
Ask HN: Where can I work as a software engineer to combat large global problems? - talking_panda
I have a Ph.D. in CS and enjoy solving open-ended technical challenges. I have a decent hands-on experience in operating systems and software engineering. I’ve been working as a full-stack engineer building Android products for almost a decade now.<p>I want to switch to work on larger global problems that are also technically challenging. So far I’ve recognized following job profiles-<p>Combatting climate change:<p>* Reducing the power consumption of data centers. Data centers consume ~2% of global electricity consumption and are estimated to consume up to 8% by 2030 due to the ML boom. Example roles: Site efficiency teams in Big 4.<p>* Building systems to support autonomous vehicles. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor to U.S. GHG emissions. Autonomous vehicles are projected to reduce per-mile greenhouse gas emissions by up to 94%. Example roles: system performance teams at getcruise.com, tri.global<p>I am wondering if there are other software engineering&#x2F;research roles I should apply to. Roles that combat global challenges and are also technically interesting.
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rhn_mk1
Artificial Intelligence safety is considered by some to be the biggest, and
potentially most dangerous challenge in the coming decades.

I've recently found a post on the Effective Altruism forum encouraging people
to consider starting a computer security career to help mitigate the AI risk:

[https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZJiCfwTy5dC4CoxqA/...](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ZJiCfwTy5dC4CoxqA/information-
security-careers-for-gcr-reduction#)

~~~
nairboon
By others it is considered not much of a practical challenge at all. However,
automation is.

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muzani
Opinion is split. The danger of AI is exponentially increasing power and
capability. We're not there yet, but we do, it could be like nuclear power.

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cottonseed
Come work at the Broad Institute and work on open science to understand and
improve human health: [https://www.broadinstitute.org/about-
us](https://www.broadinstitute.org/about-us). My group isn't hiring right now,
but others are: [https://www.broadinstitute.org/careers/software-
engineering](https://www.broadinstitute.org/careers/software-engineering).
edit: My email is in my profile. Reach out if you have any questions.

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tchadwick
The company I work for is hiring.
[https://seedotrun.com](https://seedotrun.com). We are a start-up working on
autonomous agriculture. Lots of benefits to our design compared to a
traditional tractor in regards to GHG, efficiency, farmer well-being, and food
security.

There are a number of companies like us popping up. Bear Flag Robotics in
California is another example.

thomas at seedotrun.com if interested.

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Top19
Mass Organ Harvesting and Mass Killing in Xinjiang.

If you are familiar with ICS security / systems, you can literally see the
incinerators with dashboards of “humans per hour” and things like that.

Anyone with data wrangling skills (BigQuery, DataPrep, stuff like that),
setting up cloud infra, or even just really good hard-code internetting
research skills would be appreciated.

001-alias-aw@outlook.com

I actually wouldn’t have minded posting my real name, but it seemed somehow
like it would take away from my post unless I used a cool anonymous (but not
really) alias.

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arandr0x
Public transit systems do have need of programs for control, infrastructure
maintenance and so on, as do railroads.

There's (some) work in conservation (meaning ecological habitats and stuff) if
you care about biodiversity, but it mostly requires GIS skills.

A lot of "global problems" (like cancer) are also local problems (like
different environmental exposures or individual genetic profiles). It's hard
even while working at a global problem to have a solution with global impact.
This cannot be understated.

There are some decently big problems in mining (where mining certain compounds
has become exponentially harder) and the industry does not typically have a
lot of software talent already. However, it can be quite difficult to get into
depending on your geographical location.

Have you considered working for the government?

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imhoguy
Crack the Bitcoin. You will save TWhs of electricity, mostly coal-fueled
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21276544](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21276544)

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david_at
I hope I'm not being too brash in mentioning my own project.
[https://www.grassland.network](https://www.grassland.network)

We're looking for people who have Rust/C++ or Pytorch/Tensorflow experience.

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2rsf
Not totally relevant but I'm not sure autonomous vehicles are the right way to
reducing greenhouse gas emission, public transportation combined with proper
urban planning seems like a much more efficient way in this context

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gitgud
These are a couple of high level problems...

A large global problem is still starvation, millions of people dying every
year. Work on helping countries feed themselves.

Majority of the world does not have access to internet, decentralised peer to
peer networks could help here.

~~~
talking_panda
True. Starvation is a big problem. I don't know if software can even help
here, but do you know of companies taking such an approach to solving this?

Thanks for the pointer about the internet. I will check out Project Loon and
Internet.org.

~~~
gitgud
Software is used to help solve almost every single problem on the planet so
I'm sure there's a way to help the problem of starvation in poorer countries.
Not sure of any specific companies, but that doesn't mean there's no need for
it.

Goodluck, hope you find something!

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x520ca
The company I am working for, [https://nordsense.com](https://nordsense.com)
is hiring. We are a start-up working on trash management and pickup
optimization for cities and facilities around the world.

We have our sensors out in the wild in SF / Copenhagen and has shown
tremendous improvements in efficiencies of up to 60% compared to under
optimized pickups. Garbage is definitely something we need to be better at for
a sustainable world in a global scale.

