any genetic engineering PhD who is publicly questioning whether the field of genetic engineering should exist? I would very much like to meet such a brave soul.
I'm not willing to violate social norms in the sense of being personally rude, engaging in food fights etc, as that is a waste of everyone's time, mine included.
I am however willing to violate social norms by posting similar content, expressing strong beliefs (which I'm entirely willing to have challenged) and by being as inconvenient as possible to those claiming that expertise on some narrow technical topic also makes them experts on the human condition which will ultimately decide the fate of our civilization.
Yes, lots of useful work can be done in the field of genetics, agreed of course. But none of that good work is going to matter if evil doers or stupid people, or just unintended mistakes crash the system as a whole.
Jennifer Doudna is a good person who wants to make CRISPR available to everyone. She is well intended, and a technical expert, but very naive about the human condition. While one person is curing cancer with technologies like CRISPR, somebody else is going to be engineering a bio-weapon which brings the house down. "Experts" seem unwilling to grasp this, and I believe that's primarily because they have too big of an investment in the status quo to be detached and objective.
Sorry for the too many words, another common failing here. As you've correctly observed, I do have strong feelings on this subject.
PS: I just found your website, like it! You seem like very much the kind of person I hope to dialog with, so I'm hoping that I can put enough on the table to make that worth your while.