Astral Codex Ten

ALTER

5 min read

ALTER

Article

ALTER is a recurring organization in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between February 03, 2022 and April 24, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “ALTER, the Associations for Long Term Existence and Resilience, is an academic research and advocacy organization being started in Israel”; “ALTER is looking to hire a mathematician”. It most often appears alongside 538, 55-gal drum, 750k horny men.

Metadata

  • Category: Organizations
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: February 03, 2022
  • Last seen: April 24, 2022

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

ACX Grants ++: The First Half
February 03, 2022 · Original source
#8: Alternative Solar Power Plants I am developing an alternative approach to solar-thermal power plants: I want to use lenses rather than mirrors to concentrate sunlight. Reasons why lenses might be better than mirrors: 1) More robust, easier to maintain, more self-contained. 2) Easier / cheaper to mass-produce at the extreme scale needed to transition society away from fossil fuels. 3) Will be possible to capture the light into optical fibers which will make it easier to transport from the collection field to the centralized hub where it will be utilized. I wrote my own software to design the lens, which will be a Fresnel lens that has two layers that make it an achromatic doublet. It will be very difficult and cost several hundred thousand dollars to tool the plastic injection mold to produce these lenses. Tooling the mold is the critical, make-or-break stage of this project. I am not sure if it is even possible to machine the mold accurately enough, or to counteract the lens warping as it cools. But if we can do this then it will be possible to mass-produce these lenses far more cheaply than solar panels or mirrors, and once the lens is manufactured we can use existing technology for the other parts of the plant. I am looking for somebody to help with the injection molding, and somebody who can help with funding the project, which will cost several hundred thousand dollars. Email me at ecpoppenheimer@gmail.com
#18: Philanthropic Messaging Strategies Using Evolutionary Ideas I’m Ro Gupta. Inspired initially by https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/what-is-the-greatest-good/395768/, I’d like to commission research that explores if and how Kin Selection and Hamilton’s Rule [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection#Hamilton%27s_rule] can be applied in mass communications for altruistic giving of humans in modern times. The goal is to uncover alternative messaging strategies that help subjects transcend blood-thicker-than-water hardwiring, based on underlying evolutionary biology theory – e.g. kin recognition, kin altruism – that ultimately serves to increase wealthy countries’ proportion of altruistic giving to less genetically familiar yet higher need/ impact populations, e.g. those of the Global South. [Estimates suggest around 5% of US giving currently goes to international causes.] I believe I have the right combination of academic, professional, NGO and global experience [https://www.linkedin.com/in/guptaro] to lead this, and access to a high quality network of research and communications experts to match grants to. I estimate a robust synthesis of existing work could be done for the low tens of thousands of USD, while a primary research phase one could be substantively scoped for the high tens to one hundred thousand USD. If of interest to be a part of this as a researcher, funder or general thought partner, please get in touch: http://www.rocrastination.com/contact/.
#28: A Tool For Reasoning With Information On Prediction Markets I am an AI researcher specialising in explainable AI and symbolic/hybrid methods, particularly argumentation - automating the ways humans argue and make decisions. One place of decision making that could greatly benefit from formal argumentative methods of exchanging and weighing arguments and counter-arguments to reach conclusions is (conditional) prediction markets. We need good computational tools for aggregating multiple conflicting conditional predictions into ranked decision alternatives, such as on changing car taxes based on market prices of electricity from renewables, supply of electric vehicles, and election results. I want to research and build a PoC tool for reasoning with information on prediction markets, one that collects multiple predictions and automatically evaluates them as arguments and counter-arguments, while allowing the human users to argue about the decisions for the sake of explainable reasoning. I need 50k+ USD for 5 months of full-time dedicated work (in UK - liable to pay tax) to push automated deicison making using (conditional) prediction markets. Ping me at kcyras@gmail.com if interested.
Open Thread 221
April 24, 2022 · Original source
1: ALTER is looking to hire a mathematician to work with Vanessa Kosoy on her AI alignment research. Competitive salary, can work remotely.
Inline links: looking to hire a mathematician