Guide to the Alliance
The Alliance is a global group of individuals cooperating to improve the world. Each member spends a small fraction of their time completing tasks that advance our shared goals.
Our long-term goal is to unite humanity behind a democratic, expert-developed plan to end global crises. Right now, we are running experiments to test our organizational structures and processes.
Priorities
Our immediate goal is to end global crises that harm or will harm billions of current and future people. In no particular order, we are focused on:
- Extreme poverty
- Environmental destruction
- The decline of democratic institutions
- Dangerous technological development
How we work
Structure
The Alliance is composed of a general body of members and a full-time office of members.
- The office plans actions that advance Alliance priorities.
- Members reliably complete these actions on our online platform.
Our strategy depends on members' reliability. With high and predictable levels of participation, we can make precise and effective action plans. For example:
- We can plan experiments with statistical significance.
- We can make agreements with external parties, such as businesses, who know exactly what we can offer them or what pressure we can bring to bear.
- We can coordinate lifestyle changes only when there are enough members to have a sufficiently large impact.
As a result, we restrict membership to those who sign and abide by our membership contract.
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I commit to complete up to 15 minutes of Alliance tasks per week.
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I commit to complete every task I am assigned by its deadline, unless:
a. I have spent more than 15 minutes completing Alliance tasks in the past week.
b. I cannot complete the task due to a serious external circumstance, such as a medical issue or family emergency. In this case, I will inform the strategic office as soon as I can.
c. I believe the task is immoral. In this case, I will inform the strategic office of my reasoning by the deadline for the task.
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I understand that I am considered an active member, and am therefore able to participate in Alliance governance, if I have completed at least 8 of the last 10 tasks I was assigned.
Our current membership contract
Trust is the foundation of the Alliance. The office trusts members to complete tasks, which allows the office to plan effectively. Conversely, the office strives to be as transparent as possible so that members can trust the office to develop effective plans. If members trust the office, then their duty is as simple as completing their assigned tasks.
Roadmap
Right now, we are taking small-scale actions focused on learning, not direct impact. Here are examples of actions we have taken recently:
Discuss the repeal of the endangerment finding with current and former U.S. EPA employees
Members discussed the repeal of the EPA's endangerment finding, as well as the current state of the EPA, with current and former EPA employees.
Members and government employees had the opportunity to learn from each other directly, rather than through media reports or other indirect channels.
Help inform public comments on U.S. federal AI policy
Members were asked questions about personal experiences and beliefs related to three federal dockets on AI policy. After the members took action, the office wrote and posted three official comments summarizing members' answers.
Our goal was to help agencies to incorporate citizens' perspectives into a decision-making process that usually only considers experts and industry representatives.
Participate in an experiment to measure awareness of AI data use practices
Members were asked about their AI privacy preferences. The office will use the results to plan a follow-up awareness campaign in favor of opt-in, rather than opt-out, data use practices.
We will learn if surfacing members' preferences can help us generate awareness of important issues.
Report a pothole in your community
Members found and reported a pothole to their local government, most of which were repaired within a week.
Members learned about one way that local governments can respond quickly to citizen concerns. We reported 19 potholes and 1 broken wall in total.
Sign a letter requesting news coverage of a bring-your-own-cup cafe coalition
The office asked several cafes to adopt and advertise a bring-your-own-cup policy, promising that members would help them attain media coverage. After the cafes took action, members signed a letter to journalists requesting a feature. Finally, a journalist wrote an article about the cafes.
We learned that offering to help businesses attain media coverage can encourage policy changes. The policy change itself will likely reduce a small amount of waste.
As the Alliance grows, we plan to bring together experts from diverse fields to make increasingly impactful, long-term plans. Our online platform will enable direct communication between these experts and millions of members to enact rapid, large-scale change.
It is difficult to know exactly which actions we will take after we launch. However, a few broad categories of actions include:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Economic shifts |
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| Pooled funding |
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| Social pressure |
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| Direct action |
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How we make decisions
Members provide input and participate in governance that ensures approval of the overall direction of the Alliance.
Meanwhile, the office has the freedom to make any plans that advance our high-level priorities and make effective use of members’ time and resources.
Action planning
Planning actions is a creative, open-ended process that searches for levers of change which members can pull.
In ideation for and development of an action plan, the office weighs many considerations. For instance:
- How does the action relate to the priorities of the Alliance?
- Will the action produce a tangible impact on the world?
- Will the action make effective use of members’ time?
- Will the action have any compounding effects – for instance, by providing an educational opportunity or growing the Alliance’s network?
Oversight
Our governance guarantees that the majority of members believe the majority of their contributions improve the world.
We conduct a membership-wide oversight process that occurs on a regular basis. In the process, the office asks members what they think about the direction of the Alliance and whether or not they have any major concerns. The office collects and responds to feedback until we reach an approval threshold of 75%.
This procedure achieves two goals:
- Members determine the high-level goals and methods of the Alliance.
- The office retains the freedom to plan any action that advances approved goals with approved methods. It is not required to do what is most popular, nor do actions need unanimous support, so it can operate efficiently and effectively.
It is inevitable, though rare, that some members are assigned tasks whose justifications they do not agree with. Given the urgency of global crises, it is important that we collectively prioritize action over perfect consensus.
In addition to formal governance, the office incorporates member input by other means. For instance, the office hosts discussions, asks members for action proposals, solicits open-ended feedback, and so on.
