We run events at a private residence in Reno every month or so. Although we’re technically an SSC meetup, the organizers are also interested in LessWrong and Effective Altruism, so people from those crowds are more than welcome. And heck, some of us are interested in MIRI math, so I guess you could say we’ve got MIRIx overlap as well. Curious people of all sorts are welcome!
Our username is ssc.of.reno on Big G’s electronic mail service.
Sep 2021 update: We haven’t been trying very hard to fill this room, and it’s still available. Please message me if you’re interested, even if you just want to visit briefly. Will try to update this comment if the room becomes permanently filled.
We are two AI safety researchers (combined AF karma: around 200) who have been happily living as roommates for the past ~year in Reno, Nevada. We have an empty room in our house. The rent for the room is $400/mo. Some factors to consider re: whether you want to come live with us in Reno (either as a roommate, or starting your own house):
Reno is about as close to the Bay Area as you can get without paying state income tax. It costs about $20 to get a bus ticket down to the Bay. The bus has power and wifi, so you can work during the ~8 hour drive. (I’m not sure how good the wifi is, I try & use it as offline work time, but I tend to get distracted by the beautiful scenery.)
If you have a profoundly gifted child you want to send to school, or want to work with profoundly gifted kids, the nearby Davidson Academy is supposed to be the best place in the US for this.
Pre-pandemic, we had a nice SSC meetup going with a few people attending.
Short commute to Burning Man.
There are more gun people here than in California; almost 40% of households in Washoe County keep firearms in their homes: http://www.city-data.com/top2/co8.html Unclear if this is good or bad. Certainly should be easier to get a gun here than in California if you want one. There’s a mix of liberals and conservatives in the area; libertarians seem overrepresented. There’s a confederate flag bumper sticker or two in our rural neighborhood :/
There is snow and skiing in the winter. Latitude fairly similar to the Bay Area, so theoretically sunlight fairly similar as well?
Reno’s tagline is “The Biggest Little City in the World”, and it lives up to it in my opinion. At least pre-pandemic, passerby in Reno seemed way nicer than passerby in the Bay Area.
There have been some wildfires this year and we got advisory evacuations twice. (We’re out in the boondocks; I don’t believe anyone in the city got an advisory evacuation.) Air quality has been better than the Bay Area though.
Marijuana is legal here.
Reno is a tourist destination and has various events going on, especially during the summer—we don’t really attend them though.
A little about our house:
We’re hoping to add AI safety researchers to the house, potentially squeezing more than 3 people into 3 bedrooms, eventually splitting off into a second house (based on who is forming AI safety collaborations) and growing the Reno community that way.
We’re both fairly driven and independently motivated, “no excuses” types as opposed to the touchy-feely people who do Circling you meet in the Bay Area.
Cleaning up messes is usually not a priority at the current moment but this is susceptible to change.
We’re not super social, probably more due to being busy with work than introversion. We communicate using Discord and occasionally go for hikes, do math/machine learning presentations on a whiteboard, play board games, drink and watch a movie, cook food and eat it together.
We have a dishwasher, laundry machine, dryer.
If you’re interested, please send a private message telling us about yourself, especially what you’re like as a roommate.
Reno has tolerable summers! (And is closer to the Bay Area.)