HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The rationalist community is a 21st century movement that formed around a group of internet blogs, primarily
LessWrong ''LessWrong'' (also written ''Less Wrong'') is a community blog and Internet forum, forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics. It is associa ...
and Astral Codex Ten (formerly known as
Slate Star Codex ''Astral Codex Ten'' (ACX), formerly ''Slate Star Codex'' (SSC), is a blog focused on science, medicine (especially psychiatry), philosophy, politics, and futurism. The blog is written by Scott Alexander Siskind, a San Francisco Bay Area psychi ...
). The movement initially gained prominence in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
. Its members seek to use
rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ab ...
to avoid
cognitive bias A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm (philosophy), norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the ...
es. Common interests include
transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...
, statistics,
effective altruism Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to b ...
, and mitigating
existential risk from artificial general intelligence Existential risk from artificial intelligence refers to the idea that substantial progress in artificial general intelligence (AGI) could lead to human extinction or an irreversible global catastrophe. One argument for the importance of this r ...
.


Beliefs

The community began with a simple idea: "Each day, we aim to be less wrong about the world than the day before." They refer to rationality as the art of thinking in ways that result in accurate beliefs and good decisions. Public perception and media coverage focus on the group's use of
Bayesian inference Bayesian inference ( or ) is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to calculate a probability of a hypothesis, given prior evidence, and update it as more information becomes available. Fundamentally, Bayesian infer ...
, which some adherents claim is the "least imperfect" way to think. Tara Burton wrote in '' The New Atlantis'': "Central to the rationalist worldview was the idea that nothing — not social niceties, not fear of political incorrectness, certainly not unwarranted emotion — could, or should, get between human beings and their ability to apprehend the world as it really is." She further describes rationalist culture as having a "
technocratic Technocracy is a form of government in which decision-makers appoint knowledge experts in specific domains to provide them with advice and guidance in various areas of their policy-making responsibilities. Technocracy follows largely in the tra ...
focus on ameliorating the human condition through hyper-utilitarian goals", with the "distinctly liberal optimism... that defines so much of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
ideology — that intelligent people, using the right epistemic tools, can think better, and save the world by doing so". The early rationalist blogs
LessWrong ''LessWrong'' (also written ''Less Wrong'') is a community blog and Internet forum, forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics. It is associa ...
and
Slate Star Codex ''Astral Codex Ten'' (ACX), formerly ''Slate Star Codex'' (SSC), is a blog focused on science, medicine (especially psychiatry), philosophy, politics, and futurism. The blog is written by Scott Alexander Siskind, a San Francisco Bay Area psychi ...
attracted a STEM-interested audience that cared about self-improvement, and was suspicious of the humanities and how emotions inhibit rational thinking. The movement attracted the attention of the founder culture of Silicon Valley, leading to many shared cultural shibboleths and obsessions, especially optimism about the ability of intelligent capitalists and technocrats to create widespread prosperity. ''
Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...
'' journalist Ellen Huet adds that the rationalist movement "valorizes extremes: seeking rational truth above all else, donating the most money and doing the utmost good for the most important reason. This way of thinking can lend an attractive clarity, but it can also provide cover for destructive or despicable behavior". In particular, several women in the community have made allegations of sexual misconduct, including abuse and harassment, which they describe as pervasive and condoned. One of the main interests of the rationalist community is combating existential risk posed by the emergence of an artificial superintelligence. Many members of the rationalist community believe that it is one of the only communities that have a chance at saving humanity from extinction. The stress associated with this consequential responsibility has been a contributing factor to mental health crises among several rationalists. Writing in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'', Gideon Lewis-Kraus argues that rationalists "have given safe harbor to some genuinely egregious ideas," such as
scientific racism Scientific racism, sometimes termed biological racism, is the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific belief that the Human, human species is divided into biologically distinct taxa called "race (human categorization), races", and that empirical evi ...
and neoreactionary views, and that "the rationalists' general willingness to pursue orderly exchanges on objectionable topics, often with monstrous people, remains not only a point of pride but a constitutive part of the subculture's self-understanding." Though this attitude is based on "the view that vile ideas should be countenanced and refuted rather than left to accrue the status of forbidden knowledge", rationalists also hold the view that other ideas, referred to as information hazards, are dangerous and should be suppressed. Roko's Basilisk and the writings of
Ziz LaSota The Zizians are an informal group of rationalists with anarchist and vegan beliefs who also believe the hemispheres of the brain can have conflicting interests and identities. They are allegedly involved in six violent deaths in the United Stat ...
are commonly cited information hazards among rationalists.


