On the Eventbrite page for the Solstice, there is an option to buy a Book + Ticket. If you won't be able to come to the Solstice itself, for the time being you could just pay me via paypal for the book and I'd send you a copy. (I'll probably set up a more official store after the Solstice).
Currently the books are in a limited print run, and I'm charging $100 per physical book, and $15 for the PDF version (this is what the kickstarter rewards were).
Thanks, yes I live in Sydney, so I won't be coming to the event. We have our own Summer Solstice event on the 21st and it'd be nice if I could have a looksee at what you've got going so I can have a go at it down here :)
I'll gladly stump up $100 for the physical book though it'd be good if it's ok to get a copy of the pdf too so I can bring it with me to the Solstice. :)
Does contact information exist for the San Francisco one, or is that one aimed entirely at people already active in the local community? It's a city I visit occasionally, and would love it if I could attend something like this :)
Summary:
The Beginning
Four years ago, twenty NYC rationalists gathered in a room to celebrate the Winter Solstice. We sang songs and told stories about things that seemed very important to us. The precariousness of human life. The thousands of years of labor and curiosity that led us from a dangerous stone age to the modern world. The potential to create something even better, if humanity can get our act together and survive long enough.
One of the most important ideas we honored was the importance of facing truths, even when they are uncomfortable or make us feel silly or are outright terrifying. Over the evening, we gradually extinguished candles, acknowledging harsher and harsher elements of reality.
Until we sat in absolute darkness - aware that humanity is flawed, and alone, in an unforgivingly neutral universe.
But also aware that we sit beside people who care deeply about truth, and about our future. Aware that across the world, people are working to give humanity a bright tomorrow, and that we have the power to help. Aware that across history, people have looked impossible situations in the face, and through ingenuity and persperation, made the impossible happen.
That seemed worth celebrating.
The Story So Far
As it turned out, this resonated with people outside the rationality community. When we ran the event again in 2012, non-religious but non-Less Wrong attended the event and told me they found it very moving. In 2013, we pushed it much larger - I ran a kickstarter campaign to fund a big event in NYC.
A hundred and fifty people from various communities attended. From Less Wrong in particular, we had groups from Boston, San Francisco, North Carolina, Ottawa, and Ohio among other places. The following day was one of the largest East Coast Megameetups.
Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, several people put together an event that gathered around 80 attendees. In Boston and Vancouever and Leipzig Germany, people ran smaller events. This is shaping up to take root as a legitimate holiday, celebrating human history and our potential future.
This year, we want to do that all again. I also want to dedicate more time to helping other people run their events. Getting people to start celebrating a new holiday is a tricky feat. I've learned a lot about how to go about that and want to help others run polished events that feel connecting and inspirational.
So, what's happening, and how can you help?
Effective Altruism?
Now, at Less Wrong we like to talk about how to spend money effectively, so I should be clear about a few things. I'm raising non-trivial money for this, but this should be coming out of people's Warm Fuzzies Budgets, not their Effective Altruism budgets. This is a big, end of the year community feel-good festival.
That said, I do think this is an especially important form of Warm Fuzzies. I've had EA-type folk come to me and tell me the Solstice inspired them to work harder, make life changes, or that it gave them an emotional booster charge to keep going even when things were hard. I hope, eventually, to have this measurable in some fashion such that I can point to it and say "yes, this was important, and EA folk should definitely consider it important."
But I'm not especially betting on that, and there are some failure modes where the Solstice ends up cannibalizing more resources that could have went towards direct impact. So, please consider that this may be especially valuable entertainment, that pushes culture in a direction where EA ideas can go more mainstream and gives hardcore EAs a motivational boost. But I encourage you to support it with dollars that wouldn't have gone towards direct Effective Altruism.