I work as a researcher in statistical anomaly detection in live data streams. I work at Lancaster University and my research is funded by the Detection of Anomalous Structure in Streaming Settings group, which is funded by a combination of industrial funding and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ultimately the UK Government).
There's a very critical research problem that's surprisingly open - if you are monitoring a noisy system for a change of state, how do you ensure that you find any change as soon as possible, while keeping your monitoring costs as low as possible?
By "low", I really do mean low - I am interested in methods that take far less power than (for example) modern AI tools. If the computational cost of monitoring is high, the monitoring just won't get done, and then something will go wrong and cause a lot of problems before we realise and try to fix things.
This has applications in a lot of areas and is valued by a lot of people. I work with a large number of industrial, scientific and government partners.
Improving the underlying mathematical tooling behind figuring out when complex systems start to show problems reduces existential risk. If for some reason we all die, it'll be because something somewhere started going very wrong and we didn't do anything about it in time. If my research has anything to say about it, "the monitoring system cost us too much power so we turned it off" won't be on the list of reasons why that happened.
I also donate to effective global health and development interventions and support growth of the effective giving movement. I believe that a better world is eminently possible, free from things like lead pollution and neglected tropical diseases, and that everyone should be doing at least something to try to genuinely build a better world.
We went through this whole thing to justify why we were allowed to book a "Christians-only" venue for a gathering once :D
For what it's worth, if you do understand Quakers to be entirely non-theist, and Meeting for Worship working to be evopsych related to genetic concepts of optimal group decision-making in the context of pre agricultural societies, then a) write more Quaker non-theist theology on that please I want to read it, and b) go pitch more EAs on your Meeting using said theology, because EA clearly has a critical burnout and individualism problem and could use more spiritual traditions.
But the point about seeking an infinite truth that lies beyond words, when you really see it, does actually get people way beyond language divisions. Because if it's true, then it doesn't matter what langage you use, other than for clarity. You can stop defending your position and just understand that others interpret the same thing in their framework.
If we've got in an argument over language, we have really missed the point of Quakers. (alas, this does happen way too often)
So, the point about "Christian sect" is that, assuming you are a Christian and adopt a trinitarian creedal view of God as an actual thing, then you basically have to agree that Quakers are calling on "God the Holy Spirit", whether or not that is what they say or think they are doing. Indeed, Quakers are actually some of the best at doing this consistently, all the time, and get genuine results. Thus, as long as Quakers are Quaker, Christians must regard them as a sect of Christianity, by deed rather than creed.
I totally agree that there are a whole bunch of non-Christian theist Quakers, and a whole bunch of non-theist Quakers, and it doesn't actually matter what your creed is because we (basically) all agree we're doing the same thing.
EA forum is probably not the place to get into theology.
Also I'd be genuinely interested in hearing more how liberal FGC (or other Quaker strands) are finding US EAs. I know of a fair few existing connections, but they seem fairly scattered.
(you can tell I've done this a lot, can't you)
Either that or just do principles-first EA teaching methods on Quakers until they get it. Cite all the relevant testimony in Faith and Practice to make them do the methods. Call it spiritual development of stewardship gifts. Which it is.
Ultimately, it's because the virtues of Principles-first EA, that is:
Are near enough a direct match to (about one third of) Quaker testimony on peace, equality, simplicity, truth. That there really is no Spirit-led driver of separation between Quakers and EA that isn't either:
I understand that EA is about impact, and Quakers is about witness/testimony, which is a difference in the form of virtue ethics framework. Perceptions first actions as natural result, or actions first perceptions as enforced means of generating actions?
But honestly, at that point you're so deep into philosophy chat that it might be best to just call it, go sing Simple Gifts, and have a Meeting for Worship.
Yes, worship sharing with the prompting stuff is good. I use the Experiment with Light prompts and I've also made a few other modifications.
So the way to convince (religiously convinced) Quakers about EAs is to tell them EAs are doing witness to the fact that the Light is in all places and all people and all times, by dialling down on cost-effectiveness as the way they prioritise their altruism. And that one may not be so led that way, but one should respect the leadings of others.
