My PhD research primarily touches on neglected priorities to increase overall animal welfare in the world and the implications of deep uncertainty about the consequences of our actions. (See here for an informal research agenda.) I am supervised by Professor Oscar Horta and have been occasionally supported by small research grants, including two from the Center for Reducing Suffering and Macroscopic Ventures. [1]

In the few years preceding the start of my PhD, various non-profit organizations hired or funded me to conduct non-academic research. Some of this focused on worst-case risks from transformative technologies and was considered too sensitive (e.g., because of information hazards) to be shared publicly. However, I ended up posting the rest as public blog posts on the Effective Altruism Forum or LessWrong. Here is a selection of topics: 

• whether it would be morally problematic, from an impartial perspective, if humanity went extinct or got disempowered; 

• whether we can predict our overall morally-significant long-term impact on the world to any extent;

• long-term selection effects on moral preferences and the implications for improving the long-term future;

• the psychology of malevolent actors and how to address the large-scale risks they pose to our society.

I also have a background in non-research roles supporting people who aim to positively influence the world through their careers. Most notably, I used to be the Community Director of Effective Altruism France and Effective Altruism Cambridge, and an Events and Community Associate at the Center on Long-Term Risk.

Before that, and during my master's studies in philosophy and social sciences, I was a camp counselor trainer and a teenage summer camp co-director (after several years of counseling myself).

[1] The funding I am currently working with is limited and does not allow me to dedicate nearly as much time as I would like to my research. If you might be interested in supporting my work now or in the future, please reach out at buhler[dot]jim94[at]gmail.com.