See also: [[ii Salon—The Future of Humanity & The Methods of Ethics]], [[> Nick Bostrom Intro]]. ## 2021-09: Longlist 1. The Age of Em & a couple of blog posts from Holden's "Most important century" series 2. Conservatism and future generations (more Scheffler, basically) 3. Nick Bostrom: Under Fire (discussion of best criticisms / alternative worldviews, in the spirit of the Peter Singer: Under Fire book) 4. Nietzsche vs Effective altruism 5. What is philosophy? (Nietzsche, Parfit) ## 2021-07: Vision PH hosts four [Interintellect](https://interintellect.com) salons to discuss topics from the work of Nick Bostrom. Salon topics / working titles (0.1.2): 1. The Future of Humanity & The Methods of Ethics 2. Giving birth: Human Enhancement, Digital Minds 3. The Vulnerable World Hypothesis & Existential Risk as Global Priority 4. Builders & Nervous Nellies: Visions for the future, and what to work on next For each salon, people read at least one of the papers highlighted in [[Nick Bostrom – An Introductory Reader]]. Core reading is mandatory!! Optional further reading suggested by PH. Some focus question or questions suggested by PH, participants encouraged to submit questions before salon starts or at beginnning of salon. Salon format: - Closer to academic seminar than a chill no-prep-expected salon. - Some structural devices to maintain a reasonable level of focus and urgency - ?? The series starts with a "pilot" episode, hosted with a smaller group. It'll be a dry run of salon (1). Probably I just do that with some pals (i.e. not advertise publicly). ## Next steps - [ ] Read II Salon host guidance - [x] Web pages - [ ] Training videos - [x] Check Discord - [x] Share this note for comment from Anna & Ben - [x] Ask at least 1 80K staff member to talk me out of this - [x] Figure out salon 1 prep steps - [x] Schedule pilot for mid or late July ### Steps to prep for salon 1 - [x] Salon content - [x] First draft the [salon description](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B2k-qT6rY3qNpqjcvA8VLhZUrsHFz8YdTGZv8KJ0Fr0/edit) - [x] https://interintellect.com/atheneum/how-to-list-your-ii-event/ - [x] Second draft - [x] Share for feedback (maybe publish first) - [x] Final draft the salon description - [x] Publish to II - [ ] Complete esssential salon prep - [x] Decide whether to do a dry run, if yes, schedule and send invitations - [ ] Complete promotion - [ ] Contact friends & acquaintances - [ ] Contact "big names"? - [ ] Post to EA Forum - [x] Retweet Anna announcement - [ ] Post my own tweet - [ ] Salon format thoughts - [ ] Remove introduction section details from the II listing - [ ] If >20 ppl attending... - [ ] Cut down the intros section. Prob remove the one line bio bit.... - [ ] Think more about how to structure the discussion, give it urgency etc - [ ] Where should we start, for thinkig abouut what toexpect - [ ] Where should we start, for thinking abot what matters - [ ] Other devices - [ ] Zoom BG? - [ ] [ ] Create Salon feedback form, any other supporting materials - [ ] 5 minute intro talk? - [ ] - [ ] Complete dry run prep - [x] Send 80K invitation - [ ] Sunday PM: check on 80K interest, if not strong enough, send more invitations - [ ] ... - [ ] Complete last minute prep - [ ] 3-7 days before: check attendee list - [ ] On the day - [ ] Mic check - [ ] Zoom link - [ ] Optional salon prep - [ ] Buy better microphone - [ ] More reading and writing on these themes ### Dry run? - Fri 16th, 8pm CET / 7pm UK - Duration 1.5 hours - Attendees: 3-10, ideally around 5. - ~~Friday: 80K team~~ - Then: Any of the friends and acquaintainces that I will manually invite to the full salon - That's probably enough. If not enough: CEA Slack --- 80K Slack message: https://80000hours.slack.com/archives/C03ME58AN/p1625837389000600 I will host an Interintellect Salon on “The Future of Humanity & The Methods of Ethics” on Thursday 22nd July. Event details are here: https://interintellect.com/salon/the-methods-of-ethics-the-future-of-humanity/ I will also host an invitation-only warm up event on Friday 16th July, starting 7pm UK. It’ll cover the same material and have the same format as the salon, except it’ll be free to attend, scheduled for 1.5 hours, and there will only be 3-10 attendees (I’m aiming for about 5). *Would you like to attend the warm up event?* If yes, please RVSP on this thread, or by email to [email protected]. *If you’d like to talk 1-1 about Sidgwick / Scheffler / metaethics over the next 2 weeks, I’d be keen to.