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Why aren't we pooling our knowledge-resources yet?
Why aren't we systematically pooling many excellent and relevant academic articles yet?
I'm well aware of the current thread on the best textbooks for any subject, but why only share "the best" "textbooks"? I understand the desire for vetted quality, but I think we're missing an awesome opportunity here. I, for one, have a long (to me) list of fascinating academic articles I'm probably not going to read, but which I think other LessWrongers might very much like to be pointed to. For example:
- Formalizing Trust as a Computational Concept, a CS dissertation by Stephen Marsh, 1994. From the abstract: "This thesis provides a clarification of trust. We present a formalism for trust which provides us with a tool for precise discussion. The formalism is implementable: it can be embedded in an artificial agent, enabling the agent to make trust-based decisions."
- Mechanisms of Social Cognition, Frith and Frith, 2012, Annual Review of Psychology, which includes a spectacular table on pages 4 and 5: column 1, the broad areas considered (e.g. reward learning, tracking intentions); column 2, the mechanisms involved; column 3, the brain regions involved; and column 4, the social processes to which the mechanism and/or brain region apply.
- Peering into the Bias Blind Spot, in which we learn that part of the reason people think themselves to be less biased than the average is because they rely on introspections while looking at behavior in others.
- Information processing, computation, and cognition (Piccinini and Scarantino, 2009), which argues that there are a number of myths concerning these topics that stand in the way of theoretical progress, myths like 'computation is the same as information processing' or 'the Church-Turing thesis entails that cognition is computation'.
- Review articles on operant conditioning; implementation intentions, a major new scientific approach to forming habits'; the planning fallacy (and it's "cognitive, motivational, and social origins"); and procrastination (the last one has already been mentioned here in lukeprog's main procrastination article).
We could have a database of some kind. And it could include articles that have already been well-spread here, like the seminal Kahneman & Tversky papers. Or the Singularity Institute's work and related work, such as Asimov's 3 laws of robotics and machine meta-ethics (S.L. Anderson), or the Transhumanist FAQ (Nick Bostrom).
I propose that we do so, and that we seek a balance between (a) quality and quantity and (b) organization (into topics) and simply adding, but that we also not worry too much about that right now and just start something. I envision adding article entries to some kind of simple database with (i) the bibliographic information, (ii) a link to a non-gated pdf if possible, (iii) a brief description detailing why it's bound to be very interesting to some LessWrongers, and (iv) a vote-up/down mechanism to allow fellow LessWrongers to agree that 'yes, this article title+description does seem exceptionally interesting'.
Main issue: determining the best way to share articles with each other, after determining that it's something we'd like to do.
P.S. I am unfamiliar with tagging on LW articles (having not written one before), should I add a tag/tags?
Meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #3 - Bayesian reasoning in everyday life
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #3 - Bayesian reasoning in everyday life
Future MeetUps, after the 4th, won't be announced here, because there's a Site for that: https://sites.google.com/site/lesswrongsaltlakecity There is also a discussion forum, which is embedded into the SIte.
The actual Meetup #3 is this Saturday (the 18th) from 3:00-4:30 pm at Calvin S Smith Library. More info can be found on the Site.
In order to make comments or other edits to the Site, you will need to email me or join the Google Group so I can add you.
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #3 - Bayesian reasoning in everyday life
Meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #2
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #2
The 2nd meetup will be at Nostalgia Cafe, 248 E 100 S, this Saturday at 3:00 pm. Saturdays at 3 was the preferred choice by a large margin.
By the way, a tentative 3rd meetup would probably be in a more central location, possibly Taylorsville Library, though I'm just hazarding a guess since I don't know where everyone present last time and otherwise interested lives.
The 2nd Meetup's agenda may--or may not--change. I realize that a presentation on probability theory may not be possible at even a very large table in a cafe. If that doesn't work until next time, I suggest one thing to do is brainstorm ideas (and next actions) for ksvanhorn and DanNuffer's for-profit rationality training idea. Another is to gauge interest in and discuss instrumental rationality (I have a couple of ideas), and in general have a few more one-on-one conversations.
