jasoncrawford

Speak­ing: Fore­sight, In­sti­tuto Mille­nium, CS Monitor

Mak­ing ev­ery re­searcher seek grants is a bro­ken model

Cel­lu­lar re­pro­gram­ming, pneu­matic launch sys­tems, and ter­raform­ing Mars: Some things I learned about at Fore­sight Vi­sion Weekend

• jasoncrawfordDec 31, 2023, 7:03 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: Christopher Chan’s comment on: Nei­ther EA nor e/​acc is what we need to build the future

  I liked Vitalik’s post and generally agree

The Roots of Progress 2023 in review

Ja­son’s links di­gest, 2023-12-29: Rayleigh’s oil drop ex­per­i­ment and more

• jasoncrawfordDec 19, 2023, 2:28 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: NicholasGruen’s comment on: Ac­cel­er­at­ing sci­ence through evolv­able institutions

  OK, sorry!

• jasoncrawfordDec 18, 2023, 5:05 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: Michael Frank Martin’s comment on: Ac­cel­er­at­ing sci­ence through evolv­able institutions

  Good point, I agree! Something important to creating the right research lab team and culture.

• jasoncrawfordDec 18, 2023, 2:43 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: NicholasGruen’s comment on: Ac­cel­er­at­ing sci­ence through evolv­able institutions

  Hmm, I don’t agree with how you are characterizing my assumptions about human nature. I’m not assuming that scientists are after money or prestige. I assume most of them, or at least the best of them, are motivated by curiosity, the desire to discover and to know, and the value of scientific knowledge for humanity.

  Re accountability, I frankly think we could do with a bit less of it. Accountability is always in tension with research freedom.

  Re people performing for their superiors: I actually think scientists performing for their managers would be a much healthier model than what we have today, which is scientists performing for their grant committees. I have another piece on this that I plan to publish soon.

• jasoncrawfordDec 18, 2023, 2:38 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: Michael Frank Martin’s comment on: Ac­cel­er­at­ing sci­ence through evolv­able institutions

  Curiosity is already a very strong motivator, we just need to enable it and get out of the way. Give scientists funding without making them narrowly constrain their goals, dial down their ambition, or spend half their time writing grants. Then give them the research freedom to pursue that curiosity wherever it leads. It’s not easy but it is pretty simple.

Ja­son’s links di­gest, 2023-12-15: Vi­talik on d/​acc, $100M+ in prizes, and more

Ac­cel­er­at­ing sci­ence through evolv­able institutions

The ori­gins of the steam en­g­ine: An es­say with in­ter­ac­tive an­i­mated diagrams

• jasoncrawfordNov 29, 2023, 4:16 AM

  1 point

  in reply to: Yarrow B.’s comment on: Marc An­dreessen pens “Techno-Op­ti­mist Man­i­festo.” Discuss

  Good question, I don’t know. People have been talking about “progress studies” or the “progress movement” or “progress community”, and others have talked about the “abundance agenda”, but none of those lend themselves to personal labels/​identities…

• jasoncrawfordNov 28, 2023, 2:40 AM

  1 point

  in reply to: Yarrow B.’s comment on: Marc An­dreessen pens “Techno-Op­ti­mist Man­i­festo.” Discuss

  I have never particularly liked the term “techno-optimism” anyway. “Optimism” on its own is confusing enough. “Techno-optimism” implies that not only do you think we can solve all problems, but that technology will be the solution to all of them, which is not really true.

• jasoncrawfordNov 27, 2023, 9:24 PM

  1 point

  in reply to: SebastianG’s comment on: Nei­ther EA nor e/​acc is what we need to build the future

  Thanks, good point about the flow here.

• jasoncrawfordNov 27, 2023, 9:21 PM

  2 points

  in reply to: Robert Tolan’s comment on: Nei­ther EA nor e/​acc is what we need to build the future

  Thanks Robert. I think progress studies needs a more well-defined value system. I have gestured at “humanism” as the basis for this, but it needs much more.

  I agree that Rand’s ideas are important here, particularly her view of creative/​productive work as a noble activity and of scientists, inventors and business leaders as heroic figures.

Ja­son’s links di­gest, 2023-11-24: Bot­tle­necks of ag­ing, Star­ship launches, and much more

Nei­ther EA nor e/​acc is what we need to build the future

Pod­cast in­ter­view with Giu­li­ano Giacaglia