Positive-affect-day-Schelling-point-mas Meetup

3Marcello23 December 2009 07:41PM

There will be a LessWrong Meetup on the Friday December 25th (day after tomorrow.)  We're meeting at 6:00 PM at Pan Tao Restaurant at 1686 South Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale, CA the SIAI House in Santa Clara, CA for pizza or whatever else we can figure out how to cook.  Consider it an available refuge if you haven't other plans.

Please comment if you plan to show up!

(Edit - See poll below on whether we'd rather stay in and eat something simple vs. going out to a restaurant - it's possible that everyone was assuming everyone else would prefer the latter while actually preferring the former themselves. - EY)

Comments (31)

Eliezer_Yudkowsky26 December 2009 07:03:24AM3 points [-]

This was a nice little informal Newtonmas gathering. We decided to nuke the moon.

Daniel_Burfoot26 December 2009 01:45:05PM0 points [-]

This was a nice little informal Newtonmas gathering. We decided to nuke the moon.

Nice. If I had been there, I would have lobbied to crank up the Earth's axis of rotation to make it perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.

I'm still working on the details of how to generate the necessary torque. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

MatthewB26 December 2009 09:22:55AM0 points [-]

Aww! I new that I was going to miss something fun! So, was this just a decision, or did you also act upon that decision?

Kevin26 December 2009 08:24:20AM* 0 points [-]

(I wasn't there, but Mr Show -- Blow Up the Moon seems relevant)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csj7vMKy4EI

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 02:18:58AM6 points [-]

Quick non-binding poll of preference. Vote up if you'd sooner eat pizza at the SIAI House (or whatever simple things we can figure out how to buy or cook or heat down there), rather than going to a restaurant.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 09:20:31PM0 points [-]

Okay, calling it for pizza. We just got 4 pizzas (plain, margherita, pepperoni, and supreme) and a tray of veggies for dipping. Any other participants can feel free to bring other stuff.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 02:19:10AM0 points [-]

Vote up if you'd rather go to the restaurant.

(And feel free to reply as well if you want to make some sort of statement about how you feel it would be too sad a Newtonmas if you just ended up eating pizza... I think we were assuming there'd be at least one person like that without actually identifying them, vide pluralistic ignorance.)

Marcello23 December 2009 07:45:33PM1 point [-]

I am going to be there.

steven046123 December 2009 09:17:05PM1 point [-]

me too

JustinShovelain23 December 2009 09:24:08PM1 point [-]

I'll be there.

tommccabe23 December 2009 09:33:45PM1 point [-]

And me.

Steve_Rayhawk23 December 2009 10:58:14PM1 point [-]

I plan to be there.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 12:38:21AM2 points [-]

And Erin and I.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 12:41:35AM1 point [-]

Replying again so that comment count = person count.

pwno24 December 2009 01:56:30AM1 point [-]

I'll be there.

Liron24 December 2009 02:02:02AM1 point [-]

i won't not be there

John_Maxwell_IV25 December 2009 02:40:01AM0 points [-]

same

Eliezer_Yudkowsky26 December 2009 09:23:51AM0 points [-]

PS: Who was it that came up with the idea for me to write a self-insert fanfic based on Yudkowski Returns?

Steve_Rayhawk29 December 2009 12:47:22AM* 0 points [-]

It was me. Zack Davis was jokingly suggesting a benefit performance, you were unhappy that it was a bad play, and I was looking for things that would make it a better play, such as playing it as a farce.

And again, the whole point was that, technically, it's not self-insert fanfic if someone else already inserted you...

Steve_Rayhawk29 December 2009 01:01:44AM* 2 points [-]

If you want to get more meta, you could have the characters in the story use game theory to analyze the causal basis for oppobrium towards authors of self-insert fanfic (perhaps in terms of signals about underlying psychological states, and/or signals about abhorrence of some of those psychological states, and/or signals about abhorrence of inadequate abhorrence).

(And then, having analyzed the oppobrium and reduced it to game theory and social psychology, they could argue about whether or not the oppobrium "should" apply to their own author. And about whether or not having the analysis even gives them any useful information to help decide that question.)

MatthewB24 December 2009 07:11:36AM* 0 points [-]

SIAI no Uchi desu yo. Doko ni arimasu ka.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 07:16:50AM1 point [-]

Hai, arimasu. Not that I actually speak Japanese.

MatthewB24 December 2009 07:28:40AM1 point [-]

Doh... Need to not reply while watching anime...

That should read "The SIAI house, huh? Where is that?"

Should this novice deign to be present amongst the giants. (sorry, the Japanese really do talk like that, and I've been watching anime for three days - in Japanese, as it is the best way to learn the language). Or, to put it in the colloquial "Should I be privileged to attend."

Eliezer_Yudkowsky25 December 2009 03:34:02AM0 points [-]

Okay, should now link to meetup.com, from which you should be able to obtain directions.

MatthewB26 December 2009 03:42:07AM0 points [-]

Alas... My legs have conspired to keep me away (well, really, they just have been acting up over the last week, and I had hoped they were finished, but it seems not).

So, I hope that your Positive-Affect-Day, Schelling-Point-mas goes well (I must confess here that I did not understand the Schelling-Point portion of that expression until I googled it upon discovering that my legs were going to keep me away from the meetup... At which point I realize... The whole expression is both quite pertinent and funny. Well done whoever came up with it)

MatthewB25 December 2009 03:52:09AM0 points [-]

Thank you... Then I shall be there (not that my cats are not good company; they just aren't too good on the conversation end. They do have more than one word, fortunately, but every one starts with Me--- and usually ends with ow or eh)

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 07:52:58AM0 points [-]

Right... "doko" is "where", I was thinking "there" but that's "soko"...

Let me see if I can get an LW Meetup set up, in which case I can forward to meetup.com. Otherwise I'll PM or just post the info here.

HughRistik24 December 2009 06:49:03AM0 points [-]

Too bad I can't make it... already have plans.

Eliezer_Yudkowsky24 December 2009 07:00:33AM0 points [-]

Think of this as a refuge for those who don't already have plans. It's not supposed to preempt plans you already have.

MatthewB24 December 2009 06:06:45AM0 points [-]

New, but would like to be there. I am kinda more partial to pizza myself. Not that I don't love Chinese Food, especially on Mythmas, but I, strangely (as a student) do not eat Pizza nearly often enough.