Seems to me we have to differentiate between two things:
a) x-rationality (rationality without compartmentalization)
b) LessWrong x-rationalist culture
Rationality means thinking and acting correctly, not doing stupid stuff. Culture means creating an environment where people feel comfortable, and are encouraged to do (what the culture considers to be) the right thing.
There is only one rationality, but there can be multiple rationalist cultures. Different cultures may work better for different people. But different people cannot have different definitions of rationality.
Seems to me that polyamory is a clearly cultural thing, atheism is a part of rationality itself (not believing in magic, not accepting “mysterious answers”, reductionism), and cryonics is… somewhere in between, these days probably more on the cultural side. Secular solstice is obviously a cultural thing, and in my opinion not even a central component of the traditional LW culture; although it’s obviously related.
I love the “old good hardcore LessWrong rationalist culture”, and I would be sad to see it disappear. I want it to survive somewhere, and LW seems like the logical place. (I mean, where else?) But I don’t want to push it on other people, if they object. I enjoy it, but I can understand if other people don’t. I support experimenting with other rationalist cultures.
Not sure what is the solution here. Maybe making the cultures more explicit? Giving them names? Yes, this encourages tribal thinking, but on the other hand, names are Schelling points. (And if we don’t have an explicit name for the culture, people will simply use “the rationalist community” as a name, and then there will be confusion when different people will try to define it differently, when what they really mean is they prefer different cultures.)
Actually, this could be an interesting topic for a separate discussion: Do we need a rationalist culture? What kinds of cultures (that we could consider rationalist) already exist? How to design a new one?
Seems to me we have to differentiate between two things:
a) x-rationality (rationality without compartmentalization)
b) LessWrong x-rationalist culture
Rationality means thinking and acting correctly, not doing stupid stuff. Culture means creating an environment where people feel comfortable, and are encouraged to do (what the culture considers to be) the right thing.
There is only one rationality, but there can be multiple rationalist cultures. Different cultures may work better for different people. But different people cannot have different definitions of rationality.
Seems to me that polyamory is a clearly cultural thing, atheism is a part of rationality itself (not believing in magic, not accepting “mysterious answers”, reductionism), and cryonics is… somewhere in between, these days probably more on the cultural side. Secular solstice is obviously a cultural thing, and in my opinion not even a central component of the traditional LW culture; although it’s obviously related.
I love the “old good hardcore LessWrong rationalist culture”, and I would be sad to see it disappear. I want it to survive somewhere, and LW seems like the logical place. (I mean, where else?) But I don’t want to push it on other people, if they object. I enjoy it, but I can understand if other people don’t. I support experimenting with other rationalist cultures.
Not sure what is the solution here. Maybe making the cultures more explicit? Giving them names? Yes, this encourages tribal thinking, but on the other hand, names are Schelling points. (And if we don’t have an explicit name for the culture, people will simply use “the rationalist community” as a name, and then there will be confusion when different people will try to define it differently, when what they really mean is they prefer different cultures.)
Actually, this could be an interesting topic for a separate discussion: Do we need a rationalist culture? What kinds of cultures (that we could consider rationalist) already exist? How to design a new one?