Come and join this week's discussion meeting on the evolution of the animal welfare movement in effective altruism, covering forward thinking proposals on updating animal advocacy strategies and integrating animal welfare into artificial intelligence alignment!

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Visionary Pragmatism: A Third Way for Animal Advocacy by Dilan Fernando on the EA Forum (30min read)

2. AnimalHarmBench 2.0: Evaluating LLMs on Reasoning about Animal Welfare by Sentient Futures on the EA Forum (7min read)

Join the discussion on Wednesday, November 12th, from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library.

Come and join our upcoming discussion, on Notes and Criticisms about Effective Altruism. The discussion's going to be a chance for you to think critically about the movement's ideas, identify which parts you agree or disagree with, and discover how to engage in ways that best align with your own values and priorities.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Notes on Effective Altruism by Michael Nielsen for michealnotebook (20min read)

2. Summary of Michael Nielsen's "Notes on Effective Altruism" by Pablo on the EA Forum (6min read)

   • read the comments for responses to the points in the article

3. 21 Criticisms of EA I'm Thinking About by Peter Wildeford on the EA Forum (11min read)

Join the discussion on Wednesday, November 5th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library.

Take a break from the midterm grind and join us to participate in the October edition of the Estimation Game, on the history of invention!

The game requires working in teams to answer random fermi estimation questions, winning points for good estimates, and (hopefully) placing high on the world leaderboard.

Join us on Wednesday, October 29th, from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Join our upcoming discussion about utilitarianism, where we'll be analyzing it from multiple angles through a collection of articles written by Philosophy Professor Richard Y Chappell for his blog, Good Thoughts! Expect to learn about philosophical approaches, popular conceptions, beneficence, and determining the most productive pursuits.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Revisiting Philosophical Utilitarianism by Richard Y Chappell for Good Thoughts (12min read)

2. Utilitarianism and Reflective Equilibrium by Richard Y Chappell for Good Thoughts (10min read)

3. Naïve Versus Prudent Utilitarianism by Richard Y Chappell for Good Thoughts (8min read)

4. Beneficentric Virtue Ethics by Richard Y Chappell for Good Thoughts (6min read)

5. Beneficence Is Not Exclusively Utilitarian by Richard Y Chappell for Good Thoughts (10min read)

Join the discussion on Wednesday, October 22nd, from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Join our discussion meeting on maintaining motivation and avoiding burnout in effective altruism, touching on the sustainability of efforts, the guilt of obligations, and the concept of limited ability to care.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. "Should" Considered Harmful by Nate Soares for Minding Our Way (10 min. read)

2. Why I Love Effective Altruism by Michelle Hutchinson on the EA Forum (6 min. read)

3. My Model of EA Burnout by Logan Strohl on Lesswrong (5 min. read)

4. Things I Didn't Feel That Guilty About Before Getting Involved in Effective Altruism by Ada-Maaria Hyvarinen on the EA Forum (9 min. read)

Join us on Wednesday, October 8th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Join our upcoming discussion meeting about Eliezer Yudkowsky's new release If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies. If you haven't yet read the book, or don't intend to, that's no problem! The articles and responses included in this week's reading list provide great summaries of the author's arguments and conclusions.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. AI Safety Landscape & Strategic Gaps by Michael Dickens on the EA Forum (70 min read)(so feel free to skim)

2. More Was Possible: A Review of If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies by Clara Collier for Asterisk Magazine (25 min read)

3. MacAskill's Mini-Review of If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies on X (10 min read)

   1. A Reply to MacAskill by Rob Bensinger on the EA Forum (20 min read)

4. I Enjoyed Most of If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies by Buck on the EA Forum (9 min read)

Join us on Wednesday, October 1st, from 6PM to 7PM in room R2-14 (second floor of the Redpath complex)

The eight-week Introductory Fellowship program teaches participants the core philosophy and cause areas of Effective Altruism alongside a cohort of like-minded students. The program consists of weekly discussion meetings between fellows and facilitators, and equips participants with the information, tools, and support necessary to understand how Effective Altruism approaches solving the most pressing global problems.

