A long-term goal of Less Wrong is to achieve the benefits of religion without becoming a religion. LW Meetups are partially an attempt at achieving a rationalist sense of community, for instance. Stanislav Petrov Day and Vasili Arkhipov Day are steps in the direction of rationalist rituals in general and rationalist holidays in specific. In addition to creating more holidays, I suggest that we figure out ways to celebrate them, rather than simply marking them.
I’ll take a crack at it. A holiday celebrating existential risk reduction is a glorious opportunity to develop a habit of gratitude. (See Method #7 of lukeprog’s How to Be Happy for the importance of gratitude.) Here are 5 things I am grateful for:
The way my personality shifts barely perceptibly toward the better when I’m socializing with people who have a positive influence on me, and the way this lasts, like inching up a rock wall toward a summit.
Worcester, Massachusetts sunrises and sunsets, which are not always beautiful, but are never the same.
My “good” parents, for their conscientiousness. Apparently I did not inherit it from them, but they do provide strong mimicable examples.
Modern medicine, for keeping me sane. Without aspirin, my TMJ pain would be serious trouble.
Less Wrong, for prompting me to improve myself. My friends have noticed my progress without me asking them about it.
What are you grateful for, or, alternatively, are there better ways to celebrate Vasili Arkhipov Day?
Modern medicine, for keeping me sane. Without aspirin, my TMJ pain would be serious trouble.
You can thank ancient medicine (not modern) for the use of “aspirin” to treat joint pain. Using medicines derived from willow trees and other salicylate-rich plants for pain relief has been around since at least Hippocrates and probably even the Sumerians.
The last 10-15 years of medical research into treating brain aneurysms, and the increasing popularity of rapid-response stroke treatment protocols, without both of which I’d be either dead or permanently brain-damaged.
A cultural setting where a smart and personable working-class kid can more or less drift into a lucrative and not-too-challenging professional context.
A cultural setting where I can establish a household with my husband and have it legally and socially acknowledged as a family.
A cultural/technological setting where communication among like-minded folks across large geographic distances is trivial.
I don’t know about Vasili Arkhipov Day, but it’s my understanding that Stanislav Petrov is now living in meager retirement. Celebration of Stanislav Petrov Day and other people who prevented existential risks from coming to fruition could involve rewarding those people with money as well as recognition. Although the Less Wrong community is probably too small to do it on their own, I for one would be happy to contribute to visible rewards for people who save the world.
I was in Worcester this summer… I wish I had gone to the Cambridge meetup while I was up there… There isn’t one anywhere near Knoxville, TN. And I doubt Tennessee is really full of aspiring rationalists. sigh
And the sunrises and sunsets up there are pretty wonderful. OK. I never saw a sunrise. But the sunsets were nice. :-D
A long-term goal of Less Wrong is to achieve the benefits of religion without becoming a religion. LW Meetups are partially an attempt at achieving a rationalist sense of community, for instance. Stanislav Petrov Day and Vasili Arkhipov Day are steps in the direction of rationalist rituals in general and rationalist holidays in specific. In addition to creating more holidays, I suggest that we figure out ways to celebrate them, rather than simply marking them.
I’ll take a crack at it. A holiday celebrating existential risk reduction is a glorious opportunity to develop a habit of gratitude. (See Method #7 of lukeprog’s How to Be Happy for the importance of gratitude.) Here are 5 things I am grateful for:
The way my personality shifts barely perceptibly toward the better when I’m socializing with people who have a positive influence on me, and the way this lasts, like inching up a rock wall toward a summit.
Worcester, Massachusetts sunrises and sunsets, which are not always beautiful, but are never the same.
My “good” parents, for their conscientiousness. Apparently I did not inherit it from them, but they do provide strong mimicable examples.
Modern medicine, for keeping me sane. Without aspirin, my TMJ pain would be serious trouble.
Less Wrong, for prompting me to improve myself. My friends have noticed my progress without me asking them about it.
What are you grateful for, or, alternatively, are there better ways to celebrate Vasili Arkhipov Day?
You can thank ancient medicine (not modern) for the use of “aspirin” to treat joint pain. Using medicines derived from willow trees and other salicylate-rich plants for pain relief has been around since at least Hippocrates and probably even the Sumerians.
True. I doubt it would be as cheap, safe and effective as it is without modernity, though.
Edited to add: I posted my suggestions in the comments. What are your own suggestions for social business ideas relevant to SI?
Indeed. Even plenty of nonhumans can figure out efficacious medicine from stuff around them.
The last 10-15 years of medical research into treating brain aneurysms, and the increasing popularity of rapid-response stroke treatment protocols, without both of which I’d be either dead or permanently brain-damaged.
A cultural setting where a smart and personable working-class kid can more or less drift into a lucrative and not-too-challenging professional context.
A cultural setting where I can establish a household with my husband and have it legally and socially acknowledged as a family.
A cultural/technological setting where communication among like-minded folks across large geographic distances is trivial.
1) I’m grateful that there’s a place on the internet where a good person will remind me to be grateful for things.
2) The world is still around, despite the risks.
3) This world exists, and us in it, for whatever difficult-to-imagine reasons or lack thereof.
4) I have an incredibly caring/patient/interesting girlfriend
5) I am equipped with sensory apparatus that can discriminate for high nutrient content in foods and butter chicken exists.
I don’t know about Vasili Arkhipov Day, but it’s my understanding that Stanislav Petrov is now living in meager retirement. Celebration of Stanislav Petrov Day and other people who prevented existential risks from coming to fruition could involve rewarding those people with money as well as recognition. Although the Less Wrong community is probably too small to do it on their own, I for one would be happy to contribute to visible rewards for people who save the world.
I was in Worcester this summer… I wish I had gone to the Cambridge meetup while I was up there… There isn’t one anywhere near Knoxville, TN. And I doubt Tennessee is really full of aspiring rationalists. sigh
And the sunrises and sunsets up there are pretty wonderful. OK. I never saw a sunrise. But the sunsets were nice. :-D