AI safety + community health
I began seeking counseling and mental health care when my timelines collapsed (shortened by ~20y over the course of a few months). It is like receiving a terminal diagnosis complete with uncertainty and relative isolation of suffering. Antidepressants helped. I am still saving for retirement but spending more freely on quality of life than I have before. I'm also throwing more parties with loved ones, and donating exclusively to x-risk reduction in addition to pivoting my career to AI.
We are EAs because we share the experience of being bothered - by suffering, by pandemic risk, by our communities' failure to prioritize what matters. Before EA, many of us were alone in these frustrations and lacked the support and resources to pursue our dreams of helping. I remember what it was like before EA and I'm never going back. Thank you, each of you, for bringing something beautiful into the world.
In the coming months, it could be valuable to estimate the total EV of this fraud so we can 1) map actions to consequences and 2) more deeply understand what happened here.
That might include:
-Loss of life from direct victims
-Reputation damage to EA and subsequent loss of funding, talent, and reduced growth
-Reduced efficacy of existing EA orgs due to damaged trust, reduced resources, and trauma
Some of these will be difficult to estimate. But I think we should know what we lost, and those engaged in fraud should know what it cost.
Inspiring. Thank you so much for sharing, and for your great gift!