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Damn, I missed it assuming all Meetups would be on Saturday ...
Would be nice to know if participants plan to attempt A Beginner's Guide to Irrational Behavior https://www.coursera.org/course/behavioralecon or Know Thyself https://www.coursera.org/course/knowthyself
To clarify on Google Car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car says that Sebastian Thrun was leading Stanford lab for the DARPA challenges few years ago. So yes Google does have a driverless car but as far as I can most if not all of the work regarding the actual driving was done before it was related to Google. Now regarding Google Maps and Street View it is probably mostly internal research but I don't think it can be considered related to driving. It is mostly indexing and searching (which is Google core business).
Regarding war and my doubts on peace, US DoD as #1 world employer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_employers and China trailing behind.
Some resources mentioned during the meetup
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (1h video) http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=155752
- Toward Replacement Parts for the Brain, MIT Press 2005 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10550&ttype=2
- A Brain Implant that Thinks, MIT Tech Review 2012 http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429204/a-brain-implant-that-thinks/
- Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study, Nature 2012 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7415/full/nature11432.html
- Activation of adult-born neurons facilitates learning and memory, Nature Neuroscience 2012 http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v15/n6/full/nn.3108.html
- Norbert Wiener http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener (related to the bus stop)
For newcomers you can review what we did before on our wiki page http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Brussels_meetup_group
Potential materials for discussions :
- try http://www.quora.com/Politics/Is-there-a-website-to-prepare-meetings-that-would-provide-some-topics-and-some-points-for-each-participant-let-participants-upvote-and-downvote-until-some-time-before-the-meeting-and-then-the-team-would-work-with-priorities-assigned-by-those-votes with pen and paper
- building "trails" of LW articles for newcomers or not people who just want a "refresh" (if some are motivated I'll bring my laptop)
- Alzheimer as diabetes type 3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/10/alzheimers-junk-food-catastrophic-effect
- AGI leader AMA http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zq56m/im_dr_ben_goertzel_artificial_general/
- Hacking EEG devices https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity12/sec12-final56.pdf
- weekly collapse http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/9/10/we-are-now-one-year-and-counting-from-global-riots-complex-systems-theorists-say--2
- emotions/rationality http://lesswrong.com/lw/hp/feeling_rational/
- ReflectOns:Mental Prostheses for Self-Reflection http://www.media.mit.edu/events/2012/09/10/sajid-sadi-thesis-defense http://fluid.media.mit.edu/people/sajid/current/reflectons.html
- Zin-Side Out, the desire to conform to popular opinion http://blog.media.mit.edu/2012/07/zin-side-out.html
- la France des deconnectes http://fr.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14247437
- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: The Podcast http://www.hpmorpodcast.com
- Mapping The Next Three Decades of Health Technology http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680532/mapping-the-next-three-decades-of-health-technology
- Rosenhan experiment or "On being sane in insane places." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment
Seems that the conclusion of http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/a3c/pooling_resources_for_valuable_actuarial/ were that it's not that useful at the individual scale...
Didn't know there was a Paris Meetup, great. I won't be able to participate but I shared it on http://forum.transhumanistes.com/t827-meetup-lesswrong-a-paris-le-1er-septembre#7773
AFAIK once the registration is open (15th of August) anybody can purchase a ticket.
I would like to discuss the bayesian framework and AGI in relation to acturial "science" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuarial_science . The idea came from browsing Yudkowsky's http://yudkowsky.net/rational/bayes with its "Fun fact" on finding priors. Actuaries overall rather than random folks on Kazaa seem to be some of the most interested (and probably well funded group) working on human behavior. Yes regarding physics, chemistry, etc it is not relevant yet, do we, as human beings in their daily life outside the research lab, have much affordance on those?
Let's make the work of actuaries more useful for ourselves (and yes eventually an AGI).
