At the Australia online hangout; one of the topics we discussed (before I fell asleep on camera for a bunch of people) Was writing a rationality TV show as an outreach task. Of course there being more ways for this to go wrong than right I figured its worth mentioning the ideas and getting some comments.
The strategy is to have a set of regular characters who's rationality behaviour seems nuts. Effectively sometimes because it is; when taken out of context. Then to have one "blank" person who tries to join - "rationality house". and work things out. My aim was to have each episode straw man a rationality behaviour and then steelman it. Where by the end of the episode it saves the day; makes someone happy; achieves a goal - or some other <generic win-state>.
Here is a list of notes of characters from the hangout or potential topics to talk about.
- No showers. Bacterial showers
- Stopwatches everywhere
- temperature controls everywhere, light controls.
- radical honesty person.
- Soylent only eating person
- born-again atheist
- bayesian person
- Polyphasic sleep cycles.
There is a term for unconventional strategies outside of behavioural norms that provide benefits: positive deviance. It's also a catchy and awesome-sounding term that, in the unlikely event of this concept ever making it to air, wouldn't tar the term "rationalist" with connotations of not showering, goo diets, and saying whatever unfiltered thought passes through your mind.
That said, I like this as an intellectual exercise, so:
Its easy to say "not shower" and "thats gotta be terrible", but its (potentially hilarious) to have a guy running around town insisting people smell him because he smells great! and hasn't showered in years! And demonstrating the success of the results; rather than the ickyness of no-showers.
goo diets is very strawmanned. Steelmanned is that hungover guy not sure what to eat - just eat soylent. That grumpy "I can't decide what to eat" feeling and a person being angry and someone else going - just eat some soylent! and the... (read more)