~~~
DrScump
Just FYI: your web page doesn't show any openings that I can see. Also,
attempting to subscribe to the email alerts results in no response to the
Submit button (using Brave on Android). And I live maybe 2 miles from your
Sunnyvale office!

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mattef
Hi talking_panda! I found myself in a very similar position four years ago,
quitting my career at the time (the electric/autonomous vehicle industry) to
find more fulfilling, meaningful, and ultimately tangibly impactful work.
Along the way, I found a lot of answers to my questions from Effective
Altruism — using evidence and reason to do the most good.

I like their framework of looking for cause areas that are large (you're
already looking for this), tractable (so your work might actually result in
something), and neglected (where your marginal impact is highest). That'll
probably lead you toward:

1) Global poverty & public health: The evidence here is vast, and the marginal
impact is huge in the developing world, where simple interventions like giving
people money (GiveDirectly) or anti-malarial bednets (Against Malaria
Foundation) save a life at the cost of ~$2,000. GiveWell does an excellent job
evaluating these charities. This is where I ended up, but in the for-profit
sector, at Zipline (flyzipline.com). We deliver essential medicines and
vaccines by drone to the rural poor in Rwanda & Ghana. Some of our projects
are funded by great organizations in this space like Gates & GAVI. I also
donate ~50% of my income to GiveWell top charities, along with...

2) Farm animal welfare: Depending on how much you value an animal's life and
well-being in relation to a person, the vast suffering of farmed animals is a
huge problem that is also quite neglected and tractable. According to Animal
Charity Evaluators (the GiveWell of this space), the most effective
organizations are those like The Humane League (corporate outreach for
improved standards) or The Good Food Institute (promoting and developing meat-
alternatives, e.g. Impossible Burgers, or cultured meat).

3) Improving the long-term future: If you value the lives of future
generations, then you might choose to focus on mitigating existential risks,
i.e. those that risk extincting humanity. AI risk mitigation, e.g. OpenAI,
gets a lot of focus in the bay area for obvious reasons, but there are many
other opportunities here, e.g. reducing global pandemic risk, nuclear
security, etc.

Hope this helps, and of course, I'd be happy to provide more links, articles,
books, blogs, or podcasts on any of this! Or even better, put you in touch
with some of the folks who work at these organizations

~~~
talking_panda
Thanks mattef.

1\. Zipline looks interesting! I've added it to my target companies.

2\. I'm a vegetarian and I feel happy to see innovations like Impossible
Burgers. But if I understand correctly, biochemists can contribute most to
solving these challenges.

3\. Do you have more resources for the third bullet? I'm apprehensive of this
since some of the existential risks might be speculative and unreal.

~~~
mattef
1\. Glad to hear! I lead our data team, and we've got a bunch of open roles,
multiple of which probably match your background:

[https://jobs.lever.co/flyzipline/?team=Software%20Engineerin...](https://jobs.lever.co/flyzipline/?team=Software%20Engineering)

Happy to talk it over if any catch your fancy! My email is matt dot e dot fay
at gmail dot com

2\. There's certainly fewer, but still plenty in this field! For example, if
you check the 80,000 Hours Job Board, both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods
are hiring for software positions:

[https://80000hours.org/job-board/factory-
farming/](https://80000hours.org/job-board/factory-farming/)

I can also ask around if you'd like.

3\. The x-risk work is definitely speculative, by definition honestly. If the
first two are stocks and bonds, this is the angel investing of cause areas:

[https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-
giving](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/hits-based-giving)

I've stayed away mostly because I was looking for tangibly impactful work (too
removed for me), but there are really smart, kind folks making convincing
arguments that this is the best use of your time and/or money. For example:

\- [https://80000hours.org/articles/future-
generations/](https://80000hours.org/articles/future-generations/)

\- [https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/21/18126576/ai-
ar...](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/12/21/18126576/ai-artificial-
intelligence-machine-learning-safety-alignment)

\- [https://futureoflife.org/2018/09/17/moral-uncertainty-and-
th...](https://futureoflife.org/2018/09/17/moral-uncertainty-and-the-path-to-
ai-alignment-with-william-macaskill)

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memossy
We have several projects tackling large global problems launching shortly with
interesting backing.

These include fighting poverty with intelligent smartphones, fighting
commodity volatility and fighting online hate and extremism.

All have a AI + human angle and interesting backing.

Mail me on semantic at gmail.com if of interest

~~~
talking_panda
Thanks. Can you share some online resources about the projects?

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mav3rick
Cruise Waymo Tesla or any other startup for self driving. Gates Foundation for
the rest ?

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talking_panda
Thanks. I didn't find any software opportunities in Gates Foundation.

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xhgdvjky
they have this one guy who does most of it

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person_of_color
Hehe

