Tbh in some ways I have more respect for the Rationalists who get freaky with it than the ones who just go off measuring brainpans or whatever. If you're gonna go mad, go mad in style, you know?
One minor quibble I have is with your characterisation of the people who join these cults as "convinced of their own inadequacy". I'm sure that's true for some of them, but humility is not generally a quality I associate with the Rationalist community. In fact, I think for many cults the appeal is that someone claims (at last!) to recognise how *special* you are - so special, in fact, that you get to join the special club for special people who know the Real Truth about the universe. That's a powerful draw, especially for someone who already has trouble relating to others.
Yeah, I'm probably phrasing it wrong, but it seems really clear that a key component of the cultiest corners of the Rationalist world is the sense that you, the newcomer Rationalist, are *not rational enough*, and can be "debugged" or "reprogrammed" in some way to become *more rational*... Ziz and Jessica Taylor both describe these sort of Dianetics auditing-type "debugging" sessions happening with CFAR people, really freaky!
It's not either / or - belief in being brilliant/feeling of social inadequacy. It's classic grandiosity. They go together hand in glove. Pretty much all adolescents have it to some extent - for some people it's more extreme, and that make them more vulnerable to an ideological leader who will show them The Way.
In the Zizian flier for their MIRI/CFAR protest at https://imgur.com/a/1RstyWp there's an accusation that "CFAR does not do remotely what they claim to do on their website: they do not appreciably develop novel rationality/mental tech", so I guess their complaint was that CFAR wasn't being effective enough in looking for good mental debugging "tech"? (a word that Scientologists also like use for their own techniques)
that's interesting, ty! i can see how an ultra-Rationalist viewpoint would lead you to hear someone talk about 'reprogramming' and think 'that sounds like a good thing to have done to me'
Tbh in some ways I have more respect for the Rationalists who get freaky with it than the ones who just go off measuring brainpans or whatever. If you're gonna go mad, go mad in style, you know?
One minor quibble I have is with your characterisation of the people who join these cults as "convinced of their own inadequacy". I'm sure that's true for some of them, but humility is not generally a quality I associate with the Rationalist community. In fact, I think for many cults the appeal is that someone claims (at last!) to recognise how *special* you are - so special, in fact, that you get to join the special club for special people who know the Real Truth about the universe. That's a powerful draw, especially for someone who already has trouble relating to others.
Yeah, I'm probably phrasing it wrong, but it seems really clear that a key component of the cultiest corners of the Rationalist world is the sense that you, the newcomer Rationalist, are *not rational enough*, and can be "debugged" or "reprogrammed" in some way to become *more rational*... Ziz and Jessica Taylor both describe these sort of Dianetics auditing-type "debugging" sessions happening with CFAR people, really freaky!
In some broad sense much of Rationalism is just Dianetics 2.0.
I think it's true but it works more in terms of "I'm brilliant and can OPTIMISE it even higher" than inadequacy.
It's not either / or - belief in being brilliant/feeling of social inadequacy. It's classic grandiosity. They go together hand in glove. Pretty much all adolescents have it to some extent - for some people it's more extreme, and that make them more vulnerable to an ideological leader who will show them The Way.
In the Zizian flier for their MIRI/CFAR protest at https://imgur.com/a/1RstyWp there's an accusation that "CFAR does not do remotely what they claim to do on their website: they do not appreciably develop novel rationality/mental tech", so I guess their complaint was that CFAR wasn't being effective enough in looking for good mental debugging "tech"? (a word that Scientologists also like use for their own techniques)
that's interesting, ty! i can see how an ultra-Rationalist viewpoint would lead you to hear someone talk about 'reprogramming' and think 'that sounds like a good thing to have done to me'
Agree. I think intellectual arrogance is huge here.