Columbus is interested in hosting a mega-meetup in the fall, but I'd like to get some data on how many people would be interested in coming (If no one outside of Ohio is interested, we'll probably downgrade the event to an OHLW meetup, rather than a mega-meetup). I posted a list of approximate drive-times below. If you are interested, please let me know. A probability estimate of how likely you are to be able to make it would also be useful. Thanks!
Dayton, OH- 1:00
Cincinnati, OH- 1:30
Cleveland, OH- 2:10
Toledo, OH- 2:20
Indianapolis, IN- 2:40
Fort Wayne, IN- 2:45
Pittsburgh, PA- 2:50
Lexington, KY- 3:00
Louisville, KY- 3:10
Detroit, MI- 3:15
Grand Rapids, MI- 4:50
Buffalo, MI- 5:00
Knoxville, TN- 5:15
Chicago, IL- 5:20
Nashville, TN- 5:30
Springfield, IL- 5:50
Rochester, NY- 6:00
Washington DC- 6:15
St Louis, MO- 6:20
Toronto, Canada- 6:30
Charlotte, NC- 6:40
Milwuakee, WI- 6:50
Philadelphia, PA- 7:15
NYC- 8:00
I'm officially spinning the Solstice and related ritual stuff into something distinct from Less Wrong (there are good reasons to leave LW focusing on straight-up rationality, and I think it should cater more towards "serious business intellectuals" than trying to appeal to the masses, which is essentially my goal).
I'll be checking in from time to time to let people know what I'm doing. I just posted an introduction newsletter for Solstice and Megameetup activity for 2013. You can view it here, and if you want to participate in future discussion, you may want to join the rational-ritual mailing list.
Some key points:
The Winter Solstice 2011 had been a bit of an experiment, and went well enough, but left us with a sense of "all right, now let's do that for real next year." I think the 2012 Solstice delivered on that. Our house was filled to the brim with 50 people, and I got a lot of profound thanks from people who described it as very emotionally affective, helping them deal with death and successful at community bonding in a way that few other things had been for them.
Now I'm gearing up for this year's work. I have a few main goals for this year:
- Have Solstices and Megameetups at a number of cities other than New York.
- Have one very large Solstice in NY (looking to seat at least 100 people and trying to seat 800 if I can, in a large auditorium), that caters to the mainstream skeptic/freethinker/humanist crowd. (There will also be a smaller, more intimate and transhumanist Less Wrong Solstice in NYC, but I'm leaning towards it not doubling as a megameetup)
- Create an official website that ties this all together, and makes it easier for people to get involved, share music/art, and find people to collaborate with. I want it to be distinct from Less Wrong so that people who aren't interested in ritual don't feel put out, as well as give non-LW-folk a chance to discover it.
For the first goal to be successful, we're going to need other other people doing some non-trivial logistical work. A few people had expressed interest in having Solstices or megameetups in their city but weren't sure if they were able to take on that responsibility personally. Some people were interested in making a Solstice happen but hadn't actually personally experienced it and weren't sure they were qualified.
These are non-trivial obstacles, but I think they can be addressed.