I agree with pretty much everything you said (except for the sl4 stuff, because I haven't been a part of that community and thus have no opinion about it one way or another). However, I do believe that LW can be the place for both types of discussions -- outreach as well as technical. I'm not proposing that we set the barrier to entry at zero; I merely think that the guideline, "you must have read and understood all of the Sequences before posting anything" sets the barrier too high.

I also think that we should be tolerant of people who disagree with some of the Sequences; they are just blog posts, not holy gospels. But it's possible that I'm biased in this regard, since I myself do not agree with everything Eliezer says in those posts.

I don't see why having the debate at a higher level of knowledge would be a bad thing.

Firstly, a large proportion of the Sequences do not constitute "knowledge", but opinion. It's well-reasoned, well-presented opinion, but opinion nonetheless -- which is great, IMO, because it gives us something to debate about. And, of course, we could still talk about things that aren't in the sequences, that's fun too. Secondly:

Imagine watching a debate between some uneducated folks about whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound or not. Not very interesting.

No, it's not very interesting to you and me, but to the "uneducated folks" whom you dismiss so readily, it might be interesting indeed. Ignorance is not the same as stupidity, and, unlike stupidity, it's easily correctable. However, kicking people out for being ignorant does not facilitate such correction.

The point of my post was that that is not an acceptable solution.

What's your solution, then ? You say,

I for one would like us to all enforce a little more strongly that people read the sequences and even agree with them in a horrifying manner. You don't have to agree with me, but I'd just like to put out there as a matter of fact that there are some of us that would like a more exclusive LW.

To me, "more exclusive LW" sounds exactly like the kind of solution that doesn't work, especially coupled with "enforcing a little more strongly that people read the sequences" (in some unspecified yet vaguely menacing way).

I am going to assert that the fear of unfriendly AI over the threats you mention is a product of the same cognitive bias which makes us more fascinated by evil dictators and fictional dark lords than more mundane villains. The quality of "evil mind" is what really frightens us, not the impersonal swarm of "mindless" nanobots, viruses or locusts. However, since this quality of "mind," which encapsulates such qualities as "consciousness" and "volition," is so poorly understood by science and so totally undemonstrated by our technology, I would further assert that unfriendly AI is pure science fiction which should be far down the list of our concerns compared to more clear and present dangers.

Hours currently tracked on the honor system; but it's all pretty visible work, so if 2 hours are logged but I don't see any changes to the Google doc where the researcher is tracking their research efforts, I'll have questions.

Work can be done during any hours of the day. Almost all correspondance is by email.

The sample list of subjects is even broader than all the subjects mentioned someone on this page.

I think it might help if you elaborate on the process some: How are hours tracked? Is it done by the honor system or do you have some software? Will I need to work at any specific times of the day, or do I just need to be available for at least 20 hours? Is there a sample list of subjects?

Either way, I'll probably send in an application and go from there. I currently tutor calculus online for approximately the same pay, but this seems somewhat more interesting.

Link nitpick: When linking to arXiv, please link to the abstract, not directly to the PDF.

I posted this article to the decision theory group a moment ago. It seems highly relevant to thinking concretely about logical uncertainty in the context of decision theory, and provides what looks to be a reasonable metric for evaluating the value of computationally useful information.

ETA: plus there is an interesting tie-in to cognitive heuristics/biases.

I think the converse is also true: the LW community has an ugh field around ideas that are generally acceptable and reasoned about elsewhere. For example, the issues related to AI risks. Fear is a powerful ugh field generator.

Or if I were to try the existence of God, I predict half the population would say it's 100% certain God exists, and the other half would say the opposite.

That sounds like a massive overestimate of the percentage of atheists.

It comes from his 7 point scale for measuring belief along the theist/atheist spectrum.