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No idea, I was in philosophy. (...That, and I stopped showing up to classes partway through the semester. Turns out when nobody notices if I go to a thing or not, I rarely go to the thing.)
But how can you even be sure you really exist?! Maybe you're just a figment of someone else's imagination?
I've always wondered, what do people do in the philosophy course? Is it all ancient greek poetry, or is that image outdated?
I'm currently in neither Scotland nor its university system, but I spent a semester at the University of Edinburgh! Yay! Welcome.
I'm thinking Stirling university might suit me the best for now, it's outside town, has a good economics department, and is closest to where I live after Aberdeen. Still, I'm not set, did Edinburgh have a decent Economics faculty when you were there?
In response to
Welcome to Less Wrong! (2010-2011)
Greetings Lesswrong
My name is, well, my username. I'm sixteen, currently in my final year of high school, male, and living in Inverness, Scotland.
I first became interested in Lesswrong and it's philosophy after reading some very good fiction here, although many of the references took me time to understand. After sporadically reading the occasional article for a few months, and doing some serious thinking about where I want to be in a few years, I decided to register to better network a few weeks ago. I haven't made notable progress on the sequences yet, although I aim to have finished the ones on the site this year, and hopefully start attending meet-ups if any are near to my university once I've started my course, if my family can afford university and are okay with it, of course. My main interest in the site is it's possibilities for altruism, as we're mostly aspiring consequentialists, we're less likely to be able to justify passive acceptance of the norms like most people I meet seem to. I've met, and know, a fair few good people, but they are mostly what I once saw described here as 'barbarians', albeit extremely noble ones. They do their best for everyone around them, and try to help others, but in a disorganized way I think could be improved with the right coordination, and planning.
For now I hope to get a few questions answered, comment occasionally, and keep quiet until I really grasp the concepts most of the discussion on this site is based on. If there's any other rationalists or aspiring rationalists in the Scottish university system, it would be good to know where they are as well, of course.
You are right, for the most part there isn't an organized movement. But everyone is doing something. And I'm sure you can find someone in LW community who has about the same ideas/approach as you, so you can team up.
I'm trying to do so, but the chances of them being nearby, and of university age seem pretty low. Has there ever been a LessWrong user census? Ages, locations, etc.
In response to
So what are our Mid-Term goals?
SIAI's second priority is to raise the sanity waterline. A lot of people put their efforts towards that. For example: creating LW meetups in new cities, writing articles, and simply being more rational people.
Yes, that's something I'm not sure about. There's plenty of good reasons to pursue the goal, and, as far as I've seen, plenty of people willing to support it on this site... but there isn't any obvious coordination. If enough of us could gain positions at universities, spread out to maximize coverage, or focused to 'take-over' an institution, then we would likely see far more success. (Unfortunately none of our current ad-hoc 'leadership' has that much appeal outside the group, so playing politics doesn't look like it would work out well for us.) I'm probably going to try and work towards an Economics doctorate if I can get good enough grades once I'm at university, for example. Once established I'd be able to start writing to the media, try to get a column in an influential tabloid, write a popular science explanation of economics, etc with authority, and try to recruit/support rationalists.
You can still edit your post; there's a button near the bottom of the post.
Done. I'm still learning how the site's software works, so thanks for pointing it out.
In response to
So what are our Mid-Term goals?
Your link "Giles is attempting to form a altruist community" seems to be broken.
My apologies. Here's the main thread, but there's a sequence on his plan I can't find listed anywhere but his profile.
In response to
Organ donation vs Cryonics
Wait, hold the press! There's no reason for the two options to be exclusive. Your brain information could still be preserved while donating your organs after death, if you were in circumstances in which the organs could be harvested while still useful. If you're younger than, say, fifty, this shouldn't ever become an issue, anyway.
So what are our Mid-Term goals?
I know that Rationalism is fairly spread out as an ideology, but, thankfully, very few rationalists seem to subscribe to the popular belief that allowing someone you can't see to suffer by your inaction is somehow different from walking on while some kid you don't know bleeds out on the pavement. So, if most of us are consequentialist altruists, precisely what should we be doing? SIAI are working on the Silver-Bullet project, for example, but what about the rest of us? Giles is attempting to form a altruist community, and I'm sure there are a number of other, scattered, projects members are working on independently. (I searched for any previous discussions, but didn't find any. If there are some I missed, please send me the links.)
However, a lot of the community's mid-term plans seem to be riding on the success of the SIAI project, and although I am not qualified to judge it's probability... not having other plans in the event it fails, when most of us don't have any skills that would contribute to the Friendly AI project anyway, seems overly-hopeful. There are of course several short-term projects, the Rationalist Boot-Camps for example, but they don't currently seem to be one of the main focuses.
I suppose, what I'm trying to ask without stepping on too many SIAI researchers toes, is what should non-researchers who want to help be doing in case it doesn't work, and why?
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You are right, finding a person nearby is very unlikely. You (or they) will have to be willing to move.
This one is the only one I know about. It might be a good idea to redo it, since by now the numbers are completely different.
Maybe a less statistical one might be better, while interesting, it doesn't easily meet my needs. I'll post one in the morning unless someone else wants to do it, although if privacy is an issue for some people we'll likely need some off-site element.