trentmkelly/LessWrong-43k huggingface dataset:
Weekly LW Meetups
by FrankAdamek — 2014-10-10T17:38:08.666Z

This summary was posted to LW Main on October 3rd. The following week's summary is here.

New meetups (or meetups with a hiatus of more than a year) are happening in:

Hasselt Meetup: Brussels moves to Hasselt this month!: 11 October 2014 01:00PM

Irregularly scheduled Less Wrong meetups are taking place in:

Houston, TX: 18 October 2014 02:00PM
Perth, Australia: Games night: 07 October 2014 06:00PM
Portland, OR: Improv for Rationalists: 18 October 2014 01:00PM
Urbana-Champaign: Noticing.: 05 October 2014 05:30PM
Utrecht: Effective Altruism and Politics: 05 October 2014 02:00PM
Utrecht: Artificial Intelligence: 19 October 2014 02:00PM
Utrecht: Climate Change: 02 November 2014 03:00PM
Yale rationality group meeting.: 05 October 2014 02:00PM

The remaining meetups take place in cities with regular scheduling, but involve a change in time or location, special meeting content, or simply a helpful reminder about the meetup:

Austin, TX: 04 October 2025 01:30PM
[Cambridge MA] Meta Meetup: 05 October 2014 03:30AM
Canberra: Contrarianism: 11 October 2014 06:00PM
[Melbourne] October Rationality Dojo - Non-Violent Communication: 05 October 2014 03:30PM
Sydney Rationality Dojo - Urge Propagation: 05 October 2014 03:00PM
Washington, D.C.: Fun & Games: 05 October 2014 03:00PM

Locations with regularly scheduled meetups: Austin, Berkeley, Berlin, Boston, Brussels, Buffalo, Cambridge UK, Canberra, Columbus, London, Madison WI, Melbourne, Moscow, Mountain View, New York, Philadelphia, Research Triangle NC, Seattle, Sydney, Toronto, Vienna, Washington DC, Waterloo, and West Los Angeles. There's also a 24/7 online study hall for coworking LWers.

If you'd like to talk with other LW-ers face to face, and there is no meetup in your area, consider starting your own meetup; it's easy (more resources here). Check one out, stretch your rationality skills, build community, and have fun!

In addition to the handy sidebar of upcoming meetups, a meetup overview is posted on the front page every Friday. These are an attempt to collect information on all the meetups happening in upcoming weeks. The best way to get your meetup featured is still to use the Add New Meetup feature, but you'll also have the benefit of having your meetup mentioned in a weekly overview. These overview posts are moved to the discussion section when the new po...
Cryonics in Europe?
by roland — 2014-10-10T14:58:20.761Z

What are the best options for cryonics in Europe?

AFAIK the best option is still to use one of the US providers(e.g. Alcor) and arrange for transportation. There is a problem with this though, in that until you arrive in the US your body will be cooled with dry ice which will cause huge ischemic damage.

Questions:

How critical is the ischemic damage? If I interpret this comment by Eliezer correctly we shouldn't worry about this damage if we consider future technology.

Is there a way to have adequate cooling here in Europe until you arrive at the US for final storage?

There is also KrioRus, a Russian cryonics company, they seem to offer an option of cryo transportation but I don't know how trustworthy they are.
Meetup : Washington, D.C.: Current Events Schelling Point [To-Do List Hacking Postponed]
by RobinZ — 2014-10-10T14:45:45.573Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Washington, D.C.: Current Events Schelling Point [To-Do List Hacking Postponed]

WHEN:
12 October 2014 03:00:00PM (-0400)

WHERE:
National Portrait Gallery

Edit: The to-do list hacking is postponed due to illness. The new meeting topic is described below.

We will be meeting in the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery (8th and F Sts or 8th and G Sts NW, go straight past the information desk from either entrance). As usual, the period from 3:00 to 3:30 shall be designated for congregating, with conversations to start at 3:30.

