Rationalist Sport

MathiasZaman

This post is a bit of an experiment; Most of the time, Discussion post lay out an idea and this idea then get commented upon. This post, on the other hand, will be purely about discussion on a topic. If this works out well, I'll might post more of these in the future.

On to the meat of this post:

I got this idea from a reddit post on /r/LessWrong.

To quote:

I remember my sociology textbook explaining that sports often show what a group values. Bowling was popular with machinists and factory workers who valued repeated precision, while American football was watched and played by a culture that valued extreme specialization of individuals, but able to work as a team.

So I've been thinking about what we would value in a sport, and what sport we could create that exemplifies those values (not interested in picking an existing sport).

So have at it.

I only ask for one thing and that is to hold off on proposing solutions for 24 hours before giving suggestions for actual sports. In the first 24 hours, please discuss what makes current sports unappealing to rationalists and what aspects a sports designed for aspiring rationalists should have.

Edit: The 24-hour window has closed and solutions and suggestions can now be given.

On to the meat of this post:

I got this idea from a reddit post on /r/LessWrong.

To quote:

I remember my sociology textbook explaining that sports often show what a group values. Bowling was popular with machinists and factory workers who valued repeated precision, while American football was watched and played by a culture that valued extreme specialization of individuals, but able to work as a team.

So I've been thinking about what we would value in a sport, and what sport we could create that exemplifies those values (not interested in picking an existing sport).

So have at it.

Edit: The 24-hour window has closed and solutions and suggestions can now be given.

I can believe that it's better for people to coordinate movement and breathing without buying into dubious metaphysics.

But it's not only about coordinating movement and breathing. If you reduce yoga to those elements you lose something.

Modern body work usually is also about things like authentic expression of emotions. It's about constantly discovering new ways to move your body.

I was looking for something which was harmless (probably), difficult, and possible to evaluate objectively-- the first makes it rationalist, and the second and third make it a potential sport.

I had to check the dictionary. Webster has two meanings for sport: "a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other" and "a physical activity (such as hunting, fishing, running, swimming, etc.) that is done for enjoyment".

I don't think that competition is needed.

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