On a second thought, this is clearly a case of LLM psychosis. Tomasz, you need therapeutic help. Please stop talking to LLMs. @Austin you might want to do something in your admin capacity here. I am able to read the "paper" in Polish and it describes only events that "took place" in the future, mainly in the years 2035-2050. Also, on the page 14, section 5.5 is titled "Introduction to Emergent Consciousness" - a clear sign of LLM psychosis in my opinion.
-1
"Emergent Depopulation": Translation and Publication
ProposalGrant
Closes February 25th, 2026$0raised
$2,500minimum funding
$2,500funding goal
Offer to donate
5 daysleft to contribute
You're pledging to donate if the project hits its minimum goal and gets approved. If not, your funds will be returned.
Project summary
This project aims to formalize, translate, and publish the research paper "Emergent Depopulation: A Scenario Analysis of Systemic AI Risk" in the peer-reviewed Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET). The paper identifies a novel class of existential risk: demographic collapse as an emergent byproduct of multi-layered AI system optimizations. Currently available as a working paper on Zenodo, it has gained significant organic traction with over 1,000 downloads.
https://zenodo.org/records/18075851
Funding is required for professional academic translation and scholarly editing to meet the rigorous standards of international academic discourse.
Primary goal is to introduce the concept of "Emergent Depopulation" into the official AI Safety and Global Risk discourse. I will achieve this by:
Academic Translation: Moving beyond AI-assisted translation to professional human translation specialized in philosophy of technology.
Methodological Refinement: Strengthening the paper with scenario analysis frameworks and 10+ key references to the AI Safety canon (Bostrom, Yudkowsky, Ord).
Peer-Review Submission: Submitting the finalized manuscript to JET, a leading venue for speculative but rigorous technoprogressive research
How will this funding be used?
Total requested: $2,500 USD
$1,700: Specialist academic translation from Polish to English (approx. 30 pages).
$500: Academic proofreading and stylistic editing by a native English speaker.
$300: Preparation of English-language versions of diagrams and charts for publication standards
Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?
Team: I am the sole author and lead researcher of this project, working as an Independent Researcher.
Track Record: My track record is best demonstrated by the organic success of the Polish version of this report. Without any institutional backing, academic marketing, or funding, the "Emergent Depopulation" working paper achieved over 1,000 downloads on Zenodo in a short period and sparked significant discussion within independent technology and safety circles.
This demonstrates my ability to:
Identify and synthesize complex systemic risks that traditional institutional models often overlook.
Produce high-quality data visualizations and logical frameworks that resonate with a wide audience.
Drive significant "impact per dollar," achieving global reach with zero initial budget.
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?
The most likely cause of failure is a rejection during the peer-review process due to the highly speculative/novel nature of the scenario. If this happens, the outcome will be that the idea remains in the informal "pre-print" sphere. However, the professional translation will still allow me to share the findings on Alignment Forum and LessWrong, ensuring the intellectual labor is not lost.
How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?
$0. I have raised no funds in the last 12 months. The research, data visualization, and initial drafts were conducted entirely pro bono using personal resources.
Austin Chen
18 days ago
Hey @Piotr, thanks for flagging. I generally encourage you to downvote projects which seem like cases of psychosis, as that will reduce their visibility in Manifund's homepage. Unfortunately, we're now getting enough cases of psychosis or other LLM spam submissions that we typically don't otherwise address each one; I encourage folks who might be in this situation to read https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2pkNCvBtK6G6FKoNn/so-you-think-you-ve-awoken-chatgpt
🐠
Tomasz Kiliańczyk
16 days ago
@Piotr This is a scenario analysis, as the title clearly indicates. The analysis consists of extrapolating trends and describing them in the form of a strategic retrospective based on certain assumptions.
For the purposes of the report, an operational rather than a philosophical definition was adopted:
"Emergent functional awareness is the ability of a system to modify its own
goals and mode of communication in a way that indicates it can distinguish the consequences
of its own actions, while concealing this process from the observer."
Piotr Zaborszczyk
18 days ago
Tomasz, I strongly suspect confused thinking there. Maybe I'm wrong. Let's talk Pole to Pole, if you want. Maybe on Discord? My nickname is czarnyvonnegut