History

LessWrong ''LessWrong'' (also written ''Less Wrong'') is a community blog and Internet forum, forum focused on discussion of cognitive biases, philosophy, psychology, economics, rationality, and artificial intelligence, among other topics. It is associa ...
was originally founded in 2009, although the community had previously existed on various
blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
s on the Internet, including Overcoming Bias (founded 2006).
Slate Star Codex ''Astral Codex Ten'' (ACX), formerly ''Slate Star Codex'' (SSC), is a blog focused on science, medicine (especially psychiatry), philosophy, politics, and futurism. The blog is written by Scott Alexander Siskind, a San Francisco Bay Area psychi ...
was launched in 2013, and it's successor blog, "Astral Codex Ten", was launched on January 21, 2021.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Eliezer S. Yudkowsky ( ; born September 11, 1979) is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, best known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence. He is the founder of and ...
created LessWrong and is regarded as a major figure within the movement. He has also published the ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
''
fanfiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...
called ''
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality ''Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality'' (''HPMOR'') is a work of ''Harry Potter'' fan fiction by Eliezer Yudkowsky published on FanFiction.Net as a serial from February 28, 2010 to March 14, 2015, totaling 122 chapters and over 660,000 w ...
'' from 2010 to 2015, which led people towards LessWrong and the rationalist community. ''Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality'' was a highly popular fanfiction and is well-regarded within the rationalist community. Yudkowsky has used the work to solicit donations for the
Center for Applied Rationality The Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California, that hosts workshops on rationality and cognitive bias. It was founded in 2012 by Julia Galef, Anna Salamon, Michael Smith and Andrew Critch, t ...
, which teaches courses based on it, and a 2013 LessWrong survey revealed a quarter of its users had found the site due to the fanfiction. In the 2010s, the rationalist community emerged as a major force in
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
. Billionaires
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
,
Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...
, and
Vitalik Buterin Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin (; born 31 January 1994), better known as Vitalik Buterin (), is a Canadian computer programmer and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding ''Bitcoin Ma ...
have donated to rationalist-associated institutions. Bay Area organizations associated with the rationalist community include the
Center for Applied Rationality The Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California, that hosts workshops on rationality and cognitive bias. It was founded in 2012 by Julia Galef, Anna Salamon, Michael Smith and Andrew Critch, t ...
, which teaches the techniques of rationality espoused by rationalists, and the
Machine Intelligence Research Institute The Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), formerly the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI), is a non-profit research institute focused since 2005 on identifying and managing potential existential risks from artifi ...
, which conducts research on
AI safety AI safety is an interdisciplinary field focused on preventing accidents, misuse, or other harmful consequences arising from artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It encompasses machine ethics and AI alignment, which aim to ensure AI systems are mor ...
. While the movement has online origins, the community is also active and close-knit offline. The community is especially active in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
, where many rationalists live in
intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community designed to foster a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. Such communities typically promote shared values or beliefs, or pursue a common vision, which may be politica ...
and engage in
polyamorous Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mono ...
relationships with other rationalists. Some members and former members of the community have described it as "cult-like".


Offshoots and overlapping movements

The borders of the rationalist community are blurry and subject to debate among the community and adjacent groups. Members who have drifted from traditional rationalist beliefs often self-describe as "rationalist-adjacent", "post-rationalist" (also known as "TPOT") or "EA-adjacent".


Effective altruism and transhumanism

The rationalist community has a large overlap with
effective altruism Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates impartially calculating benefits and prioritizing causes to provide the greatest good. It is motivated by "using evidence and reason to figure out how to b ...
and
transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...
. Critics such as computer scientist
Timnit Gebru Timnit Gebru (Amharic and ; 1982/1983) is an Eritrean Ethiopian-born computer scientist who works in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic bias and data mining. She is a co-founder of Black in AI, an advocacy group that has pu ...
and philosopher Émile P. Torres additionally link rationalists with other philosophies they collectively name
TESCREAL TESCREAL is an acronym neologism proposed by computer scientist Timnit Gebru and philosopher Émile P. Torres that stands for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, (modern) Cosmism, Rationalist ideology, Effective Altruism, and Long ...
: Transhumanism,
extropianism Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of extropy, is an "evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition". Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people li ...
,
singularitarianism Singularitarianism is a Social movement, movement defined by the belief that a technological singularity—the creation of superintelligence—will likely happen in the medium future, and that deliberate action ought to be taken to ensure that t ...
, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and
longtermism Longtermism is the ethical view that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. It is an important concept in effective altruism and a primary motivation for efforts that aim to reduce existential risks to h ...
.


Postrationalists

The postrationalists are a loose group of one-time rationalists who became disillusioned with the rationalist community, which they came to perceive as cultlike and had lost focus on the less quantifiable elements of a well-lived human life. This community also goes by the acronym TPOT, standing for This Part of
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
. The term ''postrationalist'' is also used as a hedge by people in the community who have drifted from its orthodoxy.


Zizians

The Zizians are a spin-off group with an ideological emphasis on
veganism Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...
and
anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
, which became well known in 2025 for being suspected of involvement in four murders. The Zizians originally formed around the
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...
rationalist community, but became disillusioned with other rationalist organizations and leaders. Among the Zizians' accusations against them were anti-transgender discrimination, misuse of donor funds to pay off a sexual misconduct accuser, and not valuing animal welfare in plans for human-
friendly AI Friendly artificial intelligence (friendly AI or FAI) is hypothetical artificial general intelligence (AGI) that would have a positive (benign) effect on humanity or at least align with human interests such as fostering the improvement of the hu ...
.


See also

*
RationalWiki RationalWiki is an online wiki which is written from a Scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic, Secularism, secular, and Progressivist, progressive perspective. Its stated goals are to "analyze and refute pseudoscience and the antiscience, ...
*
Effective accelerationism Effective accelerationism (e/acc) is a 21st-century philosophical movement that advocates for an explicitly pro-technology stance. Its proponents believe that unrestricted technological progress (especially driven by artificial intelligence) is ...
*
The Californian Ideology "The Californian Ideology" is a 1995 essay by English media theorists Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron of the University of Westminster. Barbrook calls it a "critique of dotcom neoliberalism".Barbrook 2007Imaginary Futures: Other Works In the es ...
*
Aella Aella, is a feminine given name and may refer to: * Aella (Amazon) (), an Amazon in Greek mythology. * Aella (writer), or Aella_girl, a libertarian sex researcher and sex worker * Aella (), meaning "stormswift" in Ancient Greek. * Aella Jordan-Edg ...


References

{{Reflist, 30em Existential risk from artificial general intelligence