The missing topics are labeled Taboo. I believe the Less Wrong community could contribute quite a bit to each of these but they are just too painful. I wish there was a way to discuss aspects of them without falling into the tired ruts. I am convinced that some LWers have gone down these paths and returned or discovered something insightful. But the current Taboos on it makes it difficult to broach these topics. Also there are trolls for many of them...
If there is some kind of diet that would increase rationality, or increase intelligence, or just give us more energy or more time by reducing the time necessary to sleep, it would be useful for us to know.
If we could get political power, we could make rationality education mandatory, make lotteries illegal or tax them highly and give the money to effective altruist causes, etc.
We could use the powers of seduction to bring more people to the rationalist community. They would come for sex, but stay for the Sequences.
We could find the hidden village where people have the highest IQ genes on the whole planet, select the person with the best gender, teach them computer science, and tell them to build a Friendly AI.
Better climate would also be fine for… uhm… some purpose. Outdoors LessWrong meetups?
I think there would be more contributions. For instance, StarSlateCodex seems to get more engagement by discussing the Taboo topics. Its widely believed that many LWers left here but visit those types of sites. Could LW fully explore rationality without the those topics? Probably—but it would be dry and boring.
I think that the reddit code base (LW’s) would be a better platform for the rationality community then a bunch of random unconnected websites. I had proposed an egalitarian software solution which I think would allow the Taboo topics to be discussed without forcing them on anyone.
Its playing with fire. Scott/Yvain felt it necessary to encourage the departure of most of his NRx posters. My anecdata suggests that quite low numbers of contrarians (~3%) can get a blog labelled Nasty Racist Sexist Hangout.
Aren’t diets mostly about energy-in VS energy out?
Eat more, gain weight.
Eat the same, stay the same.
Eat less, lose weight.
I read a bit from Lyle McDonald’s Ultimate Diet 2.0 and you can make yourself a calorie sink but IIRC it was quite situational.
Last thing, isn’t keto the same thing as low carb?
Democracy (NRx)
Neoreactionaries? If True, shoot them all.
Red pill (PUA)
Here we go again.. I’ll say nerds want sex too, just to be fair.
IQ (gender, race, culture, marshmallows)
Sounds like bullcrap to me.
Climate change (science theory)
Oh. Shit.
IMO Lesswrong should only cater to rationality. Those are fine things to discus but I think we’re approaching a slippery slope. Let LW specialize in rationality; let other places place specialize in other things.
Also, “taboo” is usually codename for “we want to argue endlessly and NOT reach an agreement/solution so the best thing is to avoid it altogether and hope the problem solves itself”. At least on the PUA case.
The missing topics are labeled Taboo. I believe the Less Wrong community could contribute quite a bit to each of these but they are just too painful. I wish there was a way to discuss aspects of them without falling into the tired ruts. I am convinced that some LWers have gone down these paths and returned or discovered something insightful. But the current Taboos on it makes it difficult to broach these topics. Also there are trolls for many of them...
Diets (Keto, low carb)
Democracy (NRx)
Red pill (PUA)
IQ (gender, race, culture, marshmallows)
Climate change (science theory)
What could LW contribute to these?
More importantly, vice versa.
If there is some kind of diet that would increase rationality, or increase intelligence, or just give us more energy or more time by reducing the time necessary to sleep, it would be useful for us to know.
If we could get political power, we could make rationality education mandatory, make lotteries illegal or tax them highly and give the money to effective altruist causes, etc.
We could use the powers of seduction to bring more people to the rationalist community. They would come for sex, but stay for the Sequences.
We could find the hidden village where people have the highest IQ genes on the whole planet, select the person with the best gender, teach them computer science, and tell them to build a Friendly AI.
Better climate would also be fine for… uhm… some purpose. Outdoors LessWrong meetups?
(End of motivated-thinking exercise.)
People in a hidden village are more likely to have genetic malformations, IMO.
I think there would be more contributions. For instance, StarSlateCodex seems to get more engagement by discussing the Taboo topics. Its widely believed that many LWers left here but visit those types of sites. Could LW fully explore rationality without the those topics? Probably—but it would be dry and boring.
I think that the reddit code base (LW’s) would be a better platform for the rationality community then a bunch of random unconnected websites. I had proposed an egalitarian software solution which I think would allow the Taboo topics to be discussed without forcing them on anyone.
Its playing with fire. Scott/Yvain felt it necessary to encourage the departure of most of his NRx posters. My anecdata suggests that quite low numbers of contrarians (~3%) can get a blog labelled Nasty Racist Sexist Hangout.
Aren’t diets mostly about energy-in VS energy out?
Eat more, gain weight.
Eat the same, stay the same.
Eat less, lose weight.
I read a bit from Lyle McDonald’s Ultimate Diet 2.0 and you can make yourself a calorie sink but IIRC it was quite situational.
Last thing, isn’t keto the same thing as low carb?
Neoreactionaries? If True, shoot them all.
Here we go again.. I’ll say nerds want sex too, just to be fair.
Sounds like bullcrap to me.
Oh. Shit.
IMO Lesswrong should only cater to rationality. Those are fine things to discus but I think we’re approaching a slippery slope. Let LW specialize in rationality; let other places place specialize in other things.
Also, “taboo” is usually codename for “we want to argue endlessly and NOT reach an agreement/solution so the best thing is to avoid it altogether and hope the problem solves itself”. At least on the PUA case.