SeekingEternity

Replying toI Want To Live In A Baugruppe

Moderately true of Seattle as well (two group houses, plus some people living as housemates or whatever but not explicitly a Rationalist Group House). I'm not sure if our community is big enough for something like this but I love this idea and it would be a point in favor of moving the bay area if there was one there (that I had a chance to move into) but not one here.

Replying toI Want To Live In A Baugruppe

SeekingEternity9y

I Want To Live In A Baugruppe

Hell, it's not even just the bay area; Seattle has two explicitly-rationalist-group-houses and plenty of other people who live in more "normal" situations but with other rationalists (I found my current flatmate, when my old one moved out, through the community). Certainly the bay area rationalist community is large and this sort of living situation is far from universal, but I've certainly heard of several even though I've never actually visited any.

Replying toLessWrong 2.0

SeekingEternity9y

LessWrong 2.0

Gah, thank you, edited. Markdown is my nemesis.

Agreed that the above won't work for all people, not even all people who say

I haven't and probably can't internalize it on a very deep, systematic level, no matter how many times I re-read the articles

Nonetheless, I find it a useful thing to consider, both because it's a lot easier (even if there isn't yet such a group in your area) than writing an entire LW-inspired rationality textbook, and because it's something that a person can arrange without needing to have already internalized everything (which might be a prerequisite for the "write the textbook" approach). It also provides a lot of benefits that go well... (read more)

Replying toLessWrong 2.0

SeekingEternity9y

LessWrong 2.0

For what it's worth, I got relatively little[1] out of reading the Sequences solo, in any form (and RAZ is worse than LW in this regard, because the comments were worth something even on really old and inactive threads, and surprisingly many threads were still active when I first joined the site in 2014).

What really did the job for me was the reading group started by another then-Seattleite[2]. We started as a small group (I forget how many people the first meetings had, but it was a while before we broke 10 and longer before we did it regularly) that simply worked through the core sequences - Map & Territory, then How... (read more)

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

SeekingEternity

10y

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

WHEN: 29 February 2016 06:30:00PM (-0800)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center, 185 Stevens Way, Seattle, Washington

Come meet other Seattle-area aspiring rationalists to discuss the week's reading, learn rationality techniques, and have a good time. This is a weekly meetup, meeting on the 5th floor of the Paul Allen Center (UW computer science building), often in room 503. Discussion will start at 6:45.

This week's Facebook event is https://www.facebook.com/events/1706167056307601/. To see future events, consider joining the Seattle Rationality group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/seattlerationality/.

While doing the reading beforehand is recommended, it is not required. We are currently working on the Human's Guide To Words sequence (part of The Machine in the Ghost), with added content from SlateStarCodex. Previous reading included the Map and Territory & How to Actually Change Your Mind sequences.

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

Replying toMaking Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences)

SeekingEternity10y

Making Beliefs Pay Rent (in Anticipated Experiences)

I don't think "converse" is the word you're looking for here - possibly "complement" or "negation" in the sense that (A || ~A) is true for all A - but I get what you're saying. Converse might even be the right word for that; vocabulary is not my forte.

If you take the statement "most beliefs are false" as given, then "the negation of most beliefs is true" is trivially true but adds no new information. You're treating positive and negative beliefs as though they're the same, and that's absolutely not true. In the words of this post, a positive belief provides enough information to anticipate an experience. A negative belief does not... (read more)

Replying toWords as Hidden Inferences

SeekingEternity10y

Words as Hidden Inferences

Replying loooong after the fact (as you did, for that matter) but I think that's exactly the problem that the post is talking about. In logical terms, one can define a category "human" such that it carries an implication "mortal", but if one does that, one can't add things to this category until determining that they conform to the implication.

The problem is, the vast majority of people don't think that way. They automatically recognize "natural" categories (including, sometimes, of unnatural things that appear similar), and they assign properties to the members of those categories, and then they assume things about objects purely on the bases of appearing to belong to that category.

