I'm curious to see if I'm in this data, so I can help make it more accurate by providing info.
From the MIRI announcement:
Our big ask for you is: If you have any way to help this book do shockingly, absurdly well— in ways that prompt a serious and sober response from the world — then now is the time.
sober response from the world
sober response
Uh... this is debatably a lot to ask of the world right now.
I said "one of the best movies about", not "one of the best movies showing you how to".
The punchline is "alignment could productively use more funding". Many of us already know that, but I felt like putting a mildly-opinionated spin on what kind of things, at the margin, may help top researchers. (Also I spent several minutes editing/hedging the joke)
Virgin 2030s [sic] MIRI fellow:
- is cared for so they can focus on research
- has staff to do their laundry
- soyboys who don't know *real* struggle
- 3 LDT-level alignment breakthroughs per week
CHAD 2010s Yudkowsky:
- founded a whole movement to support himself
- "IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS"
- walked uphill both ways to Lightcone offices.
- alpha who knows *real* struggle
- 1 LDT-level alignment breakthrough per decade
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I think lots of humans are also just starved for compliments in general, outside of contexts like "You are a waiter and the social script tells the table to thank you" or "You are someone's spouse". The classic example in my mind is "male vs female socialization" and its consequences, e.g. as discussed in this screenshotted tumblr post or this other one. Men often, in some sense, get "too few" wanted compliments, and women get inundated with too many unwanted ones. "It's like one person dying of dehydration watching another one drown". Then, of course, classic nightmarish social/cultural/internet incentives layer atop this dynamic and make it worse.
Widespread chronic human under-complimented-ness seems relatively easy to explain, from the supply-side. How often does the average person hand out unsolicited compliments, outside of well-known contexts like the restaurant example above? I'd hazard a guess of "too little". People could easily be "well-put-together" and still suffering from this, just as "feeling full" and "having proper nutrition" aren't the same.