Hello! I'm Sam. I'm 17, a newly minted high school graduate, and I'll be heading off to Reed College in Portland, Oregon next month.
I discovered Less Wrong through a link (whose origin I no longer remember) to "A Fable of Science and Politics" a couple of months ago. The post was rather striking, and the site's banner was alluring, so I clicked on it. The result, over the past couple of months, has been a massive accumulation of bookmarks (18 directly from Less Wrong at the time of this writing) accompanied by an astonishing amount of insight.
This place is probably the most intellectually stimulating site I've ever found on the internet, and I'm very much looking forward to discovering more posts, as well as reading through the ones I've stored up. I have, until now, mostly read bits and pieces that I've seen on the main page or followed links to, partially because I haven't had time and partially because some of the posts can be intimidatingly academic (I don't have the math and science background to understand some of what Eliezer writes about), but I've made this account and plan to delve into the Sequences shortly.
To some degree, I think I've always been a rationalist. I've always been both inquisitive and argumentative (captain of my school's debate team, by the way), and those qualities combined tend to lead one to questioning established thought. Although my parents are mildly religious, I don't think I ever actually believed in God (haven't gone to synagogue since my Bar Mitzvah), and that lack of belief hardened into strong atheism.
I'm very fond of logic, and I've argued myself from atheism to materialism and hence to determinism, with utilitarianism thrown in along the way. They're not popular viewpoints, but they're internally consistent, and the world becomes much clearer and simpler when seen from them. I'm still trying to refine my philosophies to create a truly coherent view of the world. I very much enjoy Less Wrong both because it's a hub of my low-percentage philosophy and because it's uniquely clarifying in its perspectives.
I enjoy psychology and philosophy, the former of which I'm considering as a major, and was heavily influenced by reading The Moral Animal (which I highly recommend if you haven't already read it) during my freshman year of high school. I love reading, practice introspection, and am continually attempting to incorporate as much information as I can into my worldview.
I actually already have about one and a half posts ready (one on consciousness, one on post rem information), but I'll readily wait until I've read through the Sequences and accumulated some karma before I publish them.
I've written too much already, so I'll cut this off here. Once again: Hi everyone! My mind is open.
Good to meet you! If you're interested in cryonics at all, you'll be pleased to note that there is a local group headed by my friends Chana and Aschwin de Wolf. http://www.cryonicsoregon.com/
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