Because current news events have not often been the subject of discussion at Less Wrong D.C. meetups, this meeting is designated as a convenient time for people to bring these up. That said, conversation on any topic of interest to attendees is both permitted and encouraged.

Future meetups:

Oct. 19: Mini Talks

Oct. 26: Create & Complete (tentative)

Nov. 2: Fun & Games

Discussion article for the meetup : Washington, D.C.: Current Events Schelling Point [To-Do List Hacking Postponed]
Please recommend some audiobooks
by Delta — 2014-10-10T13:34:35.953Z

Hi All,

I've got into audiobooks lately and have been enjoying listening to David Fitzgerald's Nailed! and his Heretics Guide to mormonism, along with Greta Christina's "Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" and Laura Bates's "Everyday Sexism" which were all very good. I was wondering what other illuminating and engaging books might be recommended, ideally ones available as audiobooks on audible.

I've already read The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion and God Is Not Great in book form as well, so it might be time for something not specifically religion-related, unless it has some interesting new angle.

After Nailed and Everyday Sexism were really illuminating I'm now thinking there must be lots of other must-read books out there and wondered what people here might recommend. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for your time.
Improving the World
by Viliam_Bur — 2014-10-10T12:24:54.905Z

What are we doing to make this world a better (epistemically or instrumentally) place?

Some answers to this question are already written in Bragging Threads and other places, but I think they deserve a special emphasis. I think that many smart people are focused on improving themselves, which is a good thing in a long run, but sometimes the world needs some help right now. (Also, there is the failure mode of learning a lot about something, and then actually not applying that knowledge in real life.) Becoming stronger so you can create more good in the future is about the good you will create in the future; but what good are you creating right now?

Rules:

Top-level comments are the things you are doing right now (not merely planning to do once) to improve the world... or a part of the world... or your neighborhood... or simply any small part of the world other than only yourself.

Meta debates go under the "META" comment.
Informing Others: Maximally Efficient?
by Regex — 2014-10-10T11:24:41.479Z

I want to help the world as much as possible: lets define that as reduction of suffering1 of the human race.

I am an engineering student. It would be very simple to spend the rest of my life working on engineering problems, thereby making humanity more effective, and so reducing suffering: Pretty acceptable in terms of benefit to the world, and also given my skill set it makes sense. The issue here is that it may be a local maximum.

Now, what if instead of directly solving problems I focus my efforts on other people? Directing others down a more rational path. This may include things like telling people about Less Wrong, specifically addressing their direction in life, or providing information about effective charities instead of ineffective ones. This seems like a massively more efficient solution space, even if my social skills are weak. Compared to the effectiveness of a single engineer, the life paths of hundreds of people with improved rationality would be enormous.

Here I make the assumption that more rational thought reduces suffering. I would argue this to be the case because a less rational thinker is going to act in more conflicting, arbitrary, and harmful ways than otherwise. Clearer thinking then means better judgements, and we also say that on average people's actions improve society as evidenced by society progressing to this point.

Still, directing others is not particularly efficient for me considering my skill set. This task should be delegated to another with a skill set more suited: a people person. This would then allow me to get back to my own efficient problems. But here is the question: How many "people people" is it efficient to train? Isn't my time still better spent as an ineffective people person even above my direct problem solving even at that point? If so, shouldn't we all be focusing on expanding our numbers?

By doing so will we increase the quality of our discussions by bringing in many new ideas and faces, or will more people hinder quality? Should we instead simply delve deeper into the depths of rationality growing only as people discover the site organically? What is the ideal community growth rate? (quality versus quantity? If Less Wrong expands too quickly is that an issue?)

