But I’m sorry, the world simply is turning to this community for leadership. That is a thing that is happening in the world. There is a lot of very clear evidence.
my young software coworkers who don’t explicitly identify as “rationalists” read Slate Star Codex; when I asked someone at a Rust meetup in 2017 if she had heard of a blog called Less Wrong, she said “Oh, yes” in a knowing tone (that is, “we” are not just an obscure cluster of blogs that no one’s necessarily heard of; science/tech intellectuals have heard of “us”)
Upvoted for specificity, but I would characterize this as “we have some degree of influence and reputation” rather than “the world is turning to us for leadership”. (I guess from the “somewhat influential” in your other comment that you agree.)
Name three pieces of evidence?
Dominic Cummnings was a chief adviser to the UK government and the strategist behind Brexit, and frequently cites “rationalist” authors (e.g., MIRI, Overcoming Bias, yudkowsky.net are on his blogroll)
Vox (33 million readers as of 2019) has an effective altruism section, including covering AI risk
my young software coworkers who don’t explicitly identify as “rationalists” read Slate Star Codex; when I asked someone at a Rust meetup in 2017 if she had heard of a blog called Less Wrong, she said “Oh, yes” in a knowing tone (that is, “we” are not just an obscure cluster of blogs that no one’s necessarily heard of; science/tech intellectuals have heard of “us”)
Upvoted for specificity, but I would characterize this as “we have some degree of influence and reputation” rather than “the world is turning to us for leadership”. (I guess from the “somewhat influential” in your other comment that you agree.)
Yeah, the exaggeration didn’t seem like a crux for anything important.