Extropia's Children, Chapter 5: Irrationalism

(Each chapter of Extropia’s Children can stand alone given cursory familiarity with the subject matter, but see also Chapter 1, “The Wunderkind”; Chapter 2, “This Demon-Haunted World”; Chapter 3, “Extropicoin Extrapolated”; and Chapter 4, “What You Owe The Future.”) The golden age of LessWrong, then the hub of rationalist discussion, was 2011 to early 2015. This is confirmed by data as well as community history. According to the Timelines Wiki, in 2013, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute “change[d] focus to put less effort into public outreach and shift its research to Friendly AI math research.” 2013 is also when the authoritarian monarchist neoreactionary movement on LessWrong — a small, but tolerated, minority — rose into public prominence. In early 2015, Eliezer Yudkowsky finally finished his rationalist Harry Potter fanfic. By late 2015, it was generally accepted that LessWrong “seems dying” and “is far less active than it once was.” You'll note however that there has bee

(Each chapter of Extropia’s Children can stand alone given cursory familiarity with the subject matter, but see also Chapter 1, “The Wunderkind”; Chapter 2, “This Demon-Haunted World”; Chapter 3, “Extropicoin Extrapolated”; and Chapter 4, “What You Owe The Future.”) The golden age of LessWrong, then the hub of rationalist discussion, was 2011 to early 2015. This is confirmed by data as well as community history. According to the Timelines Wiki, in 2013, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute “change[d] focus to put less effort into public outreach and shift its research to Friendly AI mat