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City Meetup #2
Meetup : Salt Lake City LW Meetup #2 Logistics
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City LW Meetup #2 Logistics
Update: see lesswrong.com/meetups for info on the next Meetup
Note: this announcement is to gather information on your availability to schedule the best time possible for the 2nd meetup Less Wrong's second Salt Lake City meetup is tentatively scheduled for Saturday the 4th at 3:00 pm at a cafe or coffeehouse. I say tentative because I am asking those interested to vote on the matter, giving up to three preferences, in order, for the time. It would also be nice to indicate the days or times that you will definitely not be able to attend. Email your preferences to me at isom.adam@gmail.com and/or leave them in the comments. Here are the options: A. Saturday at 3 pm B. Saturday at 7 pm C. Monday (6th) at 6 pm D. Thursday (2nd) at 6 pm E. Sunday at 3 pm (again) F. Other (please indicate) Feel free to suggest a place too; otherwise the venue will likely be near the SLC public library. The agenda includes a presentation by ksvanhorn on basic Bayesian probability theory, followed by discussion. There will also be a brief presentation of something on instrumental rationality, followed by discussion, and possibly the formation of a subgroup with its focus. Edit: There seems to be persistent interest in discussing Mormonism. If any LWer in Salt Lake City would like to prepare a brief presentation that could get us discussing it, let me know and I'll probably plan that for Meetup #3. The cutoff for emailing me your preferences is Jan 31.
Discussion article for the meetup : Salt Lake City LW Meetup #2 Logistics
Meetup : First Salt Lake City Meetup: 22 January 2012 03:00PM
Discussion article for the meetup : First Salt Lake City Meetup: 22 January 2012 03:00PM
Hello and Happy Belated New Year! After the December announcement revealed that there were many residents of Salt Lake City who were also Less Wrongers, it is time for a Meetup!
It will take place next Sunday the 22nd at 3:00 pm.
The venue is Mestizo Coffee House. It's located at 631 West North Temple. I've been there once before and I liked the atmosphere. The 22nd was the first available time I could book the gallery space. The coffee house does not allow outside food or drinks.
While browsing current Meetup announcements, I stumbled across this inspiring account (http://lesswrong.com/lw/4ul/less_wrong_nyc_case_study_of_a_successful/) of a successful meetup. It posed the question: "Do you want a community badly enough to build one yourself?" That reminded me that yes, I think I do. I have quite a large number of ideas for future meetup possibilities already.
The agenda will first and foremost be to meet each other. We'll also discuss future meetups, both logistics and possibilities. We could also start with a short discussion near the end about some Less Wrong topic: leave a comment as to what you think that should be.
Just to clarify: the December announcement was just to gather information and in no way means that there aren't LWers in SLC determined to have a meetup. There are plenty and we will have a meet up.
That is all.
Discussion article for the meetup : First Salt Lake City Meetup: 22 January 2012 03:00PM
Meetup : Any Salt Lake City residents who might be interested in a meetup?
Discussion article for the meetup : Any Salt Lake City residents who might be interested in a meetup?
(This post has been edited to reflect the fact that several people have expressed interest.) As for the purpose of the meeting, I'd love to hear suggestions. I will think about it in the meantime, and also let the first meetup refine the direction of a potentially regular meetup. Just to clarify, the date and time listed are not for a planned meetup. It looks like there are already a healthy amount of people interested, when I count four others, so I find this very encouraging! To make this work, it would be helpful to create a mailing list, so I'll ask for emails later or will create a Meetup group. The idea is that about mid-January I'll clarify the purpose and gather availability in terms of day, time, and place, and we'll first meet in the last week of January. TO CLARIFY: the date is NOT a suggested a meetup. I will make a second announcement in mid-January.
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