A list capturing all background knowledge you might ever need for LW.

(Updated: 2010-10-08)

This list assumes a previous level of education above elementary schooling but less than secondary school. If you start with Khan Academy followed by BetterExplained then with the help of Google and Wikipedia you should be able to reach a level of education that allows you to start reading the LessWrong Sequences.

Nevertheless, before you start off you should read and memorize the Twelve Virtues of Rationality. Not only is scholarship just one virtue but you'll also be given a list of important fields of knowledge that anyone who takes LessWrong seriously should study:

It is especially important to eat math and science which impinges upon rationality: Evolutionary psychology, heuristics and biases, social psychology, probability theory, decision theory.

Mathematics:

Basics

• The Khan Academy (World-class education for free (1800+ videos).)
• Just Math Tutotrials (FREE math videos for the world!)
• BetterExplained (There’s always a better way to explain a topic.)
• Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles
• Free Mathematics eBooks
• A Guide to Bayes’ Theorem – A few links (An extensive list of links to tutorials on Bayesian probability.)
• Steven Strogatz on the Elements of Math (A very basic introduction to mathematics.)
• http://math.stackexchange.com/ (Q&A for people studying math at any level)
• http://www.wolframalpha.com (Check your math!)

Logic

• http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/03/mr_spock_is_not_logical_book_d.php
• Introduction to Mathematical Logic
• Gödel Without Tears
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_calculus
• An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic
• First-Order Logic
• Logical Labyrinths
• Stephen Cook's lecture notes in computability and logic

Game Theory

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

Foundations

• Foundations of mathematics
• The Mathematical Experience
• What is Mathematics: Gödel's Theorem and Around

Programming:

Programming knowledge is not mandatory for LessWrong but you should however be able to interpret the most basic pseudo code as you will come across various snippets of code in discussions and top-level posts outside of the main sequences.

Python

• http://python.org/
• http://learnpythonthehardway.org/home (Free)
• A Byte of Python (Free)
• Python for Software Design
• Learning Python, 3rd Edition

Haskell

• http://www.haskell.org/
• http://hackage.haskell.org/platform/
• http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Learn_Haskell_in_10_minutes
• http://learnyouahaskell.com/chapters
• The Haskell Road to Logic, Maths and Programming

General

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
• How to Design Programs (An Introduction to Computing and Programming)
• http://projecteuler.net/ (Learn programming and math by solving problems)
• The FTP Site (Functional Programming)

Computer sciences (General Introduction):

One of the fundamental premises on LessWrong is that a universal computing device can simulate every physical process and that we therefore should be able to reverse engineer the human brain as it is fundamentally computable. That is, intelligence and consciousness are substrate independent.

• Marvin Minsky, Computation Finite and Infinite Machines
• Michael Sipser, Introduction to the Theory of Computation
• Charles Petzold, The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
• Michael L. Scott, Programming Language Pragmatics

Machine Learning:

Not essential but an valuable addition for anyone who's more than superficially interested in AI and machine learning.

• Good Freely Available Textbooks on Machine Learning
• Learning About Statistical Learning
• Learning about Machine Learning, 2nd Ed.

Miscellaneous:

Not essential but a good preliminary to reading LessWrong and in some cases mandatory to be able to make valuable contributions in the comments. Many of the concepts in the following works are often mentioned on LessWrong or the subject of frequent discussions.

• An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications
• Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning (Free)
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel Dennett (Evolution)
• The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker (Linguistics)
• The Road to Reality (Physics)
• Good and Real (Rationality & Decision Theory)
• A New Kind of Science (Cellular automaton) (Note: I was told to be careful about this book. Rather than reading it as an introduction to cellular automata you might just check out the Wikipedia page on Conway's Game of Life)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Keywords:

Concepts and other fields of knowledge you should at least have a rough grasp of to be able to follow subsequent discussions in the comments on LessWrong.

• Cognitive biases, common misconceptions, and fallacies.
• Kolmogorov complexity
• Solomonoff induction
• Utility theory
• Utilitarianism
• Decision Theory (Timeless Decision Theory)
• Bayesian Probability Theory (Bayesian approach) vs. Frequentist Probability Theory (Frequentist approach)
• AI-Foom Debate
• Paperclip maximizer
• Catastrophic risks from artificial intelligence
• Coherent Extrapolated Volition (CEV)
• Simulation Argument
• Anthropic Principle

The Quantum Physics Sequence

Complex Numbers:

• http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-intuitive-guide-to-imaginary-numbers/
• http://betterexplained.com/articles/intuitive-arithmetic-with-complex-numbers/
• http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/finding-your-roots/
• http://uncw.edu/courses/mat111hb/izs/complex/complex.html

Complex Numbers @ Khan Academy:

• http://www.khanacademy.org/video/i-and-imaginary-numbers?playlist=Algebra
• http://www.khanacademy.org/video/complex-numbers--part-1?playlist=Algebra
• http://www.khanacademy.org/video/complex-numbers--part-2?playlist=Algebra

Note: This list is a work in progress. I will try to constantly update and refine it.