Join us on Sunday February 4th, 2024 at noon in San Antonio, TX at Elsewhere Bar and Grill! Should be beautiful weather on Sunday, but will post a comment here if we have to relocate.
Topic for today is Labeling. What should we call ourselves? Rationalists, LessWrongers, Effective Altruists, etc. Does it matter?
Does a label create a sense of inclusivity? Does it create an expectation of oneself to behave in a certain way, to perform certain actions? For example, can one call oneself an Effective Altruist without actively performing the praxis of efficient charitable giving? Or is the honestly held belief enough to be able to adopt the label?
What does it actually mean to be a capital R Rationalist? Can one have all of the salient characteristics of a Rationalist, but reject the label because they don't feel affinity for it. Or is the label something that is assigned to someone by a greater group that agrees upon it, despite their protests?
Can someone call themselves a LessWronger if they don't care about/don't take seriously the threat of AGI? Or would that refer to a more restrictive label (Yudkowskian?) ?
As a secondary but related topic, we can discuss the history of OvercomingBias LessWrong, SlateStarCodex, and related blogs. Is there a throughline of ideas flowing through different blog communities? Are these blog communities intertwined, effectively inseparable, or are they distinct? Again, does any of it matter?
Come join the meeting to tell me how silly I am for asking these questions and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.
Contact event organizers here get more meetup information.
Join us on Sunday February 4th, 2024 at noon in San Antonio, TX at Elsewhere Bar and Grill! Should be beautiful weather on Sunday, but will post a comment here if we have to relocate.
Topic for today is Labeling. What should we call ourselves? Rationalists, LessWrongers, Effective Altruists, etc. Does it matter?
Does a label create a sense of inclusivity? Does it create an expectation of oneself to behave in a certain way, to perform certain actions? For example, can one call oneself an Effective Altruist without actively performing the praxis of efficient charitable giving? Or is the honestly held belief enough to be able to adopt the label?
What does it actually mean to be a capital R Rationalist? Can one have all of the salient characteristics of a Rationalist, but reject the label because they don't feel affinity for it. Or is the label something that is assigned to someone by a greater group that agrees upon it, despite their protests?
Can someone call themselves a LessWronger if they don't care about/don't take seriously the threat of AGI? Or would that refer to a more restrictive label (Yudkowskian?) ?
As a secondary but related topic, we can discuss the history of OvercomingBias LessWrong, SlateStarCodex, and related blogs. Is there a throughline of ideas flowing through different blog communities? Are these blog communities intertwined, effectively inseparable, or are they distinct? Again, does any of it matter?
Come join the meeting to tell me how silly I am for asking these questions and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about.
Contact event organizers here get more meetup information.
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