We could also produce some kind of rationality book or other set of materials if we intended to improve rationality without inherently expanding the...
Meetup : Bangalore Meetup
by anandjeyahar — 2014-10-10T00:47:34.969Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Bangalore Meetup

WHEN:
22 November 2014 04:10:51PM (+0530)

WHERE:
cafe coffee day, old airport road ,Bengaluru

I've registered and created a meetup.com account and a group there. For the first meetup am thinking of Nov.14. (Friday evening). If you would prefer a different date, please post on the meetup group. http://www.meetup.com/Bangalore-LessWrongers-Meetup/events/212529792/

Discussion article for the meetup : Bangalore Meetup
Happiness Logging: One Year In
by jefftk — 2014-10-09T19:24:15.861Z

I've been logging my happiness for a year now. [1] My phone notifies me at unpredictable intervals, and I respond with some tags. For example, if it pinged me now, I would enter "6 home bed computer blog". I always have a numeric tag for my current happiness, and then additional tags for where I am, what I'm doing, and who I'm with. So: what's working, what's not?

When I first started rating my happiness on a 1-10 scale I didn't feel like I was very good at it. At the time I thought I might get better with practice, but I think I'm actually getting worse at it. Instead of really thinking "how do I feel right now?" it's really hard not to just think "in past situations like this I've put down '6' so I should put down '6' now".

Being honest to myself like this can also make me less happy. Normally if I'm negative about something I try not to dwell on it. I don't think about it, and soon I'm thinking about other things and not so negative. Logging that I'm unhappy makes me own up to being unhappy, which I think doesn't help. Though it's hard to know because any other sort of measurement would seem to have the same problem.

There's also a sampling issue. I don't have my phone ping me during the night, because I don't want it to wake me up. Before having a kid this worked properly: I'd plug in my phone, which turns off pings, promptly fall asleep, wake up in the morning, unplug my phone. Now, though, my sleep is generally interrupted several times a night. Time spent waiting to see if the baby falls back asleep on her own, or soothing her back to sleep if she doesn't, or lying awake at 4am because it's hard to fall back asleep when you've had 7hr and just spent an hour walking around and bouncing the baby; none of these are counted. On the whole, these experiences are much less enjoyable than my average; if the baby started sleeping through the night such that none of these were needed anymore I wouldn't see that as a loss at all. Which means my data is biased upward. I'm curious how happiness sampling studies have handled this; people with insomnia would be in a similar situation.

Another sampling issue is that I don't always notice when I get a ping. For the brief period when I was wearing a smartwatch I was consistently noticing all my pings but now I'm back to where I sometimes miss the vibration. I usually fill out these pings retroactively if it...
Meetup : Urbana-Champaign: Noticing continued, Creativity
by Manfred — 2014-10-09T16:41:09.908Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Urbana-Champaign: Noticing continued, Creativity

WHEN:
12 October 2014 02:00:00PM (-0500)

WHERE:
206 S. Cedar St, Urbana, IL, 61801

Let's reconvene on noticing. We may have to go a little meta, but ah well.

I'd also like to try some group creativity exercises, for great justice.

Discussion article for the meetup : Urbana-Champaign: Noticing continued, Creativity
3-day Solstice in Leipzig, Germany: small, nice, very low cost, includes accommodation, 19th-21st Dec
by chaosmage — 2014-10-09T16:38:06.739Z

Hi everyone,

like last year, we'll have a Secular Solstice in Leipzig, Germany. You're invited - message me if you'd like to attend.

We have space for about 25 people. So this isn't a huge event like you'd have in NYC - but it is special in a different way, because it goes Friday to Sunday and involves lots of things to do. We have a big and very nice appartment in the center of Leipzig where lots of people can sleep, so spreading this over several days is easy, and an obvious way to kick it up a notch from last year's event.

We'll do some of the beautiful ceremonial pieces and songs from Raymonds Hymnal and ride the same general vide. And on top of that, we'll do freestyle, participatory work in groups where we design ways to celebrate the Solstice, using an Open Space Technology inspired method. After all, we're only getting things started, and surely there are many kinds of celebration to explore. Lets find some of them, try them out together and by comparing effects, help optimize Secular Solstices!

We'll cook together and share the cost for ingredients and drinks - apart from that the event is free. Up to 18 guests can sleep right on the premises - half of them on comfortable beds and mattresses, the rest needs to bring sleeping bags and camping mats. If you really prefer a single or double room, there are fairly cheap hotels and hostels nearby, message me for assistance if necessary.

