ACX Everywhere 2023

About ACX Everywhere 2023

Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. This podcast is a series of candid conversations between meetup attendees recorded at ACX meetups around the country in the fall of 2023. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten, which is a rationalist blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry. Rationalism is...hard to define, so the following definition is taken from Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/about): “the rationalist community” is a mostly-online subculture of people trying to work together to figure out how to distinguish truth from falsehood using insights from probability theory, cognitive science, and AI. If you are interested finding out more about rationality in general, and you like podcasts, check out 'Rationally Speaking' with Julia Galef. (http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/) What is ACX and what is it about? Again, paraphrasing the ACX 'about' page, ACX started as (Scott's) personal blog, Slate Star Codex, and it grew out of "the rationalist community" mentioned above. In practice the articles on ACX tend to focus on reasoning, science, psychiatry, medicine, ethics, genetics, AI, economics, and politics, with some history and philosophy sprinkled over the top. The amazing thing about ACX Meetups you get a chance to have amazing conversations, IRL, about those topics, with a great community of people. I have personally attended more than fifty ACX Meetups, and I have had phenomenal conversations at each. I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings make it easier for people to discover ACX, and hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. A little about me, I'm Andrew Willsen, an ACX fan from Sacramento, CA. I'm a generalist who spent over twenty years working in high end restaurants, and currently I do independent research, systems theory consulting, and I make art. I see the facilitation of this podcast as both research and art rolled into one, and that's why I'm doing it. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup a list of Fall 2023 Meetups can be found here: (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and) Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. Cheers

Publisher

Andrew Willsen

Category

arts · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Sept 2023

Latest episode

19 Mar 2024

Latest episodes

8 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Mar 2024

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Berkeley Edition Part 2 - 'ACX Meetup Meta' with ACX Meetup Czar Skyler Crossman (Coda), Education in the USSR, William Gibson, Robert Heinlein, Simulation Religions, Culture Novels, Solar Punk is Bullshit, Kim Stanley Robinson, Environmental Cynicism, ACX Meetup Meta, Pop-Up ACX Podcast

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://youtu.be/67bFKW2wUYw?si=f6ksfnKAJJfRbsBR), and this episode is part 2 of an extended conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Berkeley, California, in October of 2023. This meetup took place at Lighthaven (https://www.lighthaven.space/), a beautiful events space and conference facility located in the heart of Berkeley. Thanks to Skyler for organizing the Meetup, and thank you to everyone at Lighthaven for their hospitality. The first 35 minutes of this episode continues where episode 7 left off and you'll find the topics in the title of this episode. The second part is a dialogue with ACX Global Meetup Czar Skyler Crossman in which we discuss our experiences with ACX Meetups in 2023, the basics of running a Meetup, the quest to build "Meetup in a Box", and Skyler's other plans for 2024. Skyler was incredibly supportive of my efforts to facilitate the creation of this podcast, both in terms of being receptive to the idea of trying something new (rare) and by helping me communicate with other ACX organizers around the country. Thanks Skyler, really appreciate the help, and also a big thanks to everyone who helped this podcast exist. It's been a lot of fun, and I couldn't have done it without you. Finally, the purpose of this podcast is to make ACX more discoverable for people who, for whatever reason, don't read long blog posts. I believe there are a large number of humans who don't read long blog posts and who, simultaneously, also want to be part of an ethical nerd community. Hopefully this podcast makes us easier to find. Below are some links from the episode covering carbon footprints, the Culture novels, ethical cults, and one definition of "Grey Tribe". Below that are links to things I covered in the conclusion regarding the logistics of crowdsourcing an ACX podcast on a global scale. Thanks for tuning in. Carbon Footprint Basics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint The Culture Novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series Ethical Cult Checklist (https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5e74e8349194e2f76b9ffcd1/5e754938d25345a72291f0a3_Ethical%20Cult%20Checklist.pdf) - https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5e74e8349194e2f76b9ffcd1/5e754938d25345a72291f0a3_Ethical%20Cult%20Checklist.pdf Balaji and Grey tribe (https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/what-does-the-gray-tribe-want) - https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/what-does-the-gray-tribe-want Recording with Google Meet (https://support.google.com/meet/answer/9308681?hl=en#zippy=%2Crequirements-to-record-a-video-meeting%2Clearn-how-to-record-a-meeting%2Clearn-who-can-record-a-meeting%2Clearn-whats-recorded-in-a-video-meeting) - Only available on a computer, but easy to set up before a meetup so that everyone can just log in on their own device. Recording Audio on Discord (https://www.descript.com/blog/article/how-to-record-discord-audio) - Discord is way better than Facebook (why are these our Schelling Points (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory))?) Twitter / X Help Section (https://help.twitter.com/en/using-x/spaces) - Look for the option on recording audio. <a...

2. 

   7 Jan 2024

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Berkeley Edition Part 1 - ACX Origin Stories, Drug Stacks, Red/Blue Buttons, Kaifeng Judaism, Vonnegut, and a lot more

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://twitter.com/antidarkjedi), and this episode is an extended conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Berkeley, California, in October of 2023. This meetup took place at Lighthaven (https://www.lighthaven.space/), a beautiful events space and conference facility located in the heart of Berkeley. Thanks Skyler for organizing, and thank you to everyone at Lighthaven for their hospitality. I don't know what to say about this episode, frankly. How you describe a conversation that covers so much ground? The participants were awesome, and thanks to one participant in particular for educating me about Kaifeng Jews (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews). I'm a fan of people who propose novel and audacious plans , even if the logistics appear insurmountable. Thanks, hope you enjoy.