* Times I can do are here: https://pjh.is/call/. I’m also keen for reading suggestions. If you’d like to attend the salon proper, you can book via the ii website. I’ve no idea who will attend. I will promote the event via some ii channels and probably the EA Forum, and also send some personal invitations. I went to a handful of ii events during the spring. The calibre and level of “serious interest” of the attendees varies, but the average is better than I might have guessed. The Agnes Callard salon was attended by several academics I hadn’t heard of, Nigel Warburton, Tyler Cowen (briefly), a bunch of university students, and a few random professionals. --- ## Should I do this? Why do this (personal benefits): 1. Force me to interrogate / form / share my views & do more related reading. 2. Get interesting ideas / reactions from others. ([Cunningham's Law](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law)) 3. Make new connections with ppl who are thinking about this stuff. 4. Experiment: maybe I love it / find it a fantastic learning aid and should do it a bunch more during this year. 5. Experiment: get paid to write / learn / interrogate / teach 6. If it goes well, the recordings could be a useful asset for e.g. online profile, getting funding, etc. Why do this (social benefits): 1. Spread / scrutinise / develop important ideas. 2. Inputs to inform a redraft of [[Nick Bostrom – An Introductory Reader]], and other things I might create on these topics in the future. Why not do this (personal costs): 1. Too distracting from key focus for this period (learning). Why not do this (social costs): 1. If I do a bad job, it may reflect badly on EA / 80K. 1. I wish I could do this as a private individual, without the baggage of previously working at 80K and thereby residually representing it. 1. Fundamentally can't do a tonne about this. I suppose I could omit that from my bio when promoting the salon, but that background feels pretty darn relevant, to the point of being a bit weird to omit? 2. The solution is just: do it well. Steelman case against: 1. I should do this, but not now. Consider again later in the year. 1. What would this push out? 1. More work with private tutors. 2. More writing on other topics. 3. Tools for thought explorations. 4. Co-founder explorations. 5. Micro-SaaS explorations. 2. I should not do this at all—it's pushing out better opportunities. Pre-mortem: 1. Barely anyone shows up 1. Take promotion seriously 2. I'd actually be happy with a very small group for the first go. 1. Practice run, then go again and promote heavily. 1. Hmm, maybe I should actually do that! 2. I get very nervous / lose sleep over it 1. If super impressive people sign up, I may get nervous. 1. Speaks in favour of starting with a small, practice salon. 3. Large audience has a bad time due to poor hosting on my part. 1. Attend some salons. 2. Read II guidance. 2. Think / write for at least an hour on hosting style 4. Large audience gets a bad or mistaken impression of Bostrom / EA / me. What are nearby alternatives? - It feels a _bit_ like hosting a podcast interview. - Working 1-1 with a private tutor - ... How to de-risk? 1. Start with a "pilot" episode, then review. 2. Attend some salons to learn about different hosting styles. 3. Read the II guidance. 4. .... Overall: - I say: do it. ## Main concerns / uncertainties - Intended audience - ?? - How to promote this / attract attendees? - Could post to EA Forum, but then I'd get a bunch of EAs - Maybe that's fine. - Trading on brand "80,000 Hours" - How would I feel if Howie, Ben, Rob, Arden, Will, Leopold, Collison, Valgeir, AppliedDivinityStudies, Roache turned up? - Actually good? - How much time should I budget for this? - Minimal version could be done in hours, but I'd want to do this really well. That would mean: - A bunch of preparatory reading and writing on my part - Somewhat carefully crafting Salon reading, focus questions, format - At least a few hours of promotion work - Sounds like something in range of 1-4 weeks of main focus to host 4 salons. - Hmm, ok I would like to get paid for this. --- ## II Hosting Guidance When you're ready you can list it / them here: - Create a login / then Create a Salon: [https://interintellect.memberful.com/checkout?plan=60128&coupon=iiHost](https://interintellect.memberful.com/checkout?plan=60128&coupon=iiHost)  - How to list a Salon: [https://interintellect.com/atheneum/how-to-list-your-ii-event/](https://interintellect.com/atheneum/how-to-list-your-ii-event/)  - All Host info: [https://interintellect.com/atheneum/host-info/](https://interintellect.com/atheneum/host-info/) Informal internal calendar to see which days are "taken" (of course salons can overlap and engage different audiences) [https://interintellect.com/host-planning-calendar/](https://interintellect.com/host-planning-calendar/) And