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At least one already exists: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/
In response to
Melbourne Less Wrong Meetup
How did this go? I'm not in Melbourne, but I am in Australia so if I ever visit I think I would like to attend one.
In response to
Slava!
I don't have a good answer to your question, but I have some choral musical recommendations I've found powerful in the same way that you find Slava! powerful.
I'd recommend the Bach choral works to interested readers. The major ones (St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Mass in B Minor, Christmas Oratorio, Easter Oratorio) are all worth listening to, but there are also a couple hundred of cantatas. Unfortunately, the sheer number of cantatas makes the collection overwhelming and in my opinion there's an issue of uneven quality, but there are some really excellent pieces among them and I've found it worthwhile to spend time with them as well.
I also really like the Brahms German Requiem, particularly the sixth movement.
Will add more examples as they occur to me.
In suit:
*actual composer in dispute
In response to
The Irrationality Game
Religion is a net positive force in society. Or to put it another way religious memes, (particularly ones that have survived for a long time) are more symbiotic than parasitic. Probably true (70%).
I downvoted this, and consider the artistic and cultural contributions of religion to society to alone warrant this assertion.
In response to
The Irrationality Game
It does not all add up to normality. We are living in a weird universe. (75%)
It does not all add up to normality. We are living in a weird universe. (75%)
My initial reaction was that this is not a statement of belief but one of opinion, and to think like reality.
We are living in a Fun Theory universe where we find ourselves as individual or aggregate fun theoretic agents, or something else really bizarre that is not explained by naive Less Wrong rationality, such as multiversal agents playing with lots of humanity's measure.
I'm still not entirely sure what you mean (further elaboration would be very welcome), but going by a naive understanding I upvoted your comment based on the principle of Occam's Razor - whatever your reasons for believing this (presumably perceived inconsistencies, paradoxes etc. in the observable world, physics etc.) I doubt your conceived "weird" universe would the simplest explanation. Additionally, that conceived weird universe in addition to lacking epistemic/empirical ground begs for more explanation than the understanding/lack thereof of the universe/reality that's more of less shared by current scientific consensus.
If I'm understanding correctly, your argument for the existence of a "weird universe" is analagous to an argument for the existence of God (or the supernatural, for that matter): where by introducing some cosmic force beyond reason and empiricism, we eliminate the problem of there being phenomena which can't be explained by it.
Yvain is a med student. Pictures of him at work might have him wearing a mask and up to his elbows in blood. Which would be interesting, but not approachable ;)
I realise he is a med student, which is why I suggested "at work". Maybe this is a personal quirk, but people in surgical scrubs exude compassion and approachibility to me. Conversely, pictures of people at work in an office setting usually seem impersonal and/or trite to me.
Oh, why not.
I would make your third picture your display picture.
I don't have many specific names/titles listed in the favourites section, but I found that I received more messages when I did.
Ah, sure. People (especially women), give me what help you can: http://www.okcupid.com/profile/ScottAlexander
I get the sense that your profile content doesn't do you justice - perhaps you could afford to be more arrogant? No one you want to meet would find you boring.
I like most of your pictures, but I would include a few where you look more friendly and approachable, eg. pictures of you at work.
Yes indeed! I'm not actually your neighbor yet: the SIAI Visiting Fellows house is trying to move to Berkeley. Hopefully they'll get that figured out soon. I personally fly into town early October. LW folk Kevin, MBlume, and Emil all live in a house in Berkeley. If SIAI moves to Berkeley then to that list will be added quite a few others. There are probably other LWers in Berkeley that I don't know about yet. With some luck Berkeley will become the Singularitarian/Neorationalist nexus.
Is neorationalist the term we are adopting for the kind of Rationality espoused on LW, to distinguish from Cartesian Rationalism?
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This is great, thanks. Although I don't agree all of this is prerequisite for reading/participating/benefitting from Less Wrong, I'm sure it will useful for anyone autodidactically inclined, and I like how you've categorised and explained them according to how they pertain to topics discussed here.
I would add to the list: http://academicearth.org/ (similar to, but of a much higher quality than Khan Academy)