Making Reason Reliable

This Saturday, March 12th at 3 PM, the lecture series continues...

Andrew Rettek has gratefully decided to present the ideas contained within the Less Wrong sequences (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences), a series of essays by Eliezer Yudkowsky on the topic of rationality. This week Andrew will be presenting the sequence "Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Mysterious_Answers_to_Mysterious_Questions)," an introduction to common fundamental errors in human reason. This is a big topic, so clicking the above link and reading ahead is highly recommended.

This lecture will highlight several different ways that our reasoning process can go astray: how people can argue without disagreeing on anything, how we become attached to our beliefs and refuse to update on new evidence, how to perform actual science, and what obstacles stand in our way to achieving reliable cognition. In other words, we will start learning how to update our map to match the territory (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Map_and_Territory_%28sequence%29).

The presentation will be held at the Houston Street Center, located at 273 Bowery on the corner of Houston. Go downstairs, straight ahead through the door, and take the stairs/elevator to the top floor. We are located in classroom 1. Doors open at 2:30, with the presentation to begin promptly at 3. We have the space until 5:30, at which point we will move to the upstairs seating area in the neighboring Whole Foods to eat and continue discussion. You can reach me at 603-381-6449 if there are any questions.

Come join us and start upgrading your cognition today!