A friend recommended it (and to look at the posts of some of his friends here). But I would like to know more about how the participants are, how many and what backgrounds. Many contributions look to me like from male teenagers with deficient education, but being hobby comuter users with interest in popular science. Correct guess?
Those who can provide information. What is “OB”? Have you data on the level of knowledge in sciences and mathematics? “Libertarians”—is that not an other name for right-extremists? Then, “Singularity” is the 21st century libertarian’s “Wunderwaffe”-myth?
I don’t think anyone’s in a position to conclusively confirm or deny your speculation on LW-participant demographics, although you might find useful the link to the survey results jimrandomh posted above.
OB is Overcoming Bias, formerly a blog on rationality with multiple contributors, including Eliezer Yudkowsky, now the personal blog of Robin Hanson.
The only data on maths/science knowledge in the LW community I know to exist can be found in the aforementioned survey results. It is probably out of date.
“Right-extremists” is probably not a helpful way to think of how the term “libertarian” is used here. It refers more to advocacy of individual liberty than a position on a classical 1-dimensional political spectrum. I wouldn’t describe myself as a libertarian, though, and I’m certainly not an authority on them, so other people are probably better-placed to answer that question.
“Singularity” is probably a bit too big to elaborate on in a couple of sentences, but it’s conceptually distinct from libertarianism. I like to describe it as follows: there are technological achievements which we know to be theoretically possible, but which, if developed, would entirely rewrite the rules by which human beings exist. I don’t believe this is comparable to the wunderwaffe concept.
A friend recommended it (and to look at the posts of some of his friends here). But I would like to know more about how the participants are, how many and what backgrounds. Many contributions look to me like from male teenagers with deficient education, but being hobby comuter users with interest in popular science. Correct guess?
It’s a bit out of date, but there was a survey on Less Wrong’s demographics.
We should do another one of these, Less Wrong has grown a lot since May 2009...
Who exactly are you asking to appraise your guess?
Those who can provide information. What is “OB”? Have you data on the level of knowledge in sciences and mathematics? “Libertarians”—is that not an other name for right-extremists? Then, “Singularity” is the 21st century libertarian’s “Wunderwaffe”-myth?
I don’t think anyone’s in a position to conclusively confirm or deny your speculation on LW-participant demographics, although you might find useful the link to the survey results jimrandomh posted above.
OB is Overcoming Bias, formerly a blog on rationality with multiple contributors, including Eliezer Yudkowsky, now the personal blog of Robin Hanson.
The only data on maths/science knowledge in the LW community I know to exist can be found in the aforementioned survey results. It is probably out of date.
“Right-extremists” is probably not a helpful way to think of how the term “libertarian” is used here. It refers more to advocacy of individual liberty than a position on a classical 1-dimensional political spectrum. I wouldn’t describe myself as a libertarian, though, and I’m certainly not an authority on them, so other people are probably better-placed to answer that question.
“Singularity” is probably a bit too big to elaborate on in a couple of sentences, but it’s conceptually distinct from libertarianism. I like to describe it as follows: there are technological achievements which we know to be theoretically possible, but which, if developed, would entirely rewrite the rules by which human beings exist. I don’t believe this is comparable to the wunderwaffe concept.