Horizon Fellowship (瞻遠學者) 

Doing good better is one of the defining challenges of our time. Given resource constraints, it is crucial that we make the most effective use of what we have in order to create the greatest positive impact possible. And this is essentially what the Horizon Fellowship is all about: The Horizon Fellowship helps you think about how to do good effectively and helps you to reflect on how to maximise your potential to make a difference.

​

In 2020, this was the first introductory EA fellowship in Asia. The Horizon Fellowship is a programme you can complete alongside your work/studies, bringing together core reading, interactive group discussions, 1:1 mentoring, and more. We explore topics including the effectiveness mindset, global health/poverty, animal welfare, artificial Intelligence, etc., and how to get involved in careers contributing to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

​

Agenda and Objectives

​

Part 1

Introduction to Principles of Effective Altruism

​

​

Day 1

​

Registration opens from 9:45am

​

Session 1.1: Introduction to Effective Altruism

​

Lunch hour

​

Session 1.2: Thinking empathically: who and how much? 

​

By the end of the day, you will...

Know:

• Facts about how far humanity has come, and how much room for improvement exists

• Some main EA cause areas

• Something about the EA landscape in Hong Kong

• The definition of scope insensitivity

• The idea of an expanding moral circle

Understand: 

• Four basic ideas you agree with that lead to the logical conclusion of EA

• The fundamental principles of EA effectiveness mindset, including impartiality

• Inspiration/Optimism about human trajectory and individual capacity to do as much good as possible

• The need to overcome scope insensitivity

• The possibility of an ongoing moral catastrophe

• That debate around the moral patienthood of non-human animals

Be able to:

• Use online resources from the EA internet to explore cause areas of interest.

• Use double cruxing as a technique to collaboratively resolve disagreements

​

 

Day 2

​

Session 1.3: Thinking rationally about global health

​

Lunch hour

​

Session 1.4: Thinking long-term

​

By the end of the day, you will...

​

Know:

• The definition of the scout mindset

• Differences in impact are huge

• How to use the ITN framework

• The definition of existential risks, existential catastrophe, longtermism

• The future is vast and humanity’s potential is large

• Future people deserve moral patienthood

• Now is a point of unusual influence over humanity’s future

Understand: 

• Our intuitions are often wrong

• Our intuitions about frequency, probability and scale are often wrong.

• Our intuitions about global health are often wrong

• The moral imperative toward cost-effectiveness in global health

• The reasoning for axiological strong longtermism (ASL)

• Some arguments for/against strong longtermism

• Implications for international and Asian philanthropy

Be able to:

• Make more calibrated estimates

• Do expected value calculations

• Make Fermi estimates

• Use the ITN framework to think about cause prioritisation

• Explain in brief the reasoning for axiological strong longtermism (ASL)

​

 

 

 

 

 

Part 2

Diving into EA Priority Cause Areas

​

Day 1

Session 2.1: Diving into Global Health and Development

• Charity Evaluation (GiveWell) and Differences in Impact

• Global Poverty

• Global Health

• Global health inequalities

• Global burden of disease

• Common diseases in low-income countries

• Mental Health as a Cause Area

• Effective Social Interventions

• Effective Giving

Session 2.2: Diving into Effective Animal Advocacy

• Why Animals? (Animal ethics and moral standing)

• Effective Animal Advocacy

• Farmed Land Animal Welfare

• Fish/Aquatic Animal Welfare

• Wild Animal Welfare

• Alternative Proteins

​

Day 2

Session 2.3: Diving into Existential Risk Reduction

• Longtermism and the Human Trajectory

• Natural and Anthropogenic Existential Risks

• Climate Change and Effective Environmentalism

• Nuclear Risk

• Pandemic Prevention and Global Catastrophic Biosecurity Risks (GCBR)

Session 2.4: Diving into Risks from Artificial Intelligence

• AI timelines

• The Misalignment Problem

• AI Safety: Alignment Research 

• AI Safety: Governance

​

​