LessWrong

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LessWrong, also written as Less Wrong, is a community blog and forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics.

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Purpose

LessWrong promotes lifestyle changes believed to lead to increased rationality and self-improvement. Posts often focus on avoiding biases related to decision-making and the evaluation of evidence. One suggestion is the use of Bayes' theorem as a decision-making tool. There is also a focus on psychological barriers that prevent good decision-making, including fear conditioning and cognitive biases that have been studied by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman.

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History

LessWrong developed from Overcoming Bias, an earlier group blog focused on human rationality, which began in November 2006, with artificial intelligence theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky and economist Robin Hanson as the principal contributors. In February 2009, Yudkowsky's posts were used as the seed material to create the community blog LessWrong, and Overcoming Bias became Hanson's personal blog.

In 2017, it was announced that Weidenfeld & Nicolson would be publishing a book about LessWrong by former BuzzFeed science correspondent Tom Chivers.

Roko's basilisk

In July 2010, LessWrong contributor Roko posted a thought experiment similar to Pascal's Wager to the site in which an otherwise benevolent future AI system tortures simulations of those who did not work to bring the system into existence. This idea came to be known as "Roko's basilisk," based on Roko's idea that merely hearing about the idea would give the hypothetical AI system stronger incentives to employ blackmail. Yudkowsky deleted Roko's posts on the topic, calling posting it "stupid". Discussion of Roko's basilisk was banned on LessWrong for several years before the ban was lifted in October 2015.

Allusions to Roko's basilisk in popular culture include the actions of the character Gilfoyle in Season 5, Episode 5 of Silicon Valley, the character Roccoco Basilisk in Grimes' video for "Flesh Without Blood", explicitly named for Roko's basilisk, the plot of Magnus: Robot Fighter #8 by Fred Van Lente, and various webcomics such as xkcd's "AI-Box Experiment" and Questionable Content's AI Police Officer Roko Basilisk.

Thinking in Bets: a poker-master's Jedi mind-trick for being less ...

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Neoreaction

The neoreactionary movement takes an interest in LessWrong, attracted by discussions on the site of eugenics and evolutionary psychology. Yudkowsky has strongly repudiated neoreaction.