Refer to the application form for more information!
Applications close September 28th at midnight.

Join us to participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the leaderboard!

Join us on Friday, September 26th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Join our first discussion meeting, on the intersection of expected utility, fanaticism, and population ethics! Expect to learn about the weight of minuscule probabilities of catastrophic events, the consideration of suffering metrics as metrics for decision-making, and tangential ideas that are bound to arise during the discussion.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Pascal's Mugging on Lesswrong (3min read)

2. Summary: In Defense of Fanaticism by HaydenW on the EA Forum (7min read)

   1. In Defense of Fanaticism by Hayden Wilkinson (complete paper for those interested)

3. Population Ethics: Introduction & The Total View on Utilitarianism.net(10min read)

4. Shut Up and Divide? by Wei Dai on Lesswrong (2min read)

Join us on Friday, September 19th from 18:00 to 19:00 in room R2-15 of the Redpath Complex.

We're going to be kicking off our programming this semester with a Welcome Back Social, a casual opportunity to meet, catch up, and make introductions while we walk/hike to the Mount-Royal Kondiaronk Belvedere.

Join us on Monday, September 8th, at 18:00pm at the top of McTavish Street!

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the Tomlinson Fieldhouse, find us at Table 312!

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the Tomlinson Fieldhouse, find us at Table 312!

The eight-week Introductory Fellowship program teaches participants the core philosophy and cause areas of Effective Altruism alongside a cohort of like-minded students. The program consists of weekly discussion meetings between fellows and facilitators, and equips participants with the information, tools, and support necessary to understand how Effective Altruism approaches solving the most pressing global problems.

Refer to the application form for more information!
Applications close September 28th at midnight.

Come and join our last meeting of the semester, we're keeping it light and running a speed updating discussion. The meeting will consist of five minute discussions on a variety of effective altruism oriented topics in order to reflect on what we've learned this semester and update our beliefs!

Join us on Tuesday, April 1st from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Come and participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions, this month's edition is on personality patterns. The game requires that we work in teams to answer estimation questions, win points for good estimates, and see how our scores compare to others on the world leaderboard.

Join the game on Tuesday, March 25th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our upcoming discussion meeting about re-evaluating existential nuclear risk in light of recent technological developments in weapons manufacturing, the resurrection of nuclear energy plants, as well as rising global tensions between the nuclear superpowers.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Technological Developments That Could Increase Risks from Nuclear Weapons by MichaelA and WillAldred on the EA Forum (6min read)

2. Japan, South Korea, and Poland Need Nuclear Weapons Immediatelyby Noahpinion (30min read)

3. The World Wants to Triple Nuclear Energy: What Will it Take? by Moniz and Cohen for the Boston Globe (10min read)

4. Countries and Areas Directory by Nuclear Threat Initiative

   1. United-States Nuclear Overview (20min read)

   2. Russia Nuclear Overview (15min read)

   3. China Nuclear Overview  (10min read)

Join us on Tuesday, March 18th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

This week we’re talking about space governance and space-faring civilizations! Join us for an interesting discussion about longtermism, aliens, and potentially the ends of humanity.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Space Governance is Important, Tractable, and Neglected by Tobias Baumann on the EA Forum (8min read)

2. Parfit + Singer + Aliens? by Maxwell Tabbarok for Maximum Progress (20min read)

3. Optimistic Resolution of the Fermi Paradox by Steve6320 on the EA Forum (10min read)

4. Longtermist Implications of Space Faring Civilizations by Maxime Riché on the EA Forum (8min read)

5. Is Space Colonization Desirable? on the EA Forum (3min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, March 11th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Join us for the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, January 25th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Join our discussion meeting on recent AI developments, including reasoning, deepseek, and o1, as well as persistent questions on timelines, alignment, and x-risks!

