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I don't think there's a good mechanism in place for "getting paid for saving the world" which is essentially what you're looking for. Scott Alexander was worki
by schoen 2y ago
I don't think there's a good mechanism in place for "getting paid for saving the world" which is essentially what you're looking for.
Scott Alexander was working with some people on a kind of financial market for benefits from charitable projects; I forget the exact details but it allowed people to have shares which could go up in value (a lot) if there was sufficient later consensus that the intervention was beneficial. But I think that project is in a totally embryonic stage, it might never become mainstream, and it might not even be legally feasible to scale it up to something that would succeed in making you rich from your invention. But you could try to see if that mechanism is under development anywhere.
The basically mainstream mechanisms you can use are a patent (then you can get paid if people in a jurisdiction where your patent is enforceable openly practice your invention), a prize, or a grant from a grantmaker.
I just searched and saw that, for example, last year there was a prize for technical ideas to help address climate change:
https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/prize/2023-wilkes-climate-prize/ https://wilkescenter.utah.edu/prize/2023-wilkes-climate-priz...
The dollar amount for that is probably a lot smaller than you want, but you might find that other people find your idea's benefits more speculative than you do. Maybe there are other prizes like that continuing to be offered.
For grantmaking foundations, I'd agree that you still do have a chicken-and-egg problem about how to begin negotiations.
If you're as confident about your idea as you sound, I'd also encourage you to set up some kind of mechanism (like with a lawyer, or with various online services) to ensure that the idea is eventually disclosed if anything happens to you.
- geoengthrowaway 2y agoYeah, I looked into prizes and grants, too, and the amount awarded there is usually quite measly. Patents don't work either because for geoengineering to not be circumvented you'd need a global patent (which don't exist yet) or patent in literally every jurisdiction which, of course, would cost a ton of money. The problem is also: If someone infringes on my patent with the intention to eventually file for bankruptcy after I sue then I'll be never made whole. So why even bother? What irks me so hard is that my invention does not just have the potential to avert damages, but also to open doors to investment opportunities that probably number in the trillions -- of which I wouldn't see a single effin' dime simply because the legal system ignores the causality.
- schoen 2y agoWe just don't have a good way in place to reward people for saving the world. Maybe try to save the world anyway, and try to benefit in random ways from your (hopefully) resulting high status?
- geoengthrowaway 2y agoContemporary mainstream bourgeois ideology in the West glorifies the ruthless pursuit of self-interest and consequently holds any kind of altruism in utmost contempt. So, even if I actually were to gain high status for giving my invention away for cheap I would be compensated in a currency that is worthless in today's world. You can easily prove this to yourself by compiling from memory(!) a list of even just 10 people who performed altruistic tasks of great impact and how they benefited from the resulting high status. You will probably not be able to name even just 5 without searching around. "Ingratitude is the world's reward" is still one of the truest proverbs. What makes matters worse is that exactly those kinds of people in the climate-change-denying investor class would be the ones to benefit the most from my invention, and I simply can't let that happen without at least being luxuriously compensated.
- schoen 2y agoI don't think I can help you, but I hope you succeed in saving the world and getting rich.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jaggs 2y agoWhy do you need reward? Is that mandatory? And geoengineering is a waste of time anyway. At least until we fix the core problem/s.
- geoengthrowaway 2y agoI need a reward because my love for mankind has run cold and the future will probably be quite grim. And not all forms of geoengineering are a waste of time since some irreversible tipping points will be triggered at even very low temperature increases. If the tremendous costs from the fallout from those are to be avoided then some temporary geoengineering for "untipping" them will be necessary even if the concentration of atmospheric CO2 will not fall for some time. Among other things my invention also does the "untipping" for at least one such low-temp irreversible tipping point.