= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
SquirrelInHell comments on Secret Rationality Base in Europe - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (33)
The image I have is that Berkeley just happened to be where Eliezer was, and he gradually built the whole thing. Is it wrong?
I have no special insider knowledge. My impression, which I will gladly have corrected by those who know more, is that
But, again, this is vague impressions and guesswork and assumptions rather than actual knowledge. So let's assume for a moment that I'm entirely wrong and the Berkeley rationalist community is a consequence of MIRI. MIRI was founded about 16 years ago, and I think it's only in the last few years that the Berkeley rationalist community has been a big thing. That would suggest that the "build a rationalist community by starting an institution there" strategy takes 10 years or so to work.
If so, then good places to consider might be places that already have kinda-MIRI-like institutions. Perhaps Oxford (home of the Future of Humanity Institute, and also of Giving What We Can if you're the EA sort of rationalist) and to a lesser extent Cambridge (home of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk). I think the FHI and the CSER are the nearest non-MIRI things to MIRI.
Nope. SIAI was founded in Georgia, because that's where Eliezer was, then moved to Silicon Valley soon afterwards, and moved again to Berkeley just a few years ago (around the time it changed its name to MIRI iirc).
Ah, interesting. Do you know how that timeline interacts with the growth of the rationalist community in Berkeley?
If I remember correctly, the Berkeley rationalist community was largely seeded by members of the Silicon Valley rationalist community moving to Berkeley, which began shortly before MIRI moved, but mostly happened when and after MIRI moved.
I believe Eliezer was one of the last SIAI employees to move to Berkeley. My guess is SIAI originally moved from Santa Clara to Berkeley because some SIAI employees had rationalist community friends in Berkeley, and when visiting those friends, they noticed they liked Berkeley better than Santa Clara. (I've lived in both places--IMO Santa Clara is dystopian and suburban, but Berkeley is lively and interesting.)
I don't believe there was significant community buildup in Santa Clara before the move. So maybe the takeaway is to make your HQ a place where people want to live for reasons other than just being part of your community?