The outline

Arrivals are Friday 6pm-7:30. We'll have a welcome round and a few things to get us in the mood, then discuss ideas for Solstice activities to explore together. We'll find the most popular ones and get into groups that design them into something they want to share with everyone. Groups should self-organize fairly fluidly, i.e. you can switch groups, steal ideas from each other etc. and get to know each other in the process. So this will basically be a very social evening of preparation for the next day. Also, cooking.

On Saturday we will meet in the morning to plan the day, spend some time decorating and cooking, shopping for stuff groups have found they need to do their things, and probably rehearsing. Groups who are done preparing their thing will in some cases probably prepare another, because that is just what happens. We'll have time to chat and get to know each other better. The ceremonial part starts at sunset and is expected to take several hours. After that...
Meetup : Atlanta Beginning of October Meetup - Productive Arguments
by Adele_L — 2014-10-09T01:50:46.865Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Atlanta Beginning of October Meetup - Productive Arguments

WHEN:
12 October 2014 07:00:00PM (-0400)

WHERE:
2388 Lawrenceville Hwy. Unit L. Decatur, GA 30033

This meetup we'll be talking about having productive arguments. We'll be discussing a variety of ways to get the most out of a debate so come ready for good discussion and interesting conversation.

There will be snacks and games.

Please park in a spot marked visitor because parking elsewhere runs the risk of being towed. There are cats at the location.

Hope to see you there!

Discussion article for the meetup : Atlanta Beginning of October Meetup - Productive Arguments
Contrarian LW views and their economic implications
by Larks — 2014-10-08T23:48:04.250Z

LW readers have unusual views on many subjects. Efficient Market Hypothesis notwithstanding, many of these are probably alien to most people in finance. So it's plausible they might have implications that are not yet fully integrated into current asset prices. And if you rightfully believe something that most people do not believe, you should be able to make money off that.

Here's an example for a different group. Feminists believe that women are paid less than men for no good economic reason. If this is the case, feminists should invest in companies that hire many women, and short those which hire few women, to take advantage of the cheaper labour costs. And I can think of examples for groups like Socialists, Neoreactionaries, etc. - cases where their positive beliefs have strong implications for economic predictions. But I struggle to think of such ones for LessWrong, which is why I am asking you. Can you think of any unusual LW-type beliefs that have strong economic implications (say over the next 1-3 years)?

Wei Dai has previously commented on a similar phenomena, but I'm interested in a wider class of phenomena.
Questions on Theism
by Aiyen — 2014-10-08T21:02:43.338Z

Long time lurker, but I've barely posted anything. I'd like to ask Less Wrong for help.

Reading various articles by the Rationalist Community over the years, here, on Slate Star Codex and a few other websites, I have found that nearly all of it makes sense. Wonderful sense, in fact, the kind of sense you only really find when the author is actually thinking through the implications of what they're saying, and it's been a breath of fresh air. I generally agree, and when I don't it's clear why we're differing, typically due to a dispute in priors.

Except in theism/atheism.

In my experience, when atheists make their case, they assume a universe without miracles, i.e. a universe that looks like one would expect if there was no God. Given this assumption, atheism is obviously the rational and correct stance to take. And generally, Christian apologists make the same assumption! They assert miracles in the Bible, but do not point to any accounts of contemporary supernatural activity. And given such assumptions, the only way one can make a case for Christianity is with logical fallacies, which is exactly what most apologists do. The thing is though, there are plenty of contemporary miracle accounts.

