Conjecture: Sufficiently dedicated groups that do not take measures against “bad cult properties” will fall down the cult attractor. So if you want a group to not fall down the attractor, you have to think about bad cult properties and how to avoid them.
Various folks have come up with lists of just what “bad cult properties” are; one of my favorites is Isaac Bonewits’ “ABCDEF”. Bonewits’ motivation appears to have been to help people be more comfortable involving themselves in unusual groups (he was a neopagan leader) by spelling out what sorts of group behavior were actually worth being worried about.
I won’t repeat Bonewits’ list here. I think it’s worth noting, though, that several of the properties he outlines could be described as anti-epistemology in practice.
Having read the list, LW-as-it-was-last-week-and-presumably-is-now seems to be unsurprisingly good at not being a cult. It does occur to me that we might want to take a close look at how the incentives offered by the group to its members will change if we switch to a more recruitment-oriented mode, though.
Conjecture: Sufficiently dedicated groups that do not take measures against “bad cult properties” will fall down the cult attractor. So if you want a group to not fall down the attractor, you have to think about bad cult properties and how to avoid them.
Yeah, I figured I wasn’t going to be too worried about LW’s cultishness unless/until rules for sexual behavior got handed down, to which Eliezer was exempt.
Conjecture: Sufficiently dedicated groups that do not take measures against “bad cult properties” will fall down the cult attractor. So if you want a group to not fall down the attractor, you have to think about bad cult properties and how to avoid them.
Various folks have come up with lists of just what “bad cult properties” are; one of my favorites is Isaac Bonewits’ “ABCDEF”. Bonewits’ motivation appears to have been to help people be more comfortable involving themselves in unusual groups (he was a neopagan leader) by spelling out what sorts of group behavior were actually worth being worried about.
I won’t repeat Bonewits’ list here. I think it’s worth noting, though, that several of the properties he outlines could be described as anti-epistemology in practice.
Having read the list, LW-as-it-was-last-week-and-presumably-is-now seems to be unsurprisingly good at not being a cult. It does occur to me that we might want to take a close look at how the incentives offered by the group to its members will change if we switch to a more recruitment-oriented mode, though.
See also.
Yeah, I figured I wasn’t going to be too worried about LW’s cultishness unless/until rules for sexual behavior got handed down, to which Eliezer was exempt.