Thanks for organizing this Adam, I enjoyed it!
There was a strong consensus that we wanted to keep meeting, and I made a google group for us to plan activities, discuss what sorts of things we might like to do in the future, let each other know of interesting events, and so on.
At the moment the group is semi-private, meaning that only members can view content but anyone can join. There is no moderation. We can change this if there is a consensus to do so or as it becomes necessary.
I'll make AdamBell, Patrick (who organized the previous meetups) and matt admins, unless they object.
If you're in Melbourne, please join and perhaps introduce yourself!
Rewrite this to make definite statements instead of tentative offers (see Less Wrong NYC) and I'll promote it.
I've changed it so:
1.) I'm now stating it will definitely happen instead of suggesting it. If need be I'll just turn up and see if anyone else comes along.
2.) I've made the time definite.
I haven't made the topic for discussion definite. I haven't been to a meetup before and so don't know what works well. If no-one chips in with anything then closer to the time I'll decide on a subject or structured activity but I don't really know what would work so am not willing to do so at this stage.
Feel free to promote it or not based on that depending on what you think suits the LW community.
I'd love to come to this sort of thing, but I live in Sydney (Australia!). Is anyone aware of anything similar happening in Sydney, or could someone suggest where I could go to continue my search to find these kind of meet ups?
I know nothing about this group but a recent comment mentioned a Sydney meetup: http://lesswrong.com/lw/4ul/less_wrong_nyc_case_study_of_a_successful/3plf
Which Melbourne? If it's Melbourne Australia I am interested.
Or it could be
Antarctica
* Mount Melbourne
Canada
* Melbourne, Nova Scotia
England
* Melbourne, Derbyshire
* Melbourne, East Riding of Yorkshire
* Melbourn, Cambridgeshire
United States
* Melbourne, Arkansas
* Melbourne, California
* Melbourne, Florida
* Melbourne, Iowa
* Melbourne, Kentucky
* Royal Melbourne (Chicago), a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois
Let's do Melbourne, Australia this time and leave Mount Melbourne for a few months time. Edited the post to remove confusion.
I suggest that we incorporate a discussion about one of the sequences - How about Belief in Belief?
Ack, just remembered this is on, I will be coming along too. I went to a couple of meetups while I was in the UK, which were both pretty interesting. Looking forward to it!
Sorry Adam, i gotta take a raincheck on the meeting this Sat. Need to pick up some friends from the airport during the afternoon. Till next time everyone, enjoy the meet up!!
Ok, well I will come along.
Don Tojo's is a nice idea. Last time there we had the meeting outside - though it might be too cold.
For future reference: Matthew Fallshaw and I were speaking about the possibility of having it at Tricycle (quite close by in Melbourne). I imagine there would be access to the web and perhaps a projector?? There is also a nice big round table upstairs at Prudence Bar on Victoria St in North Melbourne. Recently there was a Singularity Salon. held there, people said they liked the atmosphere.
Confirmed: There's plenty of space at Trike and you're all welcome.
We don't have a projector (geek toy FAIL). WiFi, coffee, and Trike'll happily provide light snacks / pizza / etc.
Probably best to do Don Tojo's because people might not check Less Wrong to get an address update but could consider moving to Trike once we've all met up? If not, could always arrange the next meetup there...
Very late update, but I can't make it as I'm still recovering from a nasty cold. Was hoping I'd be better by now.
I'm interested but I think it might be helpful to have something more structured to do as well as general discussion. I'll see if I can think of something.
I haven't been to a meetup before so I'm happy to do whatever suits others. What sorts of structure would you be thinking about?
Note: There has been some discussion of a chance of venue. I suggest we leave it the same at this stage as some people might not realise these discussions have been happening. However, we could then consider moving onto Trike if that seemed suitable? I'm happy to give people my mobile no if they message me if it helps for co-ordinating (especially if they're likely to be late - just in case we've moved venue).
Melbourne (Australia) meetup.
Date: Saturday, April 2nd at 1pm
Where: Don Tojo
What: I've never been to a meetup before but others seem to feel that discussion topics work well?
Possible topics (open for debate but as there's no discussion in the comments about this I thought I'd better come up with some structure for the meetup):
1. Sequence discussion - everyone chooses a post from the sequence they think is interesting and we discuss each in turn.
2. Paranoid debating - As a group we discuss what we think the answer is to a quantifiable question (the example given is, "How much maize is produced in Mexico annually?") except some people have been assigned the role of deceiver. The group comes up with a final answer and are scored according to how close it is except for the deceiver, who is scored based on how far away it is).
3. Talk on a topic - Any group member who feels comfortable doing so gives a brief speech on a topic they're knowledgeable about. It can be related to Less Wrong themes - rationality, psychology, biases, AI, Bayesianism, instrumental rationality - or alternatively can be on another topic if the person is more comfortable with that.
Let me know below if you're interested.
People interested so far:
Me
Waveman
Nshepperd
SharePhoenix
Luminosity
Jayzee
A masque of Reason