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EA - On-Ramps for Biosecurity - A Model by Sofya Lebedeva
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: On-Ramps for Biosecurity - A Model, published by Sofya Lebedeva on December 14, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.Thank you to the following people for reviewing: @Lin BL @Tessa @Max Görlitz @Gregory Lewis @James Smith, Sandy Hickson & @Alix PhamTL:DRGetting a full-time role in biosecurity is hardSeeing a path to get there can be even harderI propose a model to think about on-ramps into biosecurity & provide a few use cases for it depending on the background you are coming in with.I provide an overview of how different organisations in this space fit into the model.If you are an undergrad start here.A common problemWhen I first heard about biosecurity I was excited by the80,000 hours podcast and impressed by the work of Kevin Esvelt, RAND and NTI. Even though I was studying molecular biology, a seemingly relevant subject I couldn't see a way for me to get involved and to find a full-time role in this field. The gap between hearing about biosecurity and working full-time in biosecurity felt huge.Figure 1: The gap between hearing about biosecurity and working full-time in the field.A proposed on-ramp modelThrough my experiences with reading groups, UC Berkeley EA, SERI BITS and now the Oxford Biosecurity Group I have found that working on short, object-level, scalable projects fills this gap. And since I get questions of how to fill the gap from others new to the field I made a model to explain my thoughts.Figure 2: Proposed model for On-Ramps into Biosecurity.Using the modelBelow I outline some touch points that people have with various organisations in the biosecurity space. It's important to note that this model is not always linear. It's important to question your assumptions at every stage and the "stages" themselves can be more fluid.Hear about it (0 - 10 hours)This stage can be passive or active depending on your timeline. Note that a lot of the 'hear about it' resources can also be 'learn about it' resources if they are used for more in-depth research at a later stage.80,000 HoursEA Forum (hehe)GCBR Organization Updates NewsletterBiosecurity newsletters you should subscribe toUniversity GroupsYour local EA GroupLearn about it (10 - 40 hours)This stage usually takes around 1-2 months and is more passive.List of Short-Term (
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