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New organization - Future of Life Institute (FLI)
As of May 2014, there is an existential risk research and outreach organization based in the Boston area. The Future of Life Institute (FLI), spearheaded by Max Tegmark, was co-founded by Jaan Tallinn, Meia Chita-Tegmark, Anthony Aguirre and myself.
Our idea was to create a hub on the US East Coast to bring together people who care about x-risk and the future of life. FLI is currently run entirely by volunteers, and is based on brainstorming meetings where the members come together and discuss active and potential projects. The attendees are a mix of local scientists, researchers and rationalists, which results in a diversity of skills and ideas. We also hold more narrowly focused meetings where smaller groups work on specific projects. We have projects in the pipeline ranging from improving Wikipedia resources related to x-risk, to bringing together AI researchers in order to develop safety guidelines and make the topic of AI safety more mainstream.
Max has assembled an impressive advisory board that includes Stuart Russell, George Church and Stephen Hawking. The advisory board is not just for prestige - the local members attend our meetings, and some others participate in our projects remotely. We consider ourselves a sister organization to FHI, CSER and MIRI, and touch base with them often.
We recently held our launch event, a panel discussion "The Future of Technology: Benefits and Risks" at MIT. The panelists were synthetic biologist George Church, geneticist Ting Wu, economist Andrew McAfee, physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn. The discussion covered a broad range of topics from the future of bioengineering and personal genetics, to autonomous weapons, AI ethics and the Singularity. A video and transcript are available.
FLI is a grassroots organization that thrives on contributions from awesome people like the LW community - here are some ways you can help:
- If you have ideas for research or outreach we could be doing, or improvements to what we're already doing, please let us know (in the comments to this post, or by contacting me directly).
- If you are in the vicinity of the Boston area and are interested in getting involved, you are especially encouraged to get in touch with us!
- Support in the form of donations is much appreciated. (We are grateful for seed funding provided by Jaan Tallinn and Matt Wage.)
Meetup : Boston - Computational Neuroscience of Perception
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Computational Neuroscience of Perception
Andrew Keenan Richardson presents the second part of a series on cognitive neuroscience, discussing the computation done by the visual and auditory systems of our brains. We will cover how our perceptual systems can be thought of algorithmically, with a focus on the different data representations used at different stages of perception. Meetup starts at 3:30pm, talk starts at 4pm.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 3:30pm, and have an alternating location:
1st Sunday meetups are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
3rd Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
(We also have last Wednesday meetups at Citadel at 7pm.)
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 4pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Computational Neuroscience of Perception
Meetup : Boston - Taking ideas seriously
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Taking ideas seriously
Anders Huitfeldt will lead a discussion about whether taking ideas seriously is likely to increase the accuracy of mental maps, in the case of agents with human-level intelligence. For Less Wrong regulars this will be basic review, and for non-regulars it may be a useful introduction. He will have some slides, but he hopes that this will be an interactive discussion rather than a presentation.
It would be helpful to look over the following before the meetup:
Reason as memetic immune disorder by Phil Goetz
Epistemic learned helplessness by Scott Alexander
Taking ideas seriously by Will Newsome
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 3:30pm, and have an alternating location:
1st Sunday meetups are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
3rd Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
(We also have last Wednesday meetups at Citadel at 7pm.)
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 4pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Taking ideas seriously
Meetup : Boston - Defense Against the Dark Arts: the Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Defense Against the Dark Arts: the Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
How can you convince other people to agree with you? How can we make ourselves less likely to be swayed by the Dark Arts persuasion of others? And, of course, what are the ethical issues involved with all of this?
If you're the sort of person who finds these questions interesting, feel free to join us tonight as Jesse Galef discusses the psychology research on persuasion and its ethical implications. Meetup starts at 7pm, talk starts at 7:30pm.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong Wednesday meetups are once a month on the last Wednesday at 7pm at Citadel (98 Elm St Apt 1 Somerville, near Porter Square). All other meetups are on Sundays.
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 7:30pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Defense Against the Dark Arts: the Ethics and Psychology of Persuasion
Meetup : Boston - An introduction to digital cryptography
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - An introduction to digital cryptography
Joe Schneider will be presenting an introduction to digital cryptography, starting at 4pm.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 3:30pm, and have an alternating location:
1st Sunday meetups are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
3rd Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
(We also have last Wednesday meetups at Citadel at 7pm.)
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 4pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - An introduction to digital cryptography
Meetup : Boston - Two Parables on Language and Philosophy
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Two Parables on Language and Philosophy
Sam Rosen will continue his talk from March 23 with Parable 2 on Language and Philosophy, starting at 4pm.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 3:30pm, and have an alternating location:
1st Sunday meetups are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
3rd Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
(We also have last Wednesday meetups at Citadel at 7pm.)
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 4pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Two Parables on Language and Philosophy
Meetup : Boston - Schelling Day
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Schelling Day
Schelling Day is a rationalist holiday (designed by Ben Landau-Taylor) that is about sharing important and personal things in our lives, and getting to know each other better. The holiday involves a fun ritual for talking about feelings, and a potluck dinner.
