Reading this I was reminded of something. Now, not to say rationality or EA are exactly religions, but the two function in a lot of the same ways especially with respect to providing shared meaning and building community. And if you look at new, not-state-sponsored religions, they typically go through an early period where they are are small and geographically colocated and only later have a chance to grow after sufficient time with everyone together if they are to avoid fracturing such that we would no longer consider the growth “growth” per se and would more call it dispersion. Consider for example Jews in the desert, English Puritans moving to North America, and Mormons settling in Utah. Counterexamples that perhaps prove the rule (because they produced different sorts of communities) include early Christians spread through the Roman empire and various missionaries in the Americas.
To me this suggests that much of the conflict people feel today about Berkeley is around this unhappiness at being rationalists who aren’t living in Berkeley when the rationality movement is getting itself together in preparation for later growth, because importantly for what I think many people are concerned about this is a necessary period that comes prior to growth not to the exclusion of growth (not that anyone is intentionally doing this, but more this is a natural strategy that communities take up under certain conditions because it seems most likely to succeed). Being a rationalist not in Berkeley right now probably feels a lot like being a Mormon not in Utah a century ago or a Puritan who decided to stay behind in England.
Now, if you care about existential risk you might think we don’t have time to wait for the rationality community to coalesce in this way (or to wait to see if it even does!), and that’s fair but that’s a different argument than what I’ve mostly heard. And anyway none of this is necessarily what’s actually going on, but it is an interesting parallel I noticed reading this.
I agree with all of this, except for existential risk reduction and other potential goals of the rationality community don’t fit with waiting rationality to coalesce into a world religion, which you’ve already acknowledged. Also, I feel like just because it’s the rationality community we should find a way to create tighter feedback loops of coalescing into worldwide community in a shorter period than religions typically take. Personally I’m more motivated by the Craft than the Community, but I figure to rally the whole community both are necessary (and interdependent?), so I’m still trying to hack together a way to balance both while accelerating sustainable development of local rationality communities.
Reading this I was reminded of something. Now, not to say rationality or EA are exactly religions, but the two function in a lot of the same ways especially with respect to providing shared meaning and building community. And if you look at new, not-state-sponsored religions, they typically go through an early period where they are are small and geographically colocated and only later have a chance to grow after sufficient time with everyone together if they are to avoid fracturing such that we would no longer consider the growth “growth” per se and would more call it dispersion. Consider for example Jews in the desert, English Puritans moving to North America, and Mormons settling in Utah. Counterexamples that perhaps prove the rule (because they produced different sorts of communities) include early Christians spread through the Roman empire and various missionaries in the Americas.
To me this suggests that much of the conflict people feel today about Berkeley is around this unhappiness at being rationalists who aren’t living in Berkeley when the rationality movement is getting itself together in preparation for later growth, because importantly for what I think many people are concerned about this is a necessary period that comes prior to growth not to the exclusion of growth (not that anyone is intentionally doing this, but more this is a natural strategy that communities take up under certain conditions because it seems most likely to succeed). Being a rationalist not in Berkeley right now probably feels a lot like being a Mormon not in Utah a century ago or a Puritan who decided to stay behind in England.
Now, if you care about existential risk you might think we don’t have time to wait for the rationality community to coalesce in this way (or to wait to see if it even does!), and that’s fair but that’s a different argument than what I’ve mostly heard. And anyway none of this is necessarily what’s actually going on, but it is an interesting parallel I noticed reading this.
I agree with all of this, except for existential risk reduction and other potential goals of the rationality community don’t fit with waiting rationality to coalesce into a world religion, which you’ve already acknowledged. Also, I feel like just because it’s the rationality community we should find a way to create tighter feedback loops of coalescing into worldwide community in a shorter period than religions typically take. Personally I’m more motivated by the Craft than the Community, but I figure to rally the whole community both are necessary (and interdependent?), so I’m still trying to hack together a way to balance both while accelerating sustainable development of local rationality communities.