3. 

   4 Jan 2024

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Houston Edition Part 2 - Effective Altruism, Post-Rats, Virtue Signaling, Thought Gym

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://twitter.com/antidarkjedi), and this episode is conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Houston, Texas, in October of 2023. The meetup was at Segundo Coffee Lab (https://maps.app.goo.gl/vHRkrbTW9YLYM6Wp6), which was awesome, local art everywhere, coffee, snacks, in a beautiful space with great AC. I really appreciate the post-cynical optimism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnESJn0nbQ) displayed by everyone in this episode, thanks Joe for organizing, and thanks to everyone who participated. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

4. 

   20 Oct 2023

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Houston Edition Part 1 - Effective Altruism, Learning Tools, Community

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://twitter.com/antidarkjedi), and this episode is a conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Houston, Texas, in October of 2023. The meetup was at Segundo Coffee Lab (https://maps.app.goo.gl/vHRkrbTW9YLYM6Wp6), which was awesome, local art everywhere, coffee, snacks, in a beautiful space with great AC. Keirra Woodard (https://www.linkedin.com/in/keirra-woodard/), EA Houston (https://houstonea.org/) Organizer and host of the Mindful B2B Marketing Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindful-b2b-marketing-business-growth-and-social/id1616735138) jumped in and was great in terms of giving Effective Altruism some context for us, many thanks. I really appreciate the post-cynical optimism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnESJn0nbQ) displayed by everyone in this episode, thanks Joe for organizing, and thanks to everyone who participated. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

5. 

   6 Oct 2023

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Austin Edition - A.I. Optimism and Pro-Natalist Propaganda

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://twitter.com/antidarkjedi), and this episode is a series of candid conversations recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Austin, Texas, in September of 2023. There are two main topics of conversation in this episode, and both are on the optimistic side. The first part is a conversation about AGI and how we might get there, with some interesting takes from Peter Voss (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vosspeter/) of Aigo.ai (https://aigo.ai/). The second part of this episode explores pro-natalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalism) how being part of a rationalist community can be incredibly helpful for people thinking about having children. There is a post-cynical optimism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKnESJn0nbQ) that pervades both conversations, something I'm a big fan of. Big thanks to Silas, the ACX Austin Meetup coordinator. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

6. 

   29 Sept 2023

   ACX Everywhere 2023 - Philadelphia/Petrov Day Edition

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen (https://twitter.com/antidarkjedi), and this episode is a series of candid conversations recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September of 2023. We recorded at the Philadelphia Ethical Society (https://maps.app.goo.gl/dAaBTeBAcPZkcM4R8), and we had a great time with ACX organizer Wes Fanza of The Mind Killer (https://mindkiller.substack.com/) podcast along with some great takes on Russian Literature and Science Fiction Fan Culture. Thanks (EA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism)) for the dim sum. We recorded on Petrov Day, and the reading that is discussed in the first part of the podcast can be found here (https://livingwithinreason.substack.com/p/happy-petrov-day). If you are not familiar with Petrov Day you should immediately click HERE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) and read about the incident, pretty fucking heroic. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

7. 

   25 Sept 2023

   ACX Everywhere 2023 with Bryan Caplan- Washington D.C. Edition Part 2

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen, and this episode is a series of candid conversations (with Professor Bryan Caplan (https://economics.gmu.edu/people/bcaplan) helping start us off) recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Washington DC in September of 2023. We recorded at the Froggy Bottom Pub (https://www.froggybottompub.com/) on K street, and we had a great time. The location is awesome, great food, beautiful setting, and the staff were amazing, check them out if you're in town. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

8. 

   25 Sept 2023

   ACX Everywhere 2023 with Robin Hanson- Washington D.C. Edition Part 1

   Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023. I’m Andrew Willsen, and this episode is a series of candid conversations recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Washington DC in September of 2023. We recorded at the Froggy Bottom Pub (https://www.froggybottompub.com/) on K street, and we had a great time. The location is awesome, great food, beautiful setting, and the staff were amazing, check them out if you're in town. Spoiler alert, the first voice you’re going to hear, in a moment, is Professor Robin Hanson (https://economics.gmu.edu/people/rhanson), which is pretty cool. If you’re familiar with ACX you can skip the intro and jump ahead to the 2:45 timestamp. If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten (https://www.astralcodexten.com/), which is a rationalist (https://www.lesswrong.com/) blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry (https://lorienpsych.com/). I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you. If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here (https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/meetups-everywhere-2023-times-and). You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you. Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rationally-speaking-podcast/id351953012), with Julia Galef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Galef), it's great. Finally, stay tuned for episode two, featuring almost two hours of further conversation in D.C., where we we get to talk with Professor Bryan Caplan (https://economics.gmu.edu/people/bcaplan). Cheers, Andrew (https://www.youtube.com/@dangerousfuturesclub)

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