Fringe Ideas and Unconventional Cause Areas

​Leave your malaria bednets at home – this discussion event will be an opportunity to explore strange or neglected ideas outside the boundaries of mainstream EA discourse. As the EA community strives to do the most good, we’ll explore how to ensure that we are working on global pressing problems—while keeping an eye on possible blind spots and ethical missteps.

​​First we will review & discuss Kelsey Piper’s On “fringe” ideas post.

​For the main activity, each person will receive a list of fringe or weird ideas to assess independently. We’ll then split into pairs and each group will discuss an idea that they evaluated differently. To encourage different perspectives, everyone will then switch pairs multiple times.

​By the end of the session, we'll aim to understand:

• ​How can we be certain that our efforts are truly helping and not inadvertently causing harm?

• ​How do we remain open to ideas that challenge deeply ingrained societal beliefs—ideas that may seem radical now, but could shape a better future?

• ​How can the EA movement stay grounded in proven results while still giving room to fringe, speculative, and unconventional ideas?

​This event is open to everyone, whether you're deeply engaged with EA ideas or someone new to the movement. No background knowledge is needed, we will provide background info, context, definitions, and suggested discussion.

• ​6:00pm - Arrive, mingle

• ​​6:30pm - Announcements, split into smaller groups

• ​6:40pm - Start group discussion

• ​​7:00pm - Split into pairs for activity

• ​​8:00pm - Return to groups

• ​​8:30pm - Closing remarks, everyone can continue hanging out

​Inspired by Kelsey Piper’s reflections on the movement.