I wonder--is living with someone who shares your philosophical viewpoint a good idea? I'm not suggesting that we should all go live with fundamentalists just to be in contact with someone different, but living with someone whose beliefs are a mirror image of your own reeks of confirmation bias (especially if they are actively involved in the rationalist community). I lived with a very religious person for a year, and we managed to get along.
I have similar reservations about the rationalist community as a whole, especially in light of reading about that anti-evolutionist woman being booed at the atheists convention in Australia. As with almost all communities, some level of groupthink seems inevitable. Then again, I've never actually been to a meeting, so I'm only speculating.
I think hesitation and thoughtfulness is probably the correct initial reaction. People frequently pay less attention to situational context and more attention to internal dispositions than is justified*, so making sure that your environment is doing what you want it to do is generally a great idea. There are probably two radically different questions here.
First, there's the question of whether or not you think "rationality" is likely to help you. If you think it is a good idea to take beliefs and theory literally, act on their basis, with updat...
For those who don't yet know, there has been a thriving rationalist community in NYC since April 2009. We've been holding weekly meetups for the past several months now, and often have game nights, focused discussions, etc. For those of you who live in the area, and not yet involved, I highly encourage you to join the following two groups:
This Meetup group is our public face, which draws new members to the meetups.
This Google Group was our original method of coordination, and we still use it for private communication.
The reason I am posting this is because there has been interest by several members in sharing an apartment/loft, or even multiple apartments on a floor of a building if there are enough people. The core interest group is going to be meeting soon to figure out the logistics, so I wanted to extend this opportunity to any aspiring rationalists who either currently or would like to live in NYC. If you are interested, please join the Google Group and let us know, so that we can include you in the planning process. Additionally, if anyone has experience living with other rationalists, or more generally in a community setting, please feel free to share your knowledge with us so we can avoid any common pitfalls.