Beyond that it gets into questions of how far your Meeting is actually religious, society, friendly rather than what I'll call "the Secular Clique of Potential Enemies". And if you've a serious problem with that, that's an eldership issue that goes way beyond interactions with EAs.
But if necessary to do eldership on this matter, here's tips:
Ah, you won't get sustained working relationships from a bootcamp. The people who attend bootcamps are your competition, and the people who run bootcamps are teaching context rather than facilitating networking, and don't really have the brain space to form sustained relationships with cohort members.
Unfortunately, EA is full of a lot of people who are job hunting for the same jobs, which makes the community around this activity overly transient and, at times, divisive. I've written twice on this forum about the fact that we need to get better at lowering our infrastructure costs, and having less competitive application processes for infrastructure attendance focused around deeper networking and community capital development.
Finding the more stable, more unified parts of EA will help you build long-term relationships, but you'll probably be (directly or indirectly) expected to put in some money or volunteer time to do so.
If you find someone who gives a substantial amount of money to AI safety, they're probably the kind of person who would assist with your job hunting if you convinced them you're competent. But these kinds of people are found at effective giving focused events and spaces.
I'll continue to recommend a residential at the EA hotel in Blackpool UK. It operates as the shadowy centre of a surprising number of things in AI safety, its staff team are good at providing job hunting assistance, and its alumni network is vast and all over EA. The application process is relatively easy, because it selects for commitment by placing itself outside the Loxbridge bubble. And their £30 a night (food included) Patron rate basically removes the application process, they just check you understand what EA is and agree to follow their code of conduct.
https://aisafety.com/hackathon this is coming up and will likely have the "correct" people in attendance.
Posting reports on the EA forum about things you did, that others can usefully learn from, is another way of building the longer-term relationships. So it's good you found your way here!
Best of luck with the job hunt.
Oh, also - good job posting your first article on the EA Forum!
The fact that you have previously asked for spiritual direction means you're significantly closer than many other people on this Forum to "getting it", I reckon.
Things I'll recommend for keeping your fuel in a job rejection heavy life:
Reading Effective Altruism in the Garden of Ends https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/AjxqsDmhGiW9g8ju6/effective-altruism-in-the-garden-of-ends - in all of that, there's a quote about spiritual nourishment coming from a particular kind of quality of attention.
The Experiment with Light network: www.experiment-with-light.org.uk - the ExL is there as solo meditations, but they really are best done in groups. Done right it'll get you off "should" without getting you off committed motivation.
Looking up the PIN (position-interest-need) model for depolarisation, putting yourself on one P and someone you're trying to understand more on the other P, and going deeper until you find the shared N. Ideally this would be facilitated in a workshop the first few times you do it so you can be corrected on obvious mistakes. But I think you're probably pretty intelligent and would get stuff out of self-attempts.
Befriending someone local who's a singer and getting them to regularly sing you some of their favourite songs. If this sounds real scary, going to Sacred Harp meetups resulted in something similar.
Looking into the Active Hope framework (it's designed around climate doom, it works for EA doom with minimal alterations).
Once you've tried out some, you may gain understanding that interpersonal bonding over shared witnessing of the beautiful unites all these things, and (hopefully) also your spiritual direction, and indeed much of the best parts of EA. Once you've a) got the underlying concept and b) realised beauty is immaterial so it doesn't have to cost much money as long as you know your beauty sense well, you can probably work out how to fill your schedule with more of whatever best does it for you.
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Things I'll recommend for getting you a job:
Going for a residency at the EA Hotel in Blackpool, UK and using it to in-person network yourself into a job.
Volunteering at something you're good at already and visibly demonstrating altruism and competency in front to other EAs, and then asking them to help review your job applications. You probably do have an ingroup signalling problem rather than a competency problem, and the easiest fix is to demonstrate competency in front of EAs who are able and willing to fix the ingroup signals of competent people, because they understand that's a very high-impact action.
Dialing down the quantity of your job applications and upping the quality of each one. The mental cost (or gain) of job rejection should be taken into account in your calculus - it's fundamentally net negative applying for jobs where you'll be rejected and won't learn anything from the rejection.
I'd recommend the various AI safety bootcamps for gaining context, but honestly I think the EA Hotel would be faster and more convenient around any schedule you have.