The topic: Is any knowledge inherently harmful, on either an individual or a societal level? The readings:• from Scott Alexander: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/06/asymmetric-weapons-gone-bad/• from Nick Bostrom: https://nickbostrom.com/papers/vulnerable.pdf• from Wired, concerning Bostrom: https://www.wired.com/story/technology-could-end-humanity-how-stop-it/ The readings are not limiting factors — participants are encouraged to think Outside the Box™ to come up with possible examples of inherently

Chicago Rationalist—Topic List Archive 1. Is democracy a system which produces pervasive error in our society? i.e. moldbug strikes again (https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-clear-pill-part-1-of-5-the-four-stroke-regime/)2. Should proponents of free markets oppose capitalism? (chapters 4 and 9 of this book: http://radgeek.com/gt/2011/10/Markets-Not-Capitalism-2)3. What is an optimal course of action when you encounter a situation in which

Topic for this meet-up will be the paper by Jonathan Schulz et al. discussing possible origins of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic) psychology being tied to the Catholic Church’s restructuring of norms surrounding kin marriage. If you’re going to just read one thing, read Tanner Greer’s blog post

Thanks Noah for suggesting the following readings & podcast! 1. https://www.princeton.edu/~cuff/voting/theory.html 2. https://www.electionscience.org/commentary-analysis/voting-theory-podcast-2012-10-06-interview-with-nobel-laureate-dr-kenneth-arrow/ 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow%27s_impossibility_theorem 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbard%E2%80%93Satterthwaite_theorem

1. On critical thresholds and cultural/scientific diffusion: https://www.meltingasphalt.com/interactive/going-critical/ 2. A second reference on critical thresholds (sorry for the self-reference but I’m rushing): https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6393/1116 3. Look up the definition of “phase transition” [possible cool topic for future meeting—things that hover near criticality..]

Hey all—by some kind of emergent process, we have self-organized a topic for next meetup: Free Will. This is a VAST topic with a ton of writings. Any recommendations? Here are a few possibilities, H/T Shane with an addition by myself: a) Rationalist: Yukdowski (I’d grab the last few posts):

1. A Human’s Guide to Words: What are words, how are they useful, how can they be wrong, how can we avoid being wrong? Drawn from this sequence: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/SGB7Y5WERh4skwtnb 2. Inside/outside views : People are oftentimes bad at estimation. This can oftentimes be improved by reference class forecasting (“Outside view”).

1) What is an optimal course of action when you encounter a situation in which you have a good amount of epistemic uncertainty? We exist and act in the world, so we have to do something before we have all the information, right?  No Half-Speed https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FMkQtPvzsriQAow5q/the-correct-response-to-uncertainty-is-not-half-speed In this reading, how

1. Pragmatism versus principles (i.e. prioritizing the practical effects of choices/policies versus prioritizing fundamental principles, for example because of the negative long-term effects at the individual or societal level of violating said principles) 2. Mono-causal versus poly-causal accounts of a given phenomena: The Omnigenic Model As Metaphor For Life (https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/09/13/the-omnigenic-model-as-metaphor-for-life/)

When is it worth sacrificing “traditional” ways of doing things in the name of modernity, progress, clarity or efficiency? Possible readings — SSC’s review of Seeing Like A State discussing (often argued to be failed) modernist attempts at improving “legibility” by scrapping traditional ways of life. Chesterton’s Fence principle https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Chesterton%27s_Fence