Considerations for PPE Strategy
A misaligned AI or human-AI group could attempt takeover by releasing a highly transmissible engineered pathogen. I discuss what a PPE strategy aimed at this threat model needs to get right.
The AI Industrial Explosion — Part 1: Maximum growth rates with current production methods
How fast can an AI-driven economy grow? Economists expect a few percentage points; at best those closer to AI development imagine Dyson spheres within years. Who is correct?
How I currently use AIs for research
I thought I'd document how I'm currently using AI tools, both because it's changed a lot in the past month and also in the hope that someone can look at this, be horrified, and tell me all the things I'm doing that could be better.
Will whole brain emulation matter for the AI transition?
Whole brain emulation gets suggested as a potential AI-safety lever. Here we investigate two questions: when could we get it relative to superintelligence, and would it matter if we did?
On far-UVC and air filtration
Discussions of built-environment pandemic defense tend to treat far-UVC as the standout technology and air filtration as an afterthought. I think this gets the ranking wrong.
Could humanity survive a total loss of agriculture?
I evaluate whether non-agricultural food technologies could be scaled up fast enough to feed humanity if there was an extreme attack on the crop production.