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Fooming Shoggoths! (And, more generally, much of the secular-solstice music -- there's already a database full of this somewhere.)
"Art with EA Vibes" database — what should I include?
2 min read
I made a database for "art with EA vibes" — books, movies, and other works, fiction or nonfiction, that cover topics or ideas related to effective altruism and are aesthetically pleasing or interesting.[1]
The second point is key. We already have reading lists for philosophy and such; this database covers content that most of us would read or watch for fun.[2]
I've started off with 19 items and will add more, but I need your help to make this a true public resource! (And avoid subjecting everyone to my questionable taste.)
Use this form! Or leave a comment below if that feels easier.
If you have comments on something already listed (e.g. content warnings, suggested tags), or ideas to improve the database itself, leave a comment or send me a message.
I'd love to see content that:
Specific genres we're short on:
If you're not sure whether something belongs, submit it! I'll check submissions regularly, and will let you know if I add your entry or have more questions.
Given the problems we deal with, "interesting" can include "horrifying".
By "us", I mean "people who have some interest in EA or related topics", not "Forum users" or "people who use the EA label".
I wouldn't say that HPMOR is "about EA", but it's about solving problems via clear thinking and the application of the scientific method, which feels close enough (though EA doesn't own those things — no one owns the methods of rationality). Call it something like "humane rationality" if you prefer. Maybe Eliezer has some other way of referring to it?
Fooming Shoggoths! (And, more generally, much of the secular-solstice music -- there's already a database full of this somewhere.)
obligatory https://thingofthings.substack.com/p/movie-review-the-story-of-louis-pasteur (i've watched this like 5 times i adore it, thanks ozy for the rec)
I think this is a great initiative!
@Pablo Rosado has a Youtube channel in Spanish (with English subtitles) called Altrufísica, where he publishes videos on science and altruism topics. Several of his videos directly address EA themes (e.g. nuclear risks, animal welfare, effective donations and more) and are well worth checking out.
For the more poetically/musically inclined, we also produced a song that I wrote together, Run Away With Me. This song is about what it feels like to be close to someone who's trying to change the world, and watching the toll it takes on that person... with a twist at the end ;)
Finally, Ricard Soler produced a full-length rap album in Catalan, Parets de Vidre ("walls of glass") under his artist name Nu Drama. It addresses many different aspects about animal agriculture, including animal suffering, climate change, environmental degradation, and how to cook delicious vegan meals :D It's freaking amazing. The videoclip for Jo he vist ("I have seen") has English subtitles.
In general, I'm excited to see more art with EA-themes being produced in a range of languages and cultural contexts!
I think there might be quite a few more Kurzgesagt videos that could fit beyond The Last Human, though I haven't rewatched them recently so some might be a bit outdated by now. Some examples:
For animal welfare/factory farming: this or this one
For nuclear risk: this or this
For biorisk: this one
For AI risk: A.I. this one
And this one which, if I remember correctly, is based on a part of What We Owe the Future
On the movie side, a few things that come to mind: Fantastic Planet (1973), an old French animated film and one of the earliest depictions of antispeciesism in movies, with some scenes that are still pretty striking. For more mainstream films maybe Ex Machina for AI risk and the difficulty of controlling AI, and even WALL-E (depicting a kind of post-AI society and an AI that's not completely aligned).
Not sure it fits neatly in your categories, but the mirror bacteria prototype shelter I put up garnered both curatorial interest and excitement from serious artists: https://www.fonixfuture.com/
Framing these as ownable, inhabitable existential art objects people can put up in their backyard for contemplation/conversation starting has resulted in a few deposits for pre-orders. Very happy to share more information!
Btw, would you consider adding author/publisher and work type (film, music, book, etc.) columns to the table? For example, I'm not sure that many people would know that "The Last Human" is a Kurzgesagt video unless they clicked through to the video page.
Thanks for the reminder -- didn't mean to leave out the type.
I skipped "Creator" at first because I wasn't sure it was worth the space (mostly one-time creators here), but when I thought more, it seems useful for people to be able to e.g. filter through all the Scott Alexander content once the database is bigger. And it saves people from having to specify creators in the title. And people can always filter it out for themselves. So it's in for now!
Thanks for posting this! I noticed that the Airtable is currently broken, though 🫠
Fixed! Thanks for the alert.
@Aaron Gertler 🔸 weird bug where the fields don't show:
Thanks, this should be fixed now.
Can you make it easier to submit (volume) by making fields optional? I.e. I'd love to just submit a handful of links - AI can generate the summary etc.
I'd prefer for the submitter to write or generate a summary, so that it covers what they think is important — an AI summary of e.g. "War With The Newts" probably won't hint at the EA parallels.
I also like having less AI text around if I can help it; I don't personally mind it in this context, but think it tends to degrade reading experience for many people.
That said, I'd like to make life easier for submitters, so I've removed the mandate from "summary" and "media type". I left "EA vibes" because that still requires a human touch — my experiments in getting AI to explain a book's EA vibes have been mixed at best, and a work's connection to EA is often quite personal for the submitter (we all see EA a bit differently).
Do you mean like portraits of nerds with pocket protectors full of pens and heavy guilt feelings on their face?
Jose Gonzalez' last two albums are wonderful and have significant (and explicit) EA influences. He'll be promoting the GWWC pledge on his upcoming tour too!
Visions is one my favourites: