Depending on where you are in your life and education, you could consider enrolling in graduate school.
If I’ve managed to translate “graduate school” to our educational system correctly, then I currently am in undergraduate school. Our mileages vary by quite a bit, most people I meet aren’t of the caliber. Also, it’s hard to find out if they are. Socially etiquette prevents me from bringing up the heavy hitting topics except on rare occasions.
I guess I should work on my social skills then cast a bigger net. The larger the sample, the better odds I have of finding someone worthwhile. Needless to say I’m introverted and socialization doesn’t come easily, but I’ll find a way.
In that case, you could look for clubs and organizations to join at your university. If you are in engineering or natural sciences, there will probably be a professional/academic organization for your sub discipline you could join (e.g. IEEE for electrical engineers, ACS for chemistry majors, ACM for computer science, etc.) I would imagine that mathematics and liberal arts have similar organizations as well. And, attend the meetings and functions. You could also look for other organizations on campus such as political organizations, cultural organizations, a cinema society (if you are a film enthusiast), etc.
No guarantees that these will lead to intellectual conversations, but the people who join and participate in these type of organizations tend to be (on average) more intellectual than those who do not.
And, as Grothor suggested, look for nearby LessWrong meetups (if any).
If I’ve managed to translate “graduate school” to our educational system correctly, then I currently am in undergraduate school. Our mileages vary by quite a bit, most people I meet aren’t of the caliber. Also, it’s hard to find out if they are. Socially etiquette prevents me from bringing up the heavy hitting topics except on rare occasions.
I guess I should work on my social skills then cast a bigger net. The larger the sample, the better odds I have of finding someone worthwhile. Needless to say I’m introverted and socialization doesn’t come easily, but I’ll find a way.
Oh, thank the proverbial God.
In that case, you could look for clubs and organizations to join at your university. If you are in engineering or natural sciences, there will probably be a professional/academic organization for your sub discipline you could join (e.g. IEEE for electrical engineers, ACS for chemistry majors, ACM for computer science, etc.) I would imagine that mathematics and liberal arts have similar organizations as well. And, attend the meetings and functions. You could also look for other organizations on campus such as political organizations, cultural organizations, a cinema society (if you are a film enthusiast), etc.
No guarantees that these will lead to intellectual conversations, but the people who join and participate in these type of organizations tend to be (on average) more intellectual than those who do not.
And, as Grothor suggested, look for nearby LessWrong meetups (if any).