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Diaspora roundup thread, 23rd June 2016
Guidelines: Top-level comments here should be links to things written by members of the rationalist community, preferably that have some particular interest to this community. Self-promotion is totally fine. Including a brief summary or excerpt is great, but not required. Generally stick to one link per top-level comment, so they can be voted on individually. Recent links are preferred.
Rule: Do not link to anyone who does not want to be linked to. In particular, Scott Alexander has asked people to get his permission, before linking to specific posts on his tumblr or in other out-of-the-way places.
Diaspora roundup thread, 15th June 2016
This is a new experimental weekly thread.
Guidelines: Top-level comments here should be links to things written by members of the rationalist community, preferably that would be interesting specifically to this community. Self-promotion is totally fine. Including a very brief summary or excerpt is great, but not required. Generally stick to one link per top-level comment. Recent links are preferred.
Rule: Do not link to anyone who does not want to be linked to. In particular, Scott Alexander has asked people not to link to specific posts on his tumblr. As far as I know he's never rescinded that. Do not link to posts on his tumblr.
The Sally-Anne fallacy
Cross-posted from my blog
I'd like to coin a term. The Sally-Anne fallacy is the mistake of assuming that somone believes something, simply because that thing is true.1
The name comes from the Sally-Anne test, used in developmental psychology to detect theory of mind. Someone who lacks theory of mind will fail the Sally-Anne test, thinking that Sally knows where the marble is. The Sally-Anne fallacy is also a failure of theory of mind.
In internet arguments, this will often come up as part of a chain of reasoning, such as: you think X; X implies Y; therefore you think Y. Or: you support X; X leads to Y; therefore you support Y.2
So for example, we have this complaint about the words "African dialect" used in Age of Ultron. The argument goes: a dialect is a variation on a language, therefore Marvel thinks "African" is a language.
You think "African" has dialects; "has dialects" implies "is a language"; therefore you think "African" is a language.
Or maybe Marvel just doesn't know what a "dialect" is.
This is also a mistake I was pointing at in Fascists and Rakes. You think it's okay to eat tic-tacs; tic-tacs are sentient; therefore you think it's okay to eat sentient things. Versus: you think I should be forbidden from eating tic-tacs; tic-tacs are nonsentient; therefore you think I should be forbidden from eating nonsentient things. No, in both cases the defendant is just wrong about whether tic-tacs are sentient.
Many political conflicts include arguments that look like this. You fight our cause; our cause is the cause of [good thing]; therefore you oppose [good thing]. Sometimes people disagree about what's good, but sometimes they just disagree about how to get there, and think that a cause is harmful to its stated goals. Thus, liberals and libertarians symmetrically accuse each other of not caring about the poor.3
If you want to convince someone to change their mind, it's important to know what they're wrong about. The Sally-Anne fallacy causes us to mistarget our counterarguments, and to mistake potential allies for inevitable enemies.
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From the outside, this looks like "simply because you believe that thing".
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Another possible misunderstanding here, is if you agree that X leads to Y and Y is bad, but still think X is worth it.
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Of course, sometimes people will pretend not to believe the obvious truth so that they can further their dastardly ends. But sometimes they're just wrong. And sometimes they'll be right, and the obvious truth will be untrue.
Meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-20
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-20
I'm late posting the event this week, but that's because I was distracted, not because it isn't happening.
This meetup will be social discussion in a pub, with no set topic. If there's a topic you want to talk about, feel free to bring it.
The pub is the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn. There will be some way to identify us.
The event on facebook is visible even if you don't have a facebook account. Any last-minute updates will go there.
We're a fortnightly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Slate Star Codex, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.
You don't have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you'd like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.
People start showing up around two, and there are almost always people around until after six, but feel free to come and go at whatever time.
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-20
Meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-06
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-06
Did you know that in 2016, it's possible to set up a website with server, domain name and discussion forum, from your phone, in the middle of a meetup? Last time, we discovered that it is! Coincidentally, we now have a discussion forum at rationalish.org.
This meetup will be social discussion in a pub, with no set topic. If there's a topic you want to talk about, feel free to bring it.
The pub is the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn. There will be some way to identify us.
The event on facebook is visible even if you don't have a facebook account. Any last-minute updates will go there.
We're a fortnightly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Slate Star Codex, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.
You don't have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you'd like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.
People start showing up around two, and there are almost always people around until after six, but feel free to come and go at whatever time.
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup - 2016-03-06
Meetup : London rationalish meetup, 2016-02-21
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup, 2016-02-21
We're still going strong, with around twenty people last time.
This meetup will be social discussion in a pub, with no set topic. If there's a topic you want to talk about, feel free to bring it.
The pub is the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn. There will be some way to identify us.
The event on facebook is visible even if you don't have a facebook account. Any last-minute updates will go there.
We're a fortnightly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Slate Star Codex, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.
You don't have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you'd like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.
People start showing up around two, and there are almost always people around until after six, but feel free to come and go at whatever time.
Discussion article for the meetup : London rationalish meetup, 2016-02-21
Meetup : London Rationalish meetup, 7/2/16
Discussion article for the meetup : London Rationalish meetup, 7/2/16
(The new experimental name for the diaspora meetup group.)
We had around 30 people last time! (Plus at least four different meal shakes.) Go, us!
This meetup will be social discussion in a pub, with no set topic. If there's a topic you want to talk about, feel free to bring it.
The pub is the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn. There will be some way to identify us.
The event on facebook is visible even if you don't have a facebook account. Any last-minute updates will go there.
We're a fortnightly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Slate Star Codex, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.
You don't have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you'd like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.
People start showing up around two, and there are almost always people around until after six, but feel free to come and go at whatever time.
Discussion article for the meetup : London Rationalish meetup, 7/2/16
Meetup : London diaspora meetup: weird foods - 24/01/2016
Discussion article for the meetup : London diaspora meetup: weird foods - 24/01/2016
Last time, we had around 20 people show up, and had to split over two tables. I count that as a success!
This meetup, we're going to be experimenting with weird foods.
What that actually means is: I'll bring some Joylent for people to try. If you have something that seems like it might count as weird food, and if you want to bring it to share, that would be great. Weird foods might include other meal shakes (e.g. soylent, queal, huel), solid meal replacements (mealsquares), miracle fruit, or military MREs. But really, if you think it counts, go for it.
Apart from the presence of at least one weird food, it's going to be an informal discussion meetup, with no set topic. If there's a topic you want to talk about, feel free to bring it.
Event on facebook. (Should be visible even if you don't have facebook.)
Parts of LessWrong London have been feeling like the association with LW no longer really captures what we're about. Several of us have pretty much stopped reading the site. So we're doing an experimental rebrand as a diaspora meetup group.
The diaspora includes, but is not limited to: LessWrong, SlateStarCodex, parts of the Effective Altruism movement, the bit of tumblr that brands itself 'rationalist tumblrsphere'.
If you feel like you want to hang out with the sort of people who are involved with those things: welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.
The pub is the Shakespeare's Head in Holborn. There will be some way to identify us.
People start showing up around two, and there are almost always people around until after six, but feel free to come and go at whatever time.
Discussion article for the meetup : London diaspora meetup: weird foods - 24/01/2016
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