Here is Ben's LW post describing Schelling Day http://lesswrong.com/lw/h2t/schelling_day_a_rationalist_holiday/
There is some debate on the most Schelling time to gather and discuss feelings, but the birthday of Thomas Schelling (April 14) seemed like a good choice. Last year's debut of Schelling Day was a great success, and we look forward to holding it again!
The schedule for Schelling Day is as follows:
7pm - arrival
7:30pm - ceremony begins
8:30pm - dinner and socializing
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Schelling Day
Strategic choice of identity
Identity is mostly discussed on LW in a cautionary manner: keep your identity small, be aware of the identities you are attached to. As benlandautaylor points out, identities are very powerful, and while being rightfully cautious about them, we can also cultivate them deliberately to help us achieve our goals.
Some helpful identities that I have that seem generally applicable:
- growth mindset
- low-hanging fruit picker
- truth-seeker
- jack-of-all trades (someone who is good at a variety of skills)
- someone who tries new things
- universal curiosity
- mirror (someone who learns other people's skills)
Out of the above, the most useful is probably growth mindset, since it's effectively a meta-identity that allows the other parts of my identity to be fluid. The low-hanging fruit identity helps me be on the lookout for easy optimizations. The universal curiosity identity motivates me to try to understand various systems and fields of knowledge, besides the domains I'm already familiar with. It helps to give these playful or creative names, for example, "champion of low-hanging fruit". Some of these work well together, for example the "trying new things" identity contributes to the "jack of all trades" identity.
It's also important to identify unhelpful identities that get in your way. Negative identities can be vague like "lazy person" or specific like "someone who can't finish a project". With identities, just like with habits, the easiest way to reduce or eliminate a bad one seems to be to install a new one that is incompatible with it. For example, if you have a "shy person" identity, then going to parties or starting conversations with strangers can generate counterexamples for that identity, and help to displace it with a new one of "sociable person". Costly signaling can be used to achieve this - for example, joining a public speaking club. The old identity will not necessarily go away entirely, but the competing identity will create cognitive dissonance, which it can be useful to deliberately focus on. More specific identities require more specific counterexamples. Since the original negative identity makes it difficult to perform the actions that generate counterexamples, there needs to be some form of success spiral that starts with small steps.
Some examples of unhelpful identities I've had in the past were "person who doesn't waste things" and "person with poor intuition". The aversion to wasting money and material things predictably led to wasting time and attention instead. I found it useful to try "thinking like a trader" to counteract this "stingy person" identity, and get comfortable with the idea of trading money for time. Now I no longer obsess about recycling or buy the cheapest version of everything. Underconfidence in my intuition was likely responsible for my tendency to miss the forest for the trees when studying math or statistics, where I focused on details and missed the big picture ideas that are essential to actual understanding. My main objection to intuitions was that they feel imprecise, and I am trying to develop an identity of an "intuition wizard" who can manipulate concepts from a distance without zooming in. That is a cooler name than "someone who thinks about things without really understanding them", and brings to mind some people I know who have amazing intuition for math, which should help the identity stick.
There can also be ambiguously useful identities, for example I have a "tough person" identity, which motivates me to challenge myself and expand my comfort zone, but also increases self-criticism and self-neglect. Given the mixed effects, I'm not yet sure what to do about this one - maybe I can come up with an identity that only has the positive effects.
Which identities hold you back, and which ones propel you forward? If you managed to diminish negative identities, how did you do it and how far did you get?
Meetup : Boston - Optimizing Empathy Levels
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Optimizing Empathy Levels
Joe Schneider will give a talk on Optimizing Empathy Levels:
-What empathy is useful for.
-Why LWers (and others) undervalue it.
-Why non-LWers (and others) overvalue it.
-How you can use it properly to get ahead.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 2pm, and have an alternating location:
2nd and 4th Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
Meetups on other weeks are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 2:30pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston - Optimizing Empathy Levels
Meetup : Boston: In Defence of the Cathedral
Discussion article for the meetup : Boston: In Defence of the Cathedral
Anders Huitfeldt (Anders_H) will give a presentation called "In Defence of the Cathedral", inspired by the discussion between blogger Scott Alexander and neoreactionaries. If you have time, you may want to first read Scott Alexander's essay "Reactionary Philosophy in an enormous, planet-sized nutshell", but this is not required.
Cambridge/Boston-area Less Wrong meetups start at 2pm, and have an alternating location:
2nd and 4th Sunday meetups are in MIT's building 66 at 25 Ames St, room 156. Room number subject to change based on availability; signs will be posted with the actual room number.
Meetups on other weeks are at Citadel in Porter Sq, at 98 Elm St, apt 1, Somerville.
Our default schedule is as follows:
—Phase 1: Arrival, greetings, unstructured conversation.
—Phase 2: The headline event. This starts promptly at 2:30pm, and lasts 30-60 minutes.
—Phase 3: Further discussion. We'll explore the ideas raised in phase 2, often in smaller groups.
—Phase 4: Dinner.
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