Hey, do you want to help me build a MUD dedicated to learning and applying the principles of rationality?

What's a MUD?

A Multi User Dungeon. A virtual online world with a text interface. You have one or more characters who move through locations in a virtual world. The world has some rules or mechanics: perhaps for fighting, spell-casting, leveling up, buying/selling and so forth. There might also be a system of quests with rewards. You can meet other players and interact with them, or interact with automated characters.

Certain players ("wizards") are promoted to be able to create the world: digging new locations, creating quests, inventing new spells and automating the characters and items.

What might an Applied Rationality MUD look like?

So, let's imagine what ARMUD might look like once it had been written. You log into using your web browser. You're told that your character is in an ancient marketplace, an "agora". The philosopher Diogenes is here who randomly pulls stunts and mutters words of philosophy from time-to-time. "If only I could relieve hunger so easily by rubbing my belly!" he says. Hm, wonder what that means.

He offers various quests which, if accepted, will practically challenge you to apply principles of minimalism and simplicity to your life. "Tidy your room, bucko!" is one such quest. To complete that mission, or any others, you must accomplish the required task in the real world, but don't worry, you get some experience points here in the virtual world too. And that's what really matters.

To the south lies the Parthenon, the temple of Athena Goddess of Wisdom. Yoda is to be found here and he teaches the spell of "Yoda Timer". When cast, that spell helps a person to focus on the accomplishment of an important task to the exclusion of other distractions for a given length of time. The first levels are easy, but as you want to cast it at a higher level, it requires longer focus and concentration. Again, experience points and leveling up are to be achieved by learning and casting this spell. Although experience points are lost if it is cast, but the timer is not completed.

To the northeast of the Agora, is the Stoa Poikile. That is where people go to learn the practical philosophy of stoicism and related modern ideas such as CBT and other therapies. Epictetus is always foun...

John F.

John F.