Jim Buhler
PhD candidate in Philosophy
University of Santiago de Compostela

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(Last updated: March 4th, 2025)

As part of my PhD under the supervision of Professor Oscar Horta, I am researching:
- the epistemic premises that underlie attempts to positively influence the long-term future, mainly focusing on the implications of pervasive deep uncertainty;
-  long-term risks from the exploitation of outer space.

I previously was the Community Director of Effective Altruism France and that of Effective Altruism Cambridge, a Research Fellow at Existential Risk Alliance, and an Events and Community Associate at the Center on Long-Term Risk. I've also done quite a bit of independent research, funded by various organisms (see my LinkedIn profile for more details). In my younger years, I was an education trainer and teenage summer camp director.

I have completed a Bachelor's degree in Geography (Université Savoie Mont Blanc) and a Master's in Moral Philosophy (Université Paris-Est Créteil).

Topics I've researched outside of academia in the past include:
- long-term selection effects on moral preferences and the implications for improving the long-term future;
- governance interventions to reduce risks of malevolent influence over AI systems;
- decision-theoretic problems in multi-agent settings and their implications for AGI conflict and cooperative AI.

In the last couple years, I've been spending some of my free time competitively playing roundnet (a.k.a "spikeball"). I have mostly played in England. I have podiumed on a couple of British Roundnet Major tournaments and got to participate in the 2024 World Championship as an alternate member of the Great Britain male squad. These days, I train and play in Paris, where I now live, mostly casually as I am recovering from a knee injury.