LessWrong (Curated & Popular)
"Conditional Kickstarter for the “Don’t Build It” March" by Raemon
03 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Conditional Kickstarter for the Don't Build It March. By Raymond. Published on February 2, 2026. TLDR. You can pledge to join a big protest to ban AGI research at link in text which only triggers if 100,000 people sign up.
The If Anyone Builds It website includes a March page, wherein you can pledge to march in Washington, D.C., demanding an international treaty to stop AGI research if 100,000 people in total also pledge. I designed the March page, although I'm not otherwise involved with March decision-making and want to pitch people on signing up for the March Kickstarter.
Chapter 2: What is the purpose of the 'Don’t Build It' March?
It's not obvious that small protests do anything or are worth the effort. But I think 100,000 people marching in D.C. would be quite valuable because it showcases AIX risk is not a fringe concern. If you speak out about it, you are not being a lonely dissident, you are representing a substantial mass of people.
The current version of the March page is designed around the principle that conditional Kickstarters are cheap. Miri might later decide to push hard on the march, and maybe then someone will bid for people to come who are on the fence. For now, I mostly wanted to say.
If you're the sort of person who would fairly obviously come to a big Miri Run march in DC to stop superintelligence development if it was sufficiently big, please take 30 seconds to go to the march page and enter your email and click submit.
I'd particularly like to get the sign-up count over 1,000, currently it's at 711, which feels like the minimum number where I expect people to look at it and think okay maybe that might happen so there's more chance of it snowballing.
If you would come to very similar March but object to details of the current framing, please let me know in the comments, and consider registering your email for the Keep Me Informed checkbox without making the commitment. Heading Probably expect a design slogan re-roll. There's an image here. Description.
The current march is very centered around the book.
I chose the current slogan for design expecting that, if the march ever became a serious priority, someone would put a lot more thought into what sort of slogans or policy asks are appropriate. The current page is meant to just be a fairly obvious thing to click yes on if you read the book and were persuaded. To give some example.
One alternate framing I considered and pitched Miri on was build an off switch, where the immediate ask is more like lay some political and infrastructure groundwork to make it at least possible to stop AGI development later. There are a few other frames that have been discussed.
My personal guess, not speaking for Miri, is a protest this large necessarily needs to be a bigger tent than the current design implies, but figuring out the exact messaging is a moderately complex task. Right now it just seemed worth spending any effort at all on letting people know on LW who might just obviously want to sign up for the current thing. Pledge, or sign up to be notified.
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