I didn’t post about it in the “What are you working on” thread, because… well… I was busy working on it :P
I’m working with a few other Less Wrong folks (from various meetups) to foster a larger, healthier, happier, more productive, more interconnected community of meet-space rationalists. At the Megameetup last weekend I tested some ideas about telepresence, and pitched some ideas to people from Cambrige and Washington DC.
While there are subtler things we’re working on, there are four big tentpole events that I hope to rally people around:
1) Hold a Less Wrong meetup at the Reason Rally on March 24th (this was already underway, but a little more concrete now).
2) Hold a Summer Solstice festival (celebrating the natural beauty of the world, and getting us outside for some much needed fresh air and exercise).
3) Sometime in the fall (preferably on some kind of historically significant day), hold a celebration of technology. This holiday will not be repeated each year. Rather, it will be repeated once per cycle of Moore’s Law’s progress. (We’ll be purchasing a cheap computer specifically for Moore Day, and run some complex, visually interesting task that we display on a large monitor. Approximately every 18 months, we’ll upgrade it or get a new one and see how well it can perform the original task). This is the event that I was particularly interested in telepresence for. I’m hoping to get multiple communities participating simultaneously and at least briefly getting to wave to each other from across cyberspace. One thing I think most of Less Wrong can agree on, and get excited about, is how awesome technology can get in the future. (Even if we disagree on some particulars, or on ethical concerns).
4) We will be reprising the Winter Solstice, paying tribute to the harshness of the world, respecting the universe as a worthy opponent, and vowing to help create a better future.
What do I need from other people? Well, as much as people have to offer, really. I am confident than I can put something worthwhile together even if I’m doing it alone, but the more people contribute ideas, activities, organization, and grunt work during the execution, the better this will be. And the more people we get ultimately participating, the better the payoff.
If you have any kind of interest, whether in contributing skilled labor, a desire to influence the nature of the events, or a williness to carry boxes or prepare food, you can join the mailing list.
This holiday will not be repeated each year. Rather, it will be repeated once per cycle of Moore’s Law’s progress.
Does it mean that instead of praying to the Sun god, you will be praying to a potentially mightier one Technology god? This ritualistic stuff always rubs me a wrong way. I have trouble telling the difference between saying Grace, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, or whatever rationalist chants you guys do. They all seem like dark arts to me.
Not off topic. I acknowledge that I am messing with dangerous forces. But I think it’s approximately as dangerous to not mess with it as to mess with them. Traditional epistemic rationality techniques can help us learn important new things. But it can be difficult to bring our emotions and intuitions in line with that knowledge. If we can’t make important concepts emotionally resonant, it will be harder to act upon them. I wrote about my concerns about the danger of ritual in this article.
While I think your concern is miscalibrated (in terms of actual danger) I do acknowledge that many people in the community are turned off by this. I won’t be publicizing the more extreme ritual-y stuff in the main discussion area, but bringing it up in an Open thread seemed reasonable to me.
I also note that the theme of Moore Day is not “Amazing technology is coming and it will magically fix everything.” It’ll be more like “Amazing technology is coming and we don’t know exactly what the ramifications are going to be, good or bad, but one way or another its going to be interesting.”
And it’s followed up by the Winter solstice, whose purpose is to remind us that the universe is a complex, unforgivingly neutral place, and not technology nor democracy nor human nature can be counted on to keep us safe. If you want to have a promising future, you yourself are going to have to work hard, not only to accomplish the right actions, but figure out for yourself what the right actions are.
2) Hold a Summer Solstice festival (celebrating the natural beauty of the world, and getting us outside for some much needed fresh air and exercise).
Do you think it would be a good idea to combine this with a megameetup between the east coast groups, or do you think too much of the experience is doing this event with people you already know?
I didn’t post about it in the “What are you working on” thread, because… well… I was busy working on it :P
I’m working with a few other Less Wrong folks (from various meetups) to foster a larger, healthier, happier, more productive, more interconnected community of meet-space rationalists. At the Megameetup last weekend I tested some ideas about telepresence, and pitched some ideas to people from Cambrige and Washington DC.
While there are subtler things we’re working on, there are four big tentpole events that I hope to rally people around:
1) Hold a Less Wrong meetup at the Reason Rally on March 24th (this was already underway, but a little more concrete now).
2) Hold a Summer Solstice festival (celebrating the natural beauty of the world, and getting us outside for some much needed fresh air and exercise).
3) Sometime in the fall (preferably on some kind of historically significant day), hold a celebration of technology. This holiday will not be repeated each year. Rather, it will be repeated once per cycle of Moore’s Law’s progress. (We’ll be purchasing a cheap computer specifically for Moore Day, and run some complex, visually interesting task that we display on a large monitor. Approximately every 18 months, we’ll upgrade it or get a new one and see how well it can perform the original task). This is the event that I was particularly interested in telepresence for. I’m hoping to get multiple communities participating simultaneously and at least briefly getting to wave to each other from across cyberspace. One thing I think most of Less Wrong can agree on, and get excited about, is how awesome technology can get in the future. (Even if we disagree on some particulars, or on ethical concerns).
4) We will be reprising the Winter Solstice, paying tribute to the harshness of the world, respecting the universe as a worthy opponent, and vowing to help create a better future.
What do I need from other people? Well, as much as people have to offer, really. I am confident than I can put something worthwhile together even if I’m doing it alone, but the more people contribute ideas, activities, organization, and grunt work during the execution, the better this will be. And the more people we get ultimately participating, the better the payoff.
If you have any kind of interest, whether in contributing skilled labor, a desire to influence the nature of the events, or a williness to carry boxes or prepare food, you can join the mailing list.
Sorry, off-topic...
Does it mean that instead of praying to the Sun god, you will be praying to a potentially mightier one Technology god? This ritualistic stuff always rubs me a wrong way. I have trouble telling the difference between saying Grace, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, or whatever rationalist chants you guys do. They all seem like dark arts to me.
Not off topic. I acknowledge that I am messing with dangerous forces. But I think it’s approximately as dangerous to not mess with it as to mess with them. Traditional epistemic rationality techniques can help us learn important new things. But it can be difficult to bring our emotions and intuitions in line with that knowledge. If we can’t make important concepts emotionally resonant, it will be harder to act upon them. I wrote about my concerns about the danger of ritual in this article.
While I think your concern is miscalibrated (in terms of actual danger) I do acknowledge that many people in the community are turned off by this. I won’t be publicizing the more extreme ritual-y stuff in the main discussion area, but bringing it up in an Open thread seemed reasonable to me.
I also note that the theme of Moore Day is not “Amazing technology is coming and it will magically fix everything.” It’ll be more like “Amazing technology is coming and we don’t know exactly what the ramifications are going to be, good or bad, but one way or another its going to be interesting.”
And it’s followed up by the Winter solstice, whose purpose is to remind us that the universe is a complex, unforgivingly neutral place, and not technology nor democracy nor human nature can be counted on to keep us safe. If you want to have a promising future, you yourself are going to have to work hard, not only to accomplish the right actions, but figure out for yourself what the right actions are.
Do you think it would be a good idea to combine this with a megameetup between the east coast groups, or do you think too much of the experience is doing this event with people you already know?
Yes. All of these meetups will be public. (This was an outcome of the discussion at last weekend’s megameetup)