Near death experiences. Answers to prayer that seem to violate the laws of physics. I'm comfortable with dismissing Christian claims that an event was "more than coincidence", because given how many people are praying and looking for God's hand in events, and the fact that an unanswered prayer will generally be forgotten while a seemingly-answered one will be remembered, one would expect to see "more than coincidence" in any universe with believers, whether or not there was a God. But there are a LOT of people out there claiming to have seen events that one would expect to never occur in a naturalistic universe. I even recall reading an atheist's account of his deconversion (I believe it was Luke Muehlhauser; apologies if I'm misremembering) in which he states that as a Christian, he witnessed healings he could not explain. Now, one could say that these accounts are the result of people lying, but I expect people to be rather more honest than that, and Luke is hardly going to make up evidence for the Christian God in an article promoting unbelief! One could say that "miracles" are misunderstood natural events, but there are plenty of accounts that seem pretty unlikely withou...
Meetup : Warsaw Meetup - This Friday
by  — 2014-10-07T20:40:06.243Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Warsaw Meetup - This Friday

WHEN:
10 October 2014 06:30:00PM (+0200)

WHERE:
Warsaw

Come and meet us in https://www.facebook.com/klubokawiarniaresort

If you use Facebook, join our group for better coordination: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lwwarsaw/

4 people already confirmed that they'll arrive.

Discussion article for the meetup : Warsaw Meetup - This Friday
October 2014 Bragging thread.
by Joshua_Blaine — 2014-10-07T18:20:01.177Z

So, to quote myself all those months ago when I first had this idea (I haven't actually posted one of these since the original. funny how that happens):

In an attempt to encourage more people to actually do awesome things (a la instrumental rationality), I am proposing a new monthly thread (can be changed to bi-weekly, should that be demanded). Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to comment on this thread explaining the most awesome thing you've done this month. You may be as blatantly proud of you self as you feel. You may unabashedly consider yourself the coolest freaking person ever because of that awesome thing you're dying to tell everyone about. This is the place to do just that.

Remember, however, that this isn't any kind of progress thread. Nor is it any kind of proposal thread.This thread is solely for people to talk about the awesomest thing they've done all month. not will do. not are working on. have already done.This is to cultivate an environment of object level productivity rather than meta-productivity methods.

Anything not mentioned in a previous bragging thread is still fair game, even If it didn't actually happen in the last month.

So, what's the coolest thing you've done this month?
Meetup : Moscow Meetup: Practical rationality
by Alexander230 — 2014-10-07T18:12:06.259Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Moscow Meetup: Practical rationality

WHEN:
12 October 2014 02:00:00PM (+0400)

WHERE:
Russia, Moscow, ulitsa L'va Tolstogo 16

Here's our plan:

Integrative psychodiagnostic system with Rorshach's method.

The valley of harmful rationality, or how being smart will help you to commit follies.

About white, warm and fluffy, part 1: Analysis of manipulative statements.

About space and time and why they don't exist.

Structured discussion.

Details and schedule:

https://lesswrong-ru.hackpad.com/-12--BINMqtdCLYt

Yudcoins, positive reinforcement and pizza will all be present. If you've been to our meetups, you know what I'm talking about, and if you didn't, the best way to find out is to come and see for yourself.

Info for newcomers: We gather in the Yandex office, you need the first revolving door under the archway. Here is a guide how to get there:

http://company.yandex.ru/contacts/redrose/

Try to come in time, we will allow latecomers to enter every 15 minutes. Call Slava or send him SMS at +7(926)313-96-42 if you're late. We start at 14:00 and stay until at least 19-20. Please pay attention that we only gather near the entrance and then come inside.

Discussion article for the meetup : Moscow Meetup: Practical rationality
Meetup : Sydney Meetup - October
by taryneast — 2014-10-07T01:31:52.880Z

Discussion article for the meetup : Sydney Meetup - October

WHEN:
22 October 2014 06:30:00PM (+1100)

WHERE:
Sydney City RSL, 565 George St, Sydney, Australia 2000

6:30 PM for early discussion 7PM general dinner-discussion after dinner we'll have our rationality exercise and a more specific discussion-topic.

We normally meet in the restaurant on level 2. So far they've always put it about 5m to the left of the lift, up against the kitchen area.

Topic TBD, but I'm sure it'll be awesome :)

Discussion article for the meetup : Sydney Meetup - October