Suppose... (read more)

Replying toOpen thread, Nov. 02 - Nov. 08, 2015

SeekingEternity10y

Open thread, Nov. 02 - Nov. 08, 2015

Agreed. "Torture" as a concept doesn't describe any particular experience, so you can't put a specific pain level to it. Waterboarding puts somebody in fear for their life and evokes very well-ingrained terror triggers in our brain, but doesn't really involve pain (to the best of my knowledge). Branding somebody with a glowing metal rod would cause a large amount of pain, but I don't know how much - it probably depends in the size, location, and so on anyhow - and something very like this on a small scale this can be done as a medical operation to sterilize a wound or similar. Tearing off somebody's finger- and toenails is said... (read more)

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group: 109-114

SeekingEternity

10y

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group: 109-114

WHEN: 09 November 2015 06:30:00PM (-0800)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center, 185 Stevens Way, Seattle, Washington

This is a weekly meetup in the Seattle area, currently reading Yudkowski's Rationality: From AI to Zombies. We are currently in the "Death Spirals and the Cult Attractor" sequence of "How to Actually Change Your Mind". See the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/520808021411665/

The meetings involve discussions of the recent readings and related topics. They are typically around 2 - 2.5 hours long. Bringing snacks is

SeekingEternity

10y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (76-80)

WHEN: 24 August 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The group meets to discuss the topics in the book, how to apply and benefit from them, and related topics in areas like cognitive biases, applied rationality, and effective altruism. You can get a copy of the book here: https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/

The reading

SeekingEternity10y

We really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article.

I haven't investigated selling it, but up to a certain multiple of my annual salary it's included in my benefits and there is no value in setting it lower than that value; I wouldn't get any extra money.

This is a fairly standard benefit from tech companies (and others that have good benefits packages in the US), apparently. It feels odd but it's been like this at the last few companies I worked for, differing only in the insurance provider whose policy is used and the actual limit before you'd need to pay extra.

Replying toWe really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article.

SeekingEternity11y

We really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article.

Nitpick: The article talks about a rabbit kidney, not a mouse one

It also isn't entirely clear how cold the kidney got, or how long it was stored. It's evidence in favor of "at death" cryonics, but I'm not sure how strong of evidence it is. Also, it's possible to survive with substantially more kidney damage than you would even want to incur as brain damage.

Replying toWe really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article.

SeekingEternity11y

We really need a "cryonics sales pitch" article.

Many employers provide life insurance. I've always thought that was kind of weird (but then, all of life insurance is weird; it's more properly "death insurance" anyhow) but it's a think. My current employer provides (at no cost to me) a life insurance policy sufficient to pay for cryonics. It would currently be given charitably - I have no dependents and my family is reasonably well off - but I've considered changing that.

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

WHEN: 10 August 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The reading

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (65-70)

WHEN: 27 July 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The reading

... (read 170 more words →)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

WHEN: 13 July 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The reading

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (57-61)

WHEN: 07 July 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The reading

... (read 162 more words →)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (updated)

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (updated)

WHEN: 29 June 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center (185 Stevens Way, Seattle, WA) Room 503

Reading group for Yudkowsky's "Rationality: AI to Zombies", which is basically an organized and updated version of the Sequences from LW (see http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences).

The reading

... (read 159 more words →)

Meetup : Seattle Sequences Group: Mysterious Answers 5

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Sequences Group: Mysterious Answers 5

WHEN: 06 April 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center, 185 Stevens Way, Seattle, Washington

Location is the UW CSE building, room 503. Paid parking is available on campus (enter via Steven's Way). Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/458276484323814/

This is a semi-weekly meetup to discuss and work through the Sequences while getting to know other aspiring rationalists in the Seattle area. Each session's reading list is posted below, and in the relevant Facebook event. We usually discuss the sequence posts, and

SeekingEternity

11y

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Sequences group: Mysterious Answers 4

WHEN: 23 March 2015 06:30:00PM (-0700)

WHERE: Paul G. Allen Center, 185 Stevens Way, Seattle, Washington 98195

Location is the UW CSE building, room 503. Paid parking is available on campus (enter via Steven's Way). Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/966274253390417/

This is a normally-weekly meetup to discuss and work through the Sequences while getting to know other aspiring rationalists in the Seattle area. Each session's reading list is posted below, and in the relevant Facebook event. We usually discuss the sequence posts

... (read more)

[link] Etzioni: AI will empower us, not exterminate us

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (updated)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

SeekingEternity

SeekingEternity

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group: 109-114

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (76-80)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (65-70)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (57-61)

SeekingEternity

[link] Etzioni: AI will empower us, not exterminate us

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (updated)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

SeekingEternity

SeekingEternity

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

Meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group: 109-114

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (76-80)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (65-70)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

Meetup : Rationality Reading Group (57-61)

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Rationality Reading Group: 109-114

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (76-80)

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (71-75)

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (65-70)

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (62-66)

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (57-61)

Discussion article for the meetup : Rationality Reading Group (updated)

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Sequences Group: Mysterious Answers 5

Discussion article for the meetup : Seattle Sequences group: Mysterious Answers 4