you end up with a place that’s indistinguishable from the programmer/atheist/transhumanist/etc. crowd, which is bad if LW is supposed to be making more than nominal progress over time.
Considering how it was subculturally seeded, this should not be surprising. Remember that LW has proceeded in a more or less direct subcultural progression from the Extropians list of the late ’90s, with many of the same actual participants.
It’s an online community. As such, it’s a subculture and it’s going to work like one. So you’ll see the behaviour of an internet forum, with a bit of the topical stuff on top.
How would you cut down the transhumanist subcultural assumptions in the LW readership?
(If I ever describe LW to people these days it’s something like “transhumanists talking philosophy.” I believe this is an accurate description.)
Transhumanism isn’t the problem. The problem is that when people don’t read the sequences, we are no better than any other forum of that community. Too many people are not reading the sequences, and not enough people are calling them out on it.
Considering how it was subculturally seeded, this should not be surprising. Remember that LW has proceeded in a more or less direct subcultural progression from the Extropians list of the late ’90s, with many of the same actual participants.
It’s an online community. As such, it’s a subculture and it’s going to work like one. So you’ll see the behaviour of an internet forum, with a bit of the topical stuff on top.
How would you cut down the transhumanist subcultural assumptions in the LW readership?
(If I ever describe LW to people these days it’s something like “transhumanists talking philosophy.” I believe this is an accurate description.)
Transhumanism isn’t the problem. The problem is that when people don’t read the sequences, we are no better than any other forum of that community. Too many people are not reading the sequences, and not enough people are calling them out on it.