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ChristianKl comments on Why I Am Not a Rationalist, or, why several of my friends warned me that this is a cult - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Algernoq 13 July 2014 05:54PM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 14 July 2014 01:09:27PM 1 point [-]

It seems to me that as long as something is dressed in a sufficiently "sciency" language and endorsed by high status members of the community, a sizable number (though not necessarily a majority) of lesswrongers will buy into it.

What exactly do you mean with buying into it? I think there are places on the internet with a lot more armchair evopsych than LW.

Rituals: Deliberated modelled after religious rituals, including "public confession" sessions

Could you provide a link? I'm not aware of that ritual in LW if you mean something more than encouraging people to admit when they are wrong.

Comment author: V_V 14 July 2014 01:41:51PM 1 point [-]

What exactly do you mean with buying into it? I think there are places on the internet with a lot more armchair evopsych than LW.

Sure, but I'd expect that a community devoted to "refining the art of human rationality" would be more skeptical of that type of claims.

Anyway, I'm not saying that LessWrong is a terribly diseased community. If I thought it was, I wouldn't be hanging around here. I was just expressing my concerns about some aspects of the local culture.

Could you provide a link? I'm not aware of that ritual in LW if you mean something more than encouraging people to admit when they are wrong.

https://www.google.com/search?q=less+wrong+ritual&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#channel=fs&q=ritual+report+site:lesswrong.com

http://lesswrong.com/lw/9aw/designing_ritual/

And in particular the "Schelling Day", which bothers me the most: http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2t/schelling_day_a_rationalist_holiday/

Comment author: ChristianKl 14 July 2014 04:18:52PM 1 point [-]

Sure, but I'd expect that a community devoted to "refining the art of human rationality" would be more skeptical of that type of claims.

In that case I think you overrate the amount of energy the average person in the community invest in it. LW is very diverse as far as opinions go.

I myself dislike certain talk about signaling where sometimes armchair evopsych appear, but the idea of signaling is rooted in game theory.

There are also people on LW who do read real evopysch and make arguments on that basis.

And in particular the "Schelling Day", which bothers me the most: http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2t/schelling_day_a_rationalist_holiday/

I wasn't aware of Schelling Day.

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