February Recap

This past month we've started having our bimonthly events and dinner socials in person again. At our events in February, we discussed topics such as Isaac's new machine learning approach, the moral relevance of non-human animals, and whether political campaigns can be a good EA cause area. Carrick Flynn, co-founder of the Centre for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence and former Research Faculty at the Centre for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET), has also launched his campaign for Congress in Oregon's 6th district.

PEAR's book group finished reading "The Metamorphosis of the Prime Intellect," by Roger Williams, and is in the process of selecting a new book. We're using approval voting in the book club channel of the Discord server (https://discord.gg/p9mKJAd9DY). The contestants are Reasons and Persons, by Derek Parfit; Moral Uncertainty, by William MacAskill; Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio; Bad Beliefs, by Neil Levy; and Three Worlds Collide, by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Visit the Discord server or this form to vote for which ones you'd like to read! The poll closes at the end of the day on March 3rd (today!).

Updates for March

1. PI-Day Celebration 3/13

We will be playing board games, getting pies, and all sorts of pizza. Everyone is welcome, come join!
 

2. New Newsletter: Community Spotlight

We have a new newsletter highlighting activities and projects that PEAR community members are doing. Keep and eye out for something awesome you can get involved with on the 15th of every month. 

3. The Carrick Congressional Campaign

This continues to be a high impact opportunity our community can be involved with. To help you can volunteer with the campaign, donate, follow them on Twitter, or email the campaign at reachout@carrickflynnfororegon.com.

Upcoming Events (public calendar)

03/07: Article discussion hosted by Solutions (6 pm, Solutions Discord server)
03/09: PEAR dinner social (5:30 pm, Cartopia)
03/13: Bi-weekly meetup, Pi Day board games edition (5 pm, Beeminders' house)
03/14: Article discussion hosted by Solutions (6 pm, Solutions Discord server)
03/21: Article discussion hosted by Solutions (6 pm, Solutions Discord server)
03/23: PEAR dinner social (5:30 pm, Cartopia)
03/27: Bi-weekly meetup (5 pm, Beeminders' house)
03/28: Article discussion hosted by Solutions (6 pm, Solutions Discord server)
 

Please only attend in PEAR-son events if you are vaccinated, we encourage you to get the booster also. All events will be confirmed by an email on the day of due to varying covid and outdoor conditions.