That’s some interesting reasoning. I’ve met people before who avoided leaving an evaporatively cooling group because they recognized the process and didn’t want to contribute to it, but you might be the first person I’ve encountered who joined a group to counteract it (or to stave it off before it begins, given that LW seems to be both growing and to some extent diversifying right now). Usually people just write groups like that off. Aside from the odd troll or ideologue that claims similar motivations but is really just looking for a fight, at least—but that doesn’t seem to fit what you’ve written here.
Anyway. I’m not going to pretend that you aren’t going to find some hostility towards Abrahamic religion here, nor that you won’t be able to find any arguably problematic (albeit mostly unconsciously so) attitudes regarding sex and/or gender. Act as your conscience dictates should you find either one intolerable. Speaking for myself, though, I take the Common Interest of Many Causes concept seriously: better epistemology is good for everyone, not just for transhumanists of a certain bent. Your belief structure might differ somewhat from the tribal average around here, but the actual goal of this tribe is to make better thinkers, and I don’t think anyone’s going to want to exclude you from that as long as you approach it in good faith.
That’s some interesting reasoning. I’ve met people before who avoided leaving an evaporatively cooling group because they recognized the process and didn’t want to contribute to it, but you might be the first person I’ve encountered who joined a group to counteract it (or to stave it off before it begins, given that LW seems to be both growing and to some extent diversifying right now). Usually people just write groups like that off. Aside from the odd troll or ideologue that claims similar motivations but is really just looking for a fight, at least—but that doesn’t seem to fit what you’ve written here.
Anyway. I’m not going to pretend that you aren’t going to find some hostility towards Abrahamic religion here, nor that you won’t be able to find any arguably problematic (albeit mostly unconsciously so) attitudes regarding sex and/or gender. Act as your conscience dictates should you find either one intolerable. Speaking for myself, though, I take the Common Interest of Many Causes concept seriously: better epistemology is good for everyone, not just for transhumanists of a certain bent. Your belief structure might differ somewhat from the tribal average around here, but the actual goal of this tribe is to make better thinkers, and I don’t think anyone’s going to want to exclude you from that as long as you approach it in good faith.
In fewer words: welcome to Less Wrong.