Hi LW community, if anything I hope my experiences from here on are humbling, I'm not particularly well read though extremely opinionated, my only real interaction with Philosophy has been a collection of works by Plato, not to say they didn't teach me anything, I feel as if they merely solidified my previous beliefs, whether that's a good or bad thing I'm also not sure which I'm more afraid of, I've barely even scratched "Rationality: From AI to Zombies" hope to change that within the month though as I understand there is a wealth of suggested readings. I only stumbled across this community some 2 hours ago, I had heard the outline of what is probably the most controversial topic to have existed and followed the white rabbit down this rabbit hole, I'm not sure what the communities attitude towards that topic is whether its like Voldemort and should not be name or conversation on it is as open as any other.
I am a Theist though my beliefs differ from my religious surroundings immensely to the point of either the more accurate interpretations or complete heresy, my beliefs and path to them mostly stemmed from the idea What if there is a 'God and Reverse Engineering such an entity from the perspective of human reality, though not to say my up bringing didn't influence me but I agree very little on anything, regardless I like to think if presented with an argument that should convince me I would change my mind on the subject, I've historically mostly been your typical Hollywood Rationalist being introduced to the anime Death Note from a young impressionable age I idealized the character "L". I wouldn't exactly know how to label myself, I don't believe in labels per se, I don't believe two individuals can believe the same thing based on fundamental Nature Nurture influences, I do believe labels serve their purpose of generalizing and that our brains use this as a way of organisation though such organisation leading to bias. I believe that there must exist one inherent truth though perspective is the protagonist existing in its own reality of such truth, and that the human perspective isn't the definitive view i.e. Meaning is non existent, merely a construct of the brain, murder is not evil it just is a thing, nor is that which is good, good, I do not believe truth and reality are the same thing, I'm concerned about freewill and the implications of its existence or its non existence and experience, where is and what is color and the experience of it, what is it about science that allows for the creation of experience and where does it reside. My Apologize for what is an example albeit abstract mess of not necessarily relating views and simply the ones at the top of my head in the 5 minutes of writing of my stance future topics and places I'll be lurking.
If there is a label for me based on those I'd be interested to hear it, other than that after i get some reading done you may find me lurking about
Thank you, say hi, I wonder if there are any vices we share that we can socialize through such as games though my social life has deteriorated to non existence since I stopped playing I'd love to meet new people.
attitude towards that topic
If it's basilisk - no one cares.
If its cult - no one cares.
If it's eugenics - no one cares.
If it's politics - no one cares but don't post it here.
If it's mra it's generally not appreciated here.
If it's other stuff - sounds like fun! Welcome! Let's talk!
(Thread A for January 2017 is here, this was created as a duplicate but it's too late to fix it now.)
Hi, do you read the LessWrong website, but haven't commented yet (or not very much)? Are you a bit scared of the harsh community, or do you feel that questions which are new and interesting for you could be old and boring for the older members?
This is the place for the new members to become courageous and ask what they wanted to ask. Or just to say hi.
The older members are strongly encouraged to be gentle and patient (or just skip the entire discussion if they can't).
Newbies, welcome!
The long version:
A few notes about the site mechanics
A few notes about the community
If English is not your first language, don't let that make you afraid to post or comment. You can get English help on Discussion- or Main-level posts by sending a PM to one of the following users (use the "send message" link on the upper right of their user page). Either put the text of the post in the PM, or just say that you'd like English help and you'll get a response with an email address.
* Normal_Anomaly
* Randaly
* shokwave
* Barry Cotter
A note for theists: you will find the Less Wrong community to be predominantly atheist, though not completely so, and most of us are genuinely respectful of religious people who keep the usual community norms. It's worth saying that we might think religion is off-topic in some places where you think it's on-topic, so be thoughtful about where and how you start explicitly talking about it; some of us are happy to talk about religion, some of us aren't interested. Bear in mind that many of us really, truly have given full consideration to theistic claims and found them to be false, so starting with the most common arguments is pretty likely just to annoy people. Anyhow, it's absolutely OK to mention that you're religious in your welcome post and to invite a discussion there.
A list of some posts that are pretty awesome
I recommend the major sequences to everybody, but I realize how daunting they look at first. So for purposes of immediate gratification, the following posts are particularly interesting/illuminating/provocative and don't require any previous reading:
More suggestions are welcome! Or just check out the top-rated posts from the history of Less Wrong. Most posts at +50 or more are well worth your time.
Welcome to Less Wrong, and we look forward to hearing from you throughout the site!