Hm, I don’t know. Merely writing about the trip can never be as profound as the experience itself. Read e.g. descriptions of experiences with meditation. They often sound just silly. Furthermore there are enough trip-reports in the internet about experiences with psychedelic drugs, from people who can better write than I can, and who have more knowledge than I have. If you are really interested in mystic or psychedelic experiences, you can go to Erowid , which is one of the best sites on the internet if you are interested in this stuff...
David Althaus
Oh,sorry, I see… Well, overcoming this worldview consisted mainly of reading some sequences of Eliezer:-) And remember that I wasn’t a New-Age crackpot. I had only very mild mystic experiences, but these alone lead me to question the nature of consiousness, the universe etc.. So for me it was not really difficult, but I imagine that really radical experiences make you “immune” to a naturalistic, atheistic explanation.
I think Yvain made a similar experience with hashish (This post also convinced me that mystic experiences are only strange realignments of neurological processes ) Well, maybe I will write a post in the future that discusses risks and benefits of psychedelic drugs and meditation. But first I have to read the remaining sequences of Eliezer, which will be time-consuming enough:-)
I can trigger ecstatic, mystical “religious experiences” fairly easy in other ways; even just singing in a group setting will do it.
Wow, impressive that nevertheless you’ve managed to become a rationalist! Now I would like to hear how you achieved this feat :-)
I would rather read about the neurological underpinnings of my experience, especially since grokking science’s answers can sometimes trigger a near-mystical experience!
I totally agree. Therefore neuroscience of “altered states of consiousness” is one of my pet subjects...
Fertility and intelligence are negatively correlated.
Religiosity and intelligence seem to be negatively correlated.
Therefore all the efforts of Dawkins, Yudkowsky etc. to make the world more rational seem to be futile or at least inefficient. Pretty scary...
me too.
I’m 22, relatively good at math,and have absolutely zero experience in programming. In the moment I’m studying psychology. At first I wanted to do research in cognitive biases, neuroscience, Evo-psych, etc. , but now I prefer the make-money-and-donate-it-to-existential-risk-reducing-organizations-scheme. How much can you earn with a master in psychology? ( Can you work at companies, in something like human ressources? Or is this degree completely worthless?) Should I really start to study computer science and programming?
How about becoming a teacher? I don’t know what the situation is like in the USA, but here in Germany you get around 40000 Euro ( about 60000 Dollars) after 5 years and can’t lose your job. You have really long holidays and with more experience your workload should also decrease. I guess 30-35 hours per week will suffice. IMO there are a lot of bad teachers out there, although this profession is important and meaningful. As a teacher you can transform and influence the life of many children. If only I had had good teachers… Or am I seriously mistaken and naive? Anyone out there with some experience?
- Great work.
There are various outputs we can measure: The growth of the LW community and its activities are surely important ones. We might also want to have a survey of LW members to see what the demographics are, the growth areas, the development areas etc.
IMO a survey of lesswrong-members would be extremely helpful! Presumably many of us ponder on the best way to reduce existential risks relating to their own abilities and interests.( Not everyone is smart enough to work on FAI.....sigh) If I only knew the experiences of some lesswrong-members in various occupational areas or academic fields and their pros and cons I may spot my optimal career path, which would further my efficiency, wealth, happiness and influence and hence maximize my contribution to save the world! I bet many of you feel the same way! Well, maybe off-topic, but I think better coordination among ourselves would be awesome.
I think apart from luck and right time/right place there were some other factors too why Einstein is so popular: he had an air of showmanship about him, which is probably rare in scientists. That was what appealed to the public and made him an interesting figur to report about.
Now this is a bit harsh, don’t you think?
This would be great! Apparently 2 years ago Yvain also conducted a survey.
It seems to me that much of the frustration in my life prior to a few years ago has been due to thinking that all other human minds necessarily and consistently implement modus ponens and the Dynamic: “When the belief pool contains “X is right/desired/maximizing-my-utility-function/good”, send X to action system”
This is so true
This would be great.
Do you plan to get involved with academia, or to be more general, is it advisable to aim for an academic career? Or do you consider academia to be too costly, ineffective and mainly focused in narrow, obscure or otherwise irrelevant topics?
Elezier wrote: > Vassar, surprised to see you seconding Roko
Eliezer: I think that you misunderstand Roko, but that doesn’t really matter, as he seems to understand you fairly well right now and to be learning effectively.
So WHO is Roko?
Thanks, I googled for roko + lesswrong and after reading some comments this whole Roko-affair seems to be kinda creepy...
The stream-of-consciousness style comments were something I wanted feedback on, and now I got the feedback, thanks.
This is probably too late, but I really love your writing style, especially your stream of consciousness.
- To me Eliezer’s writings were extremely helpful.
I could translate something to German, which is my mother tongue. Which documents have the highest priority? And do you think translations are really worthwhile? I mean, everybody should just speak English or shut up, to put it bluntly. ( Yes, I don’t like my country....) And, well in the next two months I can’t promise anything, but maybe in the summer-holidays.
hi everybody,
I’m 22, male, a student and from Germany. I’ve always tried to “perceive whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds”, to know the truth, to grok what is going on. Truth is the goal, and rationality the art of achieving it. So for this reason alone lesswrong is quite appealing.
But in addition to that Yudkowsky and Bostrom convinced me that existential risks, transhumanism , the singularity, etc. are probably the most important issues of our time.
Furthermore this is the first community I’ve ever encountered in my life that makes me feel rather dumb. ( I can hardly follow the discussions about solomonoff induction, everett-branches and so on, lol, and I thought I was good at math because I was the best one in high school :-) But, nonetheless being stupid is sometimes such a liberating feeling!
To spice this post with more gooey self-disclosure: I was sort of a “mild” socialist for quite some time ( yeah, I know. But, there are some intelligent folks who were socialists, or sort-of-socialists like Einstein and Russell). Now I’m more pro-capitalism, libertarian, but some serious doubts remain. I’m really interested in neuropsychological research of mystic experiences. ( I think I share this personal idiosyncrasy with Sam Harris...) I think many rational atheists ( myself included before I encountered LSD), underestimate the preposterous and life-transfomring power of mystic experiences, that can convert the most educated rationalist into a gibbering crackpot. It makes you think you really “know” that there is some divine and mysterious force at the deepest level of the universe, and the quest for understanding involves reading many, many absurd and completely useless books, and this endeavor may well destroy your whole life.