Rationalist origin: I discovered the scientific method in highschool and liked the results of its application to previously awkward social situations, so I extended it to life in general. I came up with most of OB’s earlier material by myself under different names, or not quite as well articulated, and this community has helped refine my thoughts and fill in gaps.
Found LW: The FireFox add-on StumbleUpon took me to EY’s FAQ about the Meaning of Life on 23 October 2005, along with Max More, Nick Bostrom, Alcor, Sentient Developments, the Transhumanism Wikipedia page, and other resources. From there, to further essays, to the sl4 mailing list, to SIAI, to OB, to LW, where I started interacting with the community in earnest in late January 2010 and achieved 1000 karma in early June 2010. Previous to the StumbleUpon treasure trove, I had been turned off the transhumanist movement by a weird interview of Kurzweil in Wired, but still hopeful due to scifi potentials.
Persona: Rain
Age: 30s
Gender: Unrevealed
Location: Eastern USA
Profession: Application Administrator, US Department of Defense
Education: Business, Computers, Philosophy, Scifi, Internet
Interests: Gaming, Roleplaying, Computers, Technology, Movies, Books, Thinking
Personality: Depressed and Pessimistic
General: Here’s a list of my news sources
Rationalist origin: I discovered the scientific method in highschool and liked the results of its application to previously awkward social situations, so I extended it to life in general. I came up with most of OB’s earlier material by myself under different names, or not quite as well articulated, and this community has helped refine my thoughts and fill in gaps.
Found LW: The FireFox add-on StumbleUpon took me to EY’s FAQ about the Meaning of Life on 23 October 2005, along with Max More, Nick Bostrom, Alcor, Sentient Developments, the Transhumanism Wikipedia page, and other resources. From there, to further essays, to the sl4 mailing list, to SIAI, to OB, to LW, where I started interacting with the community in earnest in late January 2010 and achieved 1000 karma in early June 2010. Previous to the StumbleUpon treasure trove, I had been turned off the transhumanist movement by a weird interview of Kurzweil in Wired, but still hopeful due to scifi potentials.
Value and desire to achieve: I’m still working on that. The metaethics sequence was unsatisfactory. In particular, I have problems with our ability to predict the future and what we should value. I’m hoping smarter than human intelligence will have better answers, so I strongly support the Singularity Institute.