From: Gary Miller (garymiller@starband.net)
Date: Fri Nov 08 2002 - 08:11:49 MST
I am fairly new to the list, but I have been working on Friendly AI for
many years. I hate to see the same money problems here that I have been
watching over the last several months in the Alice foundation.
I think you are on the right track to fund raising on this thread
though.
Donors need to feel involved in the project. There needs to be a shared
sense of accomplishment and accountability in terms of what's being
done.
I would be less interested in seeing a blog than seeing a well
maintained project plan in enough detail to show me that the research
plan is in fact concrete enough that it can be broken into definable
steps with periodic milestones.
This has the added benefit of allowing volunteers to step up to specific
tasks and perhaps donating skill and expertise as well as money.
I realize that research efforts often cannot be specific as to when or
if a given long-term objective will be accomplished, but the project
plan could list immediate 1-3 month goals, medium range goals 4-12 month
goals and long term.
I am fairly new to the list and have read some postings regarding ethics
of the AI, some regarding the funding, but thus far nothing has really
demonstrated to me how this large project is to be attacked.
I must admit I am not in the position to donate much in the way of
financial funding myself right now.
My research is self-funded and I am approaching the bottom of the barrel
also and will need full-time employment to continue my research.
Let me bring up another funding idea though. Think of some aspect of
the early project phases that could be made interesting to National
Science Foundation. It sounds like some of the principles here may have
the scientific credentials to pull off an NSF grant. Doing a grant
proposal does require enough of a plan to instill credibility but then
so does fundraising,
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org] On Behalf Of Slawomir
Paliwoda
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 4:22 PM
To: sl4@sl4.org
Subject: Re: AGI funding (was Re: Some bad news)
> In
> return, that researcher sets up a blog that they update everyday to
> let it be known what they did. Even if there's no interesting
> research to report, they might just write up some interesting personal
> anecdote for the day.
Yes, this is a good idea.
> Many people like that kind of personal connection with another person
> and they could see that their money is going somewhere, even if it's
> just to get a couple of paragraphs of quickly written prose from one
> of the more interesting people on the planet.
Exactly. Websites that are not being frequently updated are such a turn
off.
Also, what I think needs to happen here is for as many potential
individual donors as possible to become aware of the Singularity and
SIAI's research. I mean all people with, let's say, more than a 1M$ in
the bank. I don't think it's time to be picky and rely exclusively on
the residents of Silicon Valley to provide the funding.
How can those people be reached? Well, not really through internet. One
solution might be publishing either CFAI (perhaps, with some more
accessible
language) or something else, and further promotion. I might have some
ideas where.
My other ideas are totally "off the wall" so it might not be a good idea
to reveal them just yet.
Slawek
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