I think at this point I'm in the learning phase where I'm just staring at things in wonder. For my bugs and technique discussions, I have followups with my workshop buddies and that seems to be working pretty well. I think the reason I came to lesswrong was to understand more about the community itself. Who is part of it? How big is it? What is everybody talking about? Those kinds of things. Reading posts every couple of days seems to be working for now.
It might help if there are recent posts where the community is focused inward and talking about itself. I've seen a couple of these, but if there are any good ones that come to mind for you I would appreciate it.
Thank you for being welcoming.
Thank you for this advice. I was going to ask you for specifics, then I felt dumb, then I just started googling, then I found the list:
https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Less_Wrong_meetup_groups#Virtual
Something Orwellian, like The Guild of Truth or Reality Club or something. It would need a name that would inoculate new members against thinking they were joining a religion.
I can no longer tell if I'm trying to be ironic or serious, it's a consequence of living in the post-truth era.
I definitely agree with more rationalists having children. Any baby would be lucky to be born to a loving family that values education and helping the world.
The larger concern, however, is misplaced. If we want more rationalism and altruism in society, it isn't a question of genes it's a question of memes. For one, we don't have time for the next generation to solve the biggest risks we face. We have to find a way to make vast swaths of humanity more rational and altruistic in like, the next 50 years. One generation of gene spreading is not going to increa...
If only we could trick everybody into believing they are ruled by a powerful empire / God that can't been seen or proven to exist. The empire inspires good behavior in its citizens by enforcing policies in a way that is anonymous (it might just be randomness or other causes). The empire demands no taxes (you're already protected or "saved" just by being human). The empire rewards people who treat others with love and kindness by magically imbuing them with invincibility / eternal life. (They don't actually have these things, it's just a way to fe...
Hi everybody!
I'm new here, so I'd like to share my rationalist origin story. (Please somebody tell me if I'm doing this in the wrong place.) I only became aware that rationality was a thing very recently. I'm getting started with the sequences and rationalist blogs, but there is a ton to read and it will take me a while. I'm familiar with many of the concepts and I have strong opinions about them, though I realize there's a lot to learn. I am going to try to express my opinions but hold onto them loosely, so PCK can work.
I was introduced to rationality by ...
I've been thinking about this post the last couple of days and I had an idea. I'm not sure if it directly addresses the topic, but if I don't write it down then it'll probably be wasted.
Idea: prior to an event like a CFAR workshop (or similar event) create teams of 5 people each. Organize by where they live and what leisure activity they enjoy. Choices are video games, movies, reading, board games, etc. In some rented space with plenty of snacks the 5 participants are asked to spend 4-8 hours in the same space. They can enjoy the leisure activity if they w... (read more)