Meetup : West LA Meetup—Introduction to Anthropics
Discussion article for the meetup : West LA Meetup—Introduction to Anthropics
How to get in: Go to the Westside Tavern in the upstairs Wine Bar (all ages welcome), located inside the Westside Pavillion on the second floor, right by the movie theaters. The entrance sign says “Lounge”.
Parking is free for 3 hours, or for longer if you apply some skullduggery.
Discussion: The study of observer selection effects is called “anthropics” or “anthropic reasoning”. As I am not an expert in anthropics, I will introduce the topic and some of its famous problems, clear up basic confusions, and caution against more advanced confusions.
Recommended reading:
Forcing Anthropics: Boltzmann Brains, Outlawing Anthropics, The Anthropic Trilemma
No Anthropic Evidence, in which Vladimir Nesov proves that you can’t update your priors with anthropic observations.
Prior exposure to Less Wrong is mandatory. If you haven’t memorized the core sequences, don’t even bother showing up.
There will probably be a highly visible whiteboard.
That was a super hard core cutoff for participation… did anyone show? :-)
yes, all of the people who recognized it was a joke