I’m surprised David Gerrold’s “War Against The Chtorr” didn’t get mentioned, but it never did get widely read. It includes a “Global Ethics” class in the first book, and “Mode Training” in subsequent books, which have the character going through what is basically a rationality dojo—and there are numerous full sessions of these classes in the books. It’s where I got the idea that rationality was a teachable/learnable skill, and learned quite a few techniques for handling my biases, irrationalities, etc..
The core theme of the series is that Earth is being invaded by an alien biology attempting to terraform (or “Chtorraform” if you will) the planet. It starts with ~90% of the human race being wiped out (this isn’t a spoiler, this is really how it starts), and humanity having to win at any cost.
It also involves a lot of rational, knowledgeable people suffering at the hands of irrational people and petty bureaucrats. The alien ecology also refuses to yield to “best attempts”—information on the Chtorr is extremely hard to come by, and we’re only seeing a tiny portion of the puzzle, so a lot of theories collapse due to wrong assumptions—even ones that are major aspects of the plot. It very much avoids the classic “mystery novel” issue of having a single clear, easily determined answer, while at the same time making it clear that if humanity does not find the correct answer fast enough, it dies.
I really can’t think of anything that captures LessWrong better than that!
I’m surprised David Gerrold’s “War Against The Chtorr” didn’t get mentioned, but it never did get widely read. It includes a “Global Ethics” class in the first book, and “Mode Training” in subsequent books, which have the character going through what is basically a rationality dojo—and there are numerous full sessions of these classes in the books. It’s where I got the idea that rationality was a teachable/learnable skill, and learned quite a few techniques for handling my biases, irrationalities, etc..
The core theme of the series is that Earth is being invaded by an alien biology attempting to terraform (or “Chtorraform” if you will) the planet. It starts with ~90% of the human race being wiped out (this isn’t a spoiler, this is really how it starts), and humanity having to win at any cost.
It also involves a lot of rational, knowledgeable people suffering at the hands of irrational people and petty bureaucrats. The alien ecology also refuses to yield to “best attempts”—information on the Chtorr is extremely hard to come by, and we’re only seeing a tiny portion of the puzzle, so a lot of theories collapse due to wrong assumptions—even ones that are major aspects of the plot. It very much avoids the classic “mystery novel” issue of having a single clear, easily determined answer, while at the same time making it clear that if humanity does not find the correct answer fast enough, it dies.
I really can’t think of anything that captures LessWrong better than that!