PS: we could also discuss
- http://lesswrong.com/lw/dvo/agi12_conference_in_oxford_in_december/
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF8tdXwa-AE
- http://www.feasta.org/2012/06/17/trade-off-financial-system-supply-chain-cross-contagion-a-study-in-global-systemic-collapse/
- http://www.quickmeme.com/Scumbag-Brain/
- http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428729/mathematics-of-sudoku-leads-to-richter-scale-of/ related to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-based_computation_game
- http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/software-runs-the-world-how-scared-should-we-be-that-so-much-is-bad/260846/
- http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2112614
explained in http://lesswrong.com/lw/dni/a_beginners_guide_to_irrational_behavior_free/
I agree and to be sincere when I posted it I wondered if the format was appropriate but I concluded that the content was and that is what matter.
PS: thanks, I just discovered http://www.reddit.com/r/lesswrong btw :)
the content is the link itself and because AFAIK they
- are related to rationality
- are different classes so if participants want to discuss they have their own topic
- have never been posted here
see also http://lesswrong.com/lw/dnj/critical_thinking_in_global_challenges_free/ and http://lesswrong.com/lw/dni/a_beginners_guide_to_irrational_behavior_free/
Some pics of us playing http://wiki.lesswrong.com/mediawiki/images/9/99/BXL_July2012-game1.jpg http://wiki.lesswrong.com/mediawiki/images/c/cd/BXL_July2012-game2.jpg http://wiki.lesswrong.com/mediawiki/images/0/09/BXL_July2012-game3.jpg
also we could discuss
patriotism since it's Bastille Day in France
the complexity of thought, if complexity theory or economics can be used for cognition
Food for thoughts http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/vw92r/has_there_ever_existed_a_true_technocracy/
Also since you like brain teasers consider http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428189/the-hardest-logic-puzzle-ever-made-even-harder/
Could also be interesting to present your data (and mine too eventually) regarding daily self reporting happiness, consequences, limits.
I was thinking about the first option "a poster of general fallacies that conform to LW standards" but I suppose the second could be useful too. Limited and probably more technical yet surely more useful here.
To all those who complained about the sarcastic illustration, the lack of references, the weird categorization that should rather fit a bayseian framework, the simplific or even wrong definitions, this poster has ONE key difference with the ideal poster, it exists.
If it sparks criticisms that lead to a new, LessWrong compatible poster, then it is well worth the critics.
Anybody with proposals for a structure e.g. a hierarchy of fallacies and a design theme?
well defining priorities is in itself a good exercise on rationality ;)
A word of warning regarding werewolves as a potential tool to better grap group dynamics, social cues, etc... : I played it once before and the recommended minimum number of players was quite high (i.e. 8+) so it would properly be safe to have a backup plan just in case we are less than last time.
indexed on the wiki page http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Brussels_meetup_group
So far the Brussels meetup takes place on a monthly basis, not weekly. Next one will be held the 19th of April.
Brussels meetup, my second LW meetup so far.
We were 9 (3 women) in their mid-twenties, mostly europeeans. We discussed about many topics including sociability, choosing or creating a country and doubts on the education system. The weather was also nice here so we enjoyed an extended session in the nearby park and even took some pictures which should be available soon.
I'll surely go to the next one the 19th of May.
Was great!
Next meetup the 19th of May same place (Museum of Natural Sciences Rue Vautier 29 B-1000 Brussels) and time (12:00).
Maybe the mandatory reading list this time could include http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/sb2i5/my_mom_just_told_me_that_squirrels_lay_eggs_whats/ ;)
Yes unfortunately my web server keeps on weirdly and the logs do not help. I restarted it hopefully it will keep on working for a while, I replaced it by a static version for now, apologies :/
says 12:00 for me now
Last time it was in English. For the parking I have no idea, calling the museum could help.
My main goals will be to
- make a presentation on social rules, origins and efficiency
- update of my beliefs page.
- get my list of heuristics http://fabien.benetou.fr/pub/home/Heuristics.html challenged (either logic or references) or confirmed (references).
It could also be interesting to explore :
- Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills (2012) http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=9344
- In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic (2010) http://www.harpercollins.com/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780061778179
- Crises, catastrophes, systèmes hors d'équilibre (2010) http://www.centre-dalembert.u-psud.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=183&Itemid=74
- Mind Bugs (1990) http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=7228
I'll be there, my main objective will be to try to put my set of beliefs expressed in http://fabien.benetou.fr/Fabien/Beliefs straight and eventually to discuss computer security and the popular decisions against it (w/ potential implication for mind uploading or whole brain emulation).