Practical Rationality Meetup

This month's Practical Rationality night has a double theme: The Science of Cryonics, and Rationality Habit Checklists.

We are joined by Matt Fisher, spokesperson for Stasis Systems Australia, who will be giving a brief overview discussing the science and technology behind cryonic preservation. We can discuss the probability of success, the hurdles that SSA has to overcome in order to set up the nation's first facility, and Matt will answer any of your questions. Matt is recently down from Sydney to join us, so I hope you help make him welcome.

Following this presentation we will lead an exercise going through a rationality habit checklist. Instilling rationality habits can help us become better at ensuring that we are holding true beliefs about the world and going about achieving our goals in a way that is most likely to lead to success. Subtopics that we will cover include:

• Reacting to evidence / surprises / arguments you haven't heard before; flagging beliefs for examination

• Questioning and analyzing beliefs (after they come to your attention)

• Handling inner conflicts; when different parts of you are pulling in different directions, you want different things that seem incompatible; responses to stress.

• What you do when you find your thoughts, or an argument, going in circles or not getting anywhere.

• Noticing and flagging behaviors (habits, strategies) for review and revision.

• Revising strategies, forming new habits, implementing new behavior patterns

We have moved the Communication topic that we had originally advertised to next month's meetup on 3rd of January.

The Clicker Training game that improves your ability to search hypothesis space will be hopefully be happening for everyone who turns up early from 7pm.

The structured part of the evening will kick off at 7:30pm sharp, with the formal discussion concluding by 9pm. Afterwards you will be free to stick around and discuss other material with members, and investigate rationality techniques that could be beneficial to you.

Meet us at the usual venue in West Melbourne, which is officially being sponsored by TrikeApps. Doors should be open early from 6:30pm. We suggest eating beforehand. Call me on 0407943917 for directions or for access.

Looking forward to overcoming some cognitive biases with you all.