an example of how miniseries are listed if you'd like to go that way  [https://interintellect.com/event/the-town-and-the-country-through-time/](https://interintellect.com/event/the-town-and-the-country-through-time/) Big series are an option too, and for this topic it might make the most sense - see this as an example: [https://interintellect.com/series/the-story-of-philosophy/](https://interintellect.com/series/the-story-of-philosophy/) --- https://interintellect.com/atheneum/the-five-rules-of-gathering/ II values: - Open - we try to welcome the wider world to our Salons. We articulate our topic, make sure the news reaches those interested in it, and create an environment newcomers can enjoy too. This way we find new “fellow Interintellects,” make new friends, and extend our horizons—continuously. - Nonpolitical / no-agenda - our events don’t have any _goal_ beyond themselves: we gather as in an infinite game, on a playground for thinking, an arena to share and exchange our thoughts. (Our “goal” – as in Carse’s system — is simply to keep playing.) - Hosts’ job is to “keep things complicated”—to keep the arena safe for play for everyone. - Balanced - As much as possible, we strive to make equal speaking time possible for all attendees. It’s not mandatory, of course: we offer it, but any attendee can decide they prefer to be more extroverted during a Salon. (Do they mean more introverted?) - Multidisciplinary - Accessible - Interintellect events are approachable for any level of knowledge in any topic. https://interintellect.com/atheneum/the-four-rules-of-hosting/ - I. Continuity - II. Imperfect Host - we Interintellect Hosts are happily imperfect! We don’t teach, don’t lecture, don’t give talks—we expect some preliminary reading and active participation, but nothing that requires a degree in the topic. - An ii **Host is there to facilitate a conversation between the attendees**. The Host will make sure that all the important angles are covered, that everyone who has something to share is heard, and that everyone has a good experience. - Essentially, the **Host is in service of the attendees and the topic**. That’s why our vibe is so laid back and unpretentious: the Host is never professorial – **more like a fellow student helping everyone learn together**! - III. Ritual Space - we run ii events in roughly the same format every single time. Our attendees become familiar with it, and can “switch off” the part of their mind that is alert to uncertain environments. In the freed up “disk space”, magic happens! We like to say that ritual is repetition filled with meaning – and in this sense, an Interintellect Salon is indeed a ritual. - Hosts are responsible for conducting their room – as if it were their own living room – in this spirit of hospitable reliability. We state house rules at the beginning, and then we keep a firm ground, so that on the thoughts-and-feelings level all the buzzing combinations can develop. (This is also why when something is different about a specific event, the Host will say so at the beginning.) - III. **Anchoring (to Truth)** - At ii Salons, we make a special effort to begin with insightful introductions aided by our ritualistic “prompt question.” However complicated, personal or “hot button” the topic of the night is, we start with the truth: about ourselves, our experiences… No goal, no selling, no self-promotion. Just being human. We’ve noticed that **starting from this point of trust, transparency and patience** enables worries and suspicions to “switch off” too. in this spirit of lasting bonds, approachable facilitation, reliable format and trustworthy togetherness, we build our city of minds in Interintellect. https://interintellect.com/atheneum/ii-event-types/ A Salon is an evening-length — 2.5 to 5 hours, typically 3 — conversation around a specific topic, carrying the atmosphere of a living room gathering.  Salons have limited spots, offer paid but affordable tickets, include a reading list so the discussion can start on a common ground. ii Salons are hosted by ii Hosts who have received training, are invited into the online forum, look after their follow-up channel in the forum, and respect the [Four Rules of Hosting](https://interintellect.com/the-four-rules-of-hosting/). ### 1. Salons A regular Salon is a facilitated discussion with a round of intros. Some Hosts use slides and other media materials as part of their facilitation.  ### 2. Workshop Salons During a Workshop Salon, something is _being made_: we produce writing, art, mind maps, some kind of framework for later use, etc.. ### 3. Reading Salons Reading Salons entail not just discussing texts previously read, but reading them aloud on the spot too. Poetry, prose, a scene from a play, or song lyrics may be on the menu. Sometimes, the Host brings surprising new material the attendees encounter during the Salon for the first time! ### 4. “Carousel” Salons We’ve done two of these so far — the [Singles Salon](https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-singles-salon-a-singles-mingle-holidays-special-by-interintellect-tickets-131608154533) and the [Friend-Finding Mingle](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-interintellect-friend-finding-self-discovering-mingle-tickets-140278206893). At these Salons there are breakout rooms and 1:1 sessions, icebreaker questions and a shared “reception hall”. The Host decides about all the details and shares the house rules in the event description and at the start of the Salon. https://interintellect.com/atheneum/host-info/ ## ii promotion tips **We strongly encourage Hosts to leave at least 10 days for promotion after publishing. This means that ideally an event is submitted around 12 days before the intended date of hosting. The ii Team reserves the right to refuse publishing a Salon where the window for promotion time is too narrow.** Some ideas for promotion:  #### Discord - If you’ve hosted before, notify your follow up channel  - Notify community members you think could be interested via DMs - Post into the Salons channel (background info on your Salon, info on the reading list, etc.) and into the thematic channels #### Twitter - Our new handle is [@interintellect_](https://twitter.com/interintellect_) - Please retweet our tweets mentioning your Salon (we will tag you so you can see), and if other attendees or Interintellects mention you as well - It’s a good idea to share your thoughts, notes, readings — as well as articles, videos, quote tweets — as you prepare for your Salons. Your attendees are active thinkers whose curiosity will be awoken by the material you share  - Additional tweets about your Salon’s topic, polls, media can also be great ways to create the vibe - Commenting under other people’s relevant tweets often does wonders - Notifying people in DMs is always a great idea — not just friends, but for example most of our celebrity attendees have also come to their first ii Salons through (cold) DMs #### Personal channels All your curious friends and colleagues are your audience — they might just not know about it yet! - Emails / DMs to individuals or groups - Professional, academic, pastime circles (LinkedIn, Slack, mailing lists, etc.) - Your blog, newsletter, Clubhouse club - Some Hosts also like to invite their partners, family  Note that in our current structure, all ii Hosts get a +1 free ticket to pass on to somebody they’d like to invite (you can just pass on the Zoom link to 1 person). ### **Zoom Housekeeping** Most Hosts have some notes in front of them when they Host, and they also take notes during the event about points made by the attendees and their own train of thought. It’s much easier to listen as opposed to waiting for your turn to speak when you can relax knowing you won’t forget what you want to say. It’s okay not to watch the Zoom chat too much during the call (it can be distracting) but keep an eye on private (red) messages — people might have questions or want to let you know they’re leaving soon. If you do prompt / intro questions, it’s worth adding that into the chat for those who arrived late. ### **Salon Documentation** If this was your first Salon, ask an admin to create your follow up channel on Discord. Right after the Salon, you should submit your Salon documentation in the form sent to you by email, which you can also [access from here](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJKNn7ZQ7eHJ2C28Wfux4RlC73TAsUbvfPjgQTn7hGNlJ9dw/viewform). It will ask you for: - The text file containing the Zoom chat - One or two screenshots of the Salon - A summary paragraph As ii Hosts, making sure the value of an unrecorded live event where incredible people think together for 3-5 hours is captured for posterity is part of our job. It’s very important for attendees to be able to find each other and continue thinking together after Salons. When we’ve done tens of thousands of Salons, and you hundreds, the screenshots, Zoom chats and follow up channels — and the new Community Resources library we’re building — will be your pointers of memory: to know who was there, find people, build new Salons on your previous Salons. Documenting Salons is taken so seriously because after people have left and the Zoom call is closed all this information may be irretrievable. When you have a Scribe in the room (you’ll see this in their Zoom name) they will likely take care of the screenshots and saving the chat. Yfou can also ask an attendee present whom you trust to do so.  