[Question] What would a zetetic explanation be for the rationality community?

Zetetic explanations as described by benquo (blogpost, lw linkpost).

  • Interdisciplinary

    • covers a mixture of social and natural factors leading up to the isolation of the thing

    • historical in the original, investigative sense of the term “history.”

    • risks being wrong

  • Empowering

    • integrates concrete and model-based thinking that is checkable on multiple levels

    • affirms basic competence of humans to explore our world

    • centers process of discovery rather than a finished product

The rationality sequences created a community with shared language for talking about mind and optimization space. If we have that history understood on a technical level, I think we’ll be better at seeing through founder effects to recognize ally and sister movements forming in other contexts.