I just came back from Lighthaven with lots of fun ideas to bring home. One idea is that you can just post your notes to LW instead of leaving them in your private cloud.
Futarchy—Try it out for the meetup? Brainstorm how to try it?
Manifold—Making markets about our city, etc
‘Which films will our movie night attendees enjoy?’
After watching, attendees vote thumbs up or thumbs down. Majority up → resolve yes.
Gaming the market increases attendance, so … no problem!
Laptop Research meetups
Meetup format: Research a topic & draft a Google Doc. Then post it as a official report of what the meetup has learned.
X Risks
Resilience: Where we learn about the state of the art on seed vaults, bunkers, & biopreservation submarines. Then learn about what humanity might do next to implement these ideas.
Specific risks
World War 3
Future Cyberwar
Biowar
Solar
Chinese industrial development
Georgism
Clinical Trial Abundance
Local History
Buddhist Cosmology
Meetup format: Research all options, then pitch them, then each pick your favorite.
Perhaps even a prize for the Principal Investigator of the most popular option.
Conlangs
Esperanto
Geoengineering
Nutrition schools of thought
Anthropic Probability Paradigms—SIA, SSA, etc
Secular Religions
eg Church of the Infinite Game
‘What line of research will solve AGI Alignment?’
Coolest Poet
I hear rationalists like Ginsberg & Auden
Laptop Task Meetups
Coworking, Project Time
Actually making bets against each other
First provisionally, then at the end of the meetup, reaffirm consent & post the bets publicly.
Discord Bots
Let’s Generate Prose
Let’s Generate Music
Planning & Deploying Surveys
Concrete Future Timelines
Scenario rebutting AI 2027 (monetary prize)
Kialo Improvement
Elastomeric Respirator Fitting
paste from a Lighthaven speaker
Future pandemics are likely enough that everyone should have a well-fitting reusable high-filtration mask (“elastomeric respirator”). But not every mask fits every face. I’ll have a large selection of elastomerics, along with fit testing equipment.
Republic Headcount—List exactly which professions are needed in the smallest viable human settlement.
Debates
Long Now tradition—You must paraphrase opponent’s opening statement to their satisfaction before you can respond.
Our Knowledge Wishlist
Spreadsheet or page of topics we wish we knew more about (quantum mechanics, philosophy of mind, history of China, etc). Members can vote on which they wish to learn more about. Then in later meetups we can research & present on the top topics.
Games
Anecdote: The Seattle meetup has a game night 1 week & a rationality meetup the next week, & enjoys this pattern.
Random Chess, Bughouse Chess
Rock Paper Scissors Poker
Go
[[Quizbowl]]
AI 2027 Tabletop Exercise
Variants
Slower tech development, more time for others to react
Variant where OpenBrain is slower than DeepCent
Outdoor Games
Laser Tag
Fugitive
Jet Lag
Assassins
Hypothetical ‘Epistemic Capture the Flag With Traitors’
History Lecture with Live Betting
or even based on a YT video
Based on a game
Sports??
Tabletop games
Chess
Video games
Rationalist Hand Signals
Blindfolded taste tests—Food, beer, etc
Outdoor
Birding
Orienteering?
Snorkeling
Surfing
Frisbee Golf
Infiltrate a Church + Debrief after
(yes, infiltrate = attend)
Infiltrate a Magic Crystal Shop
[[Lightning Talk]] specific ideas
5 Season [[Calendar]]
Recommended Fiction
Venues
Regulars’ Homes
Obstacle—Host is incentivized to throw a party instead of hosting a meetup
Solution—Incentive vanishes for activities that are better-suited to our meetup crowd than to their friend group.
Notes on Meetup Ideas
I just came back from Lighthaven with lots of fun ideas to bring home. One idea is that you can just post your notes to LW instead of leaving them in your private cloud.
Futarchy—Try it out for the meetup? Brainstorm how to try it?
Manifold—Making markets about our city, etc
‘Which films will our movie night attendees enjoy?’
After watching, attendees vote thumbs up or thumbs down. Majority up → resolve yes.
Gaming the market increases attendance, so … no problem!
Laptop Research meetups
Meetup format: Research a topic & draft a Google Doc. Then post it as a official report of what the meetup has learned.
X Risks
Resilience: Where we learn about the state of the art on seed vaults, bunkers, & biopreservation submarines. Then learn about what humanity might do next to implement these ideas.
Specific risks
World War 3
Future Cyberwar
Biowar
Solar
Chinese industrial development
Georgism
Clinical Trial Abundance
Local History
Buddhist Cosmology
Meetup format: Research all options, then pitch them, then each pick your favorite.
Perhaps even a prize for the Principal Investigator of the most popular option.
Conlangs
Esperanto
Geoengineering
Nutrition schools of thought
Anthropic Probability Paradigms—SIA, SSA, etc
Secular Religions
eg Church of the Infinite Game
‘What line of research will solve AGI Alignment?’
Coolest Poet
I hear rationalists like Ginsberg & Auden
Laptop Task Meetups
Coworking, Project Time
Actually making bets against each other
First provisionally, then at the end of the meetup, reaffirm consent & post the bets publicly.
Discord Bots
Let’s Generate Prose
Let’s Generate Music
Planning & Deploying Surveys
Concrete Future Timelines
Scenario rebutting AI 2027 (monetary prize)
Kialo Improvement
Elastomeric Respirator Fitting
paste from a Lighthaven speaker
Future pandemics are likely enough that everyone should have a well-fitting reusable high-filtration mask (“elastomeric respirator”). But not every mask fits every face. I’ll have a large selection of elastomerics, along with fit testing equipment.
Republic Headcount—List exactly which professions are needed in the smallest viable human settlement.
Debates
Long Now tradition—You must paraphrase opponent’s opening statement to their satisfaction before you can respond.
Our Knowledge Wishlist
Spreadsheet or page of topics we wish we knew more about (quantum mechanics, philosophy of mind, history of China, etc). Members can vote on which they wish to learn more about. Then in later meetups we can research & present on the top topics.
Games
Anecdote: The Seattle meetup has a game night 1 week & a rationality meetup the next week, & enjoys this pattern.
Random Chess, Bughouse Chess
Rock Paper Scissors Poker
Go
[[Quizbowl]]
AI 2027 Tabletop Exercise
Variants
Slower tech development, more time for others to react
Variant where OpenBrain is slower than DeepCent
Outdoor Games
Laser Tag
Fugitive
Jet Lag
Assassins
Hypothetical ‘Epistemic Capture the Flag With Traitors’
History Lecture with Live Betting
or even based on a YT video
Based on a game
Sports??
Tabletop games
Chess
Video games
Rationalist Hand Signals
Blindfolded taste tests—Food, beer, etc
Outdoor
Birding
Orienteering?
Snorkeling
Surfing
Frisbee Golf
Infiltrate a Church + Debrief after
(yes, infiltrate = attend)
Infiltrate a Magic Crystal Shop
[[Lightning Talk]] specific ideas
5 Season [[Calendar]]
Recommended Fiction
Venues
Regulars’ Homes
Obstacle—Host is incentivized to throw a party instead of hosting a meetup
Solution—Incentive vanishes for activities that are better-suited to our meetup crowd than to their friend group.
Coffeeshops
Boba shops
Breweries
Dessert shops
Rentable Rooms
Peerspace—but $100 / hour is a little steep
Parks
Malls
Food Courts
Library Multipurpose Rooms