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. But What is a Neural Network? by 3Blue1Brown (18min watch) *optional, good primer for the not ai-savvy

2. Reinforcement Learning: A Non-Technical Primer on Deepseek and o1 by Alex Chalk (11min read)

3. Teaching AI to Reason: This Year's Most Important Story by Benjamin Todd (20min read)

4. Deliberative AI Alignment by OpenAI (10min read)

5. The Game Board Has Been Flipped: Now's a Good Time to Rethink What You're Doing by LintzA on the EA Forum (15min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 18th from 6pm to 7pm in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our next discussion meeting, about the complexities of development policy for economic growth, and whether economic growth should be prioritized in order to improve wellbeing!

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Economic Growth in Low and Middle Income Countries by O'Keeffe-O'Donovan, Latham-Proença, and Kim for Open Philanthropy (25min read)

2. Rethinking Economic Development by Nathan Nunn at Harvard University (30min read, recommend parsing)

3. Long-Distance Development Policy by Karthik Tadepalli on the EA Forum (13min read)

4. Does Economic Growth Meaningfully Improve Wellbeing? by Vadim Albinsky on the EA Forum (15min read)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 11th from 6PM to 7PM in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Join us to discus the importance of understanding heavy-tailed distributions, and the consequences for decision-making and determining priorities.

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Heavy-Tails and Altruism: When Your Intuition Fails You by Jan Michelfeit (11min read)

2. On Fat-Tailed Distributions and Suffering-Risks by Magnus Vinding for the Center for Reducing Suffering (10min read)

3. All Moral Decision in Life are on a Heavy-Tailed Distribution by Max Görlitz on the EA Forum (2min read)

4. Unravelling the Mystery of Distributions of Impact by Michael and SoGive on the EA Forum (5min read)

5. *Optional* The Zipf Mystery by VSauce (21min watch)

Join the discussion on Tuesday, February 4th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library.

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the University Centre (SSMU Building)!

Come and participate in the monthly Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, January 28th from 6PM to 7PM in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Interested in learning more about the global movement of Effective Altruism as well as the aims and programs of our club here at McGill?

Come and chat with us at our table during Activities Night, happening from 4pm to 8pm at the University Centre (SSMU Building)!

Join our upcoming discussion meeting on biosecurity, covering global catastrophic biological risks, promising interventions, as well as clarifying misconceptions! 

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Map of Biosecurity Interventions by James Lin on the EA Forum (4min read)

2. Benefits and Risks of Biosecurity by Tucker Davey for the Future of Life Institute (25min read)

3. Envisioning a World Immune to Global Catastrophic Biological Risks by Carl Shulman for Reflective Disequilibrium (7min read)

4. Anonymous Answers: What are the Biggest Misconceptions About Biosecurity and Pandemic Risks? by Anemone Franz and Tessa Alexanian for 80,000 Hours (25min read)

Join the discussion on Wednesday, January 22nd, from 6pm to 7pm in room M3-17A of the McLennan Library!

Come and join our first discussion meeting of the semester on the philosophical approach to radical empathy, and how it changes our circle of care, preferences, and/or priorities. 

Please read the following to prepare for the discussion:

1. Radical Empathy by Holden Karnofsky on the EA Forum (8min read)

2. Really Radical Empathy by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (11min read)

3. Some Implications of Radical Empathy by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (8min read)

4. Actualism, Asymmetry, and Extinction by MichaelStJules on the EA Forum (11min read)

Join us on Wednesday, January 15th from 6pm to 7pm in room R2-14 of the Redpath Library.

Come and participate in the November edition of the Estimation Game created by Quantified Intuitions! The game consists of working in teams to answer questions with fermi estimates; win points for good estimates and see how your score compares to teams on the world leaderboard!

Join us on Tuesday, November 26th from 6PM to 7PM in room M3-37F of the McLennan Library.