But whichever is the case, the Salon being documented is your responsibility as a Host, and that we receive images and texts through [the form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJKNn7ZQ7eHJ2C28Wfux4RlC73TAsUbvfPjgQTn7hGNlJ9dw/viewform) right after the end of the Salon. (It’s far better for two people to save the same thing than none.) #### Post-Salon recaps A new thing we’re introducing is post-Salon recaps. These are one-paragraph summaries written by the Host or one of the cohosts with the most important points raised during the Salon. It should omit private information or opinions expressed by the attendees.  The point of these summaries is, once again, memory. You can paste and pin them into your follow up channel, put them on your Host page once these have been launched — and we can send them out as recaps in the ii newsletter, etc. They will inspire people to go to your next Salons, initiate a conversation with you in Discord, or even ask you if you’d like to cohost a Salon…! An example for how this will appear on our channels:  _“The other event last Tuesday was Daniel Golliher’s sold-out Salon about whether history has ended:_ **After Fukuyama – Optimism and Geopolitics After the Cold War**_. With attendees from four continents and at least seven different academic/professional disciplines, we discussed the legacy of the vague enthusiasm of the 1990s, what the Recession meant for young Millennials, and whether there can be a comprehensive mental framework for how we understand where the world is heading in the 2020s. Hannah Arendt, Naomi Klein, Jonathan Haidt and psychedelics were mentioned. Sign up for Daniel’s next Salon [HERE].”_ #### Screenshots Please take a screenshot of the attendees during the first hour when all attendees are present.  Make sure names are removed. You can either: - Exit full screen, open chat to the side, let go of mouse or touchpad, and the names will disappear after a few seconds - Hide out family names after the event e.g through putting small black rectangles over them in Google Slides, Photoshop, Figma, etc. It’s completely normal for most screenshots to be terrible — they are for everyone, really. In order to get it right, the trick is simply to take many and then choose the best one. #### Zoom chat Please save the Zoom chat by copying it into a dedicated Google Document (simply “Select All” in the Zoom chat -> copy-paste) so we can edit, remove private messages, make URLs clickable. This formatting is better than auto-saved chats for these very reasons. ### **What ii Scribes Do** Scribes are a new program we’re trying out in the ii. Essentially they’re fellow Interintellects who will sit in on your Salon, participate as normal attendees but take non-personal notes about the conversation. These notes will help you build on the Salon’s content for writing a blogpost for instance, or inspire new Salon topics, or just help you remember the Salon in the future. Scribe notes should also be shared in your follow up channel.  Scribes get a free ticket to Salons, even sold-out ones. There can be only one Scribe per Salon – Hosts and Scribes find one another via the **#scribing_at_salons** channel on Discord. Scribes try to take some screenshots and save Zoom chats too, and add these into your follow up channel if you have one.  Note 1: A Scribe being present doesn’t mean we don’t need to receive image + text via [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) — we still need these for promotional reasons and to make sure they’re added to the Resources library (though the library will be interactive in the future) Note 2: Please remember your Scribe is also a human and taking good notes is challenging — don’t rely on their memory 100%. Hosts are strongly encouraged to sit in as Scribes at one another’s event — it’s an amazing way to learn about Salons and co-thinking! ### **Salon Frequency** How often should you host an ii Salon? The best frequency in our current setup seems to be 10 days for shortest and 30 days for longest gap between your Salons. This way you will give yourself enough time to prepare but your audience can still develop a routine of attending your events – not to mention you gaining “pilot hours”! ⚡ Our suggestion is to always have 3-4 Salon ideas lined up on the website. This way Hosts are much more at ease during hosting; it won’t feel like a “one shot” opportunity. It also somehow helps one manage their own energy and time.