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‎speeches/It_Is_A_Common_Misperception.md‎

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# It Is A Common Misperception
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## by Eliezer Yudkosky
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It is a common misconception that the best rationalists are Sorted into Ravenclaw, leaving none for other Houses. This is not so; being Sorted into Ravenclaw indicates that your strongest virtue is curiosity, wondering and desiring to know the true answer. And this is not the only virtue a rationalist needs. Sometimes you have to work hard on a problem, and stick to it for a while.

‎speeches/gen/Does_Somebody_Have_To.html‎

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<title>Does Somebody Have To, and Will Somebody Else</title>
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<body>
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</div>
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<h1 id="does-somebody-have-to-and-will-somebody-else">Does Somebody Have
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To, and Will Somebody Else</h1>
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<h2 id="by-skyler-crossman">By Skyler Crossman</h2>
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<p>There’s a phrase you’ll hear around this community sometimes.
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“Somebody has to and no one else will.” It’s from a novel, and in the
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novel it’s usually said when there’s something important to do shortly
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before the speaking character tries to do it. It’s a line that resonates
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with people in this community. Sometimes you look at all the ways that
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the world is falling short, at shortsightedness and broken windows, at
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famine and at plague, at death itself, and and think, hey, maybe I could
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fix that.</p>
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<p>Or to quote a different writer, “It seems like there’s some kind of
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personality trait where instead of going ‘someone should do something
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about that’ you go ‘I’m going to do something about that.’ I don’t know
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how to teach it but I sincerely think the world is only still around
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because some people have it.” We have a bit of jargon around here for
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taking failure on your own shoulders, we call it “Heroic
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Responsibility.”</p>
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<p>I admire this trait, and yet, tonight I want to argue with it.</p>
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<p>Firstly, does somebody have to? Because I appreciate many of you
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dearly but sometimes I get the sense some of you are quoting “Somebody
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has to and no one else will” in your head because the way the world is
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falling short is that a book review is badly organized, or maybe the
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school board secretary isn’t very good, or someone is wrong on the
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internet. It’s okay if that fails. I’d prefer the frame where we choose
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to fix it, not the frame where we have to.</p>
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<p>Sometimes the way the world is falling short is that people are
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dying. About 1.8 per second, or a little over a hundred every minute.
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About this rate- [snap fingers for a few seconds.] Most of those deaths,
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we don’t know how to stop them, but some deaths we absolutely do know
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how and you could get there in time with the right resources that person
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might live. They needed an antimalarial drug, or they went overboard
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into cold water and needed pulled out. People are, actually, dying, and
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this is important. I don’t want to say it’s okay. Death is bad. And yet,
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we still have the choice not to fix it.</p>
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<p>And then we observe there’s a lot of burnout in this community for
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some reason.</p>
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<p>Second and just as significantly, will somebody else? Because
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sometimes somebody will.</p>
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<p><em>Yes, you are only one</em> <em>No, it is not enough—</em> <em>But
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if you lift your eyes,</em> <em>I am your brother</em></p>
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<p>Sometimes when you don’t volunteer, you find that someone else stood
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up in your place. Except, it’s not in your place, because we are all in
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this boat together. Part of being in a community full of hard-working
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people who care a whole lot is that sometimes you can ask for help, and
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they’ll actually help. Not the kind of half-hearted, better off without
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it help like when you tried to do a group project in school and wound up
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the only person doing anything. The kind where they actually clerk the
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office that handles the funding /That raises the tower that watches the
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sky.</p>
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<p>I would be sad if this speech made you turn away from Heroic
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Responsibility. Sometimes somebody has to and no one else will. But
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before you take the world on your shoulders like Atlas, I’m asking you
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to stop and ask yourself, how do you actually know that’s true?</p>
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<p>Once upon a time, the best way to figure out how to kill Smallpox
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involved deliberately exposing ourselves to the infection. Children led
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the way, James Phipps among them. Hundreds of years later, sometimes the
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best way to kill a disease still involves deliberately exposing
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yourself, and then isolating yourself in a tiny hospital room. There
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were human challenge trials on dysentery as recently as October of this
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year, with at least one rationalist volunteering. Those volunteers are
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not alone, because doctors watch them carefully. They did not have to do
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this, and if those people had declined to get infected with dysentery
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then there would have been other volunteers, because the human race is
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kind of crazy sometimes.</p>
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<p>Welcome to humanity! There’s eight billion of us right now, and in
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every corner of it there’s somebody who’s trying to help make things
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better.</p>
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<p>Welcome to the rationalist community! This isn’t a tribe about
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getting to confidently know things together, but this is a tribe about
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figuring things out. This is also apparently sometimes a tribe about
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deliberately getting dysentery so other people don’t have to! Roger
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Bacon was trying to figure out how the world worked eight hundred years
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ago and we’re- somehow!- NOT DEAD YET!</p>
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<a href=https://github.com/SecularSolstice/SecularSolstice.github.io/edit/master/speeches/Does_Somebody_Have_To.md class=editbutton>edit</a>
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‎speeches/gen/Funeral_Ritual.html‎

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</div>
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<h1 id="funeral-ritual">Funeral Ritual</h1>
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<h2 id="by-raymond-arnold-adapted-by-skyler-crossman">By Raymond Arnold,
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adapted by Skyler Crossman</h2>
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<p>In October 2012 as the first Secular Solstice ceremony was being
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planned, Raymond Arnold, the founder of our solstice tradition, was
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thinking a lot about death. In the space of three weeks, three of his
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friends had lost someone close to them. And it occurred to him that the
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rationality community had very little in the way of funeral ritual. Many
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of us have been to religious funerals. I have. And as much as I don’t
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believe in any of the doctrine, there was something comforting in having
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a hundred people join together to say a prayer in unison. What mattered
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was the knowledge that the deceased was not alone, that hundreds of
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people were connected to them, and to each other. For a few years,
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Raymond approached Solstice with this in mind – using it in part to
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explore small fragments of funeral ritual. Hopefully, one day, we’d have
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some words or deeds we could share together, that felt right. But
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funerals are not the time to experiment. It seems like the solution (if
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you want an epistemically sound culture with its own traditions) is to
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create new ritual in advance, and somehow make it already a part of your
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culture by the time someone dies. Among “cultural rationalists”, I’m not
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sure how much consensus there is. Some people identify with the far
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future. Others do not. Some people see death only to be fought with grim
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determination, never acceptance. For some, acceptance is necessary. I
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don’t know that there’s a final piece that can work for everyone, but
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the single best contender I know of is Eliezer’s Song of Dath Ilan:
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<em>Even if the stars should die in heaven</em> <em>Our sins can never
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be undone</em> <em>No single death will be forgiven</em> <em>When fades
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at last the last lit sun.</em> <em>Then in the cold and silent
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black</em> <em>As light and matter end</em> <em>We’ll have ourselves a
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last look back</em> <em>And toast an absent friend.</em></p>
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<a href=https://github.com/SecularSolstice/SecularSolstice.github.io/edit/master/speeches/Funeral_Ritual.md class=editbutton>edit</a>
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‎speeches/gen/How_Can_I_Help.html‎

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</div>
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<h1 id="how-can-i-help">How Can I Help?</h1>
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<h2 id="by-skyler-crossman">By Skyler Crossman</h2>
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<p>My grandfather died a few years ago.</p>
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<p>His passing was not unexpected, and not dramatic. Gradually worsening
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circulatory issues had plagued him for years. He’d had a Do Not
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Resuscitate order for a while, and while he was walking under his own
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power the month before, he’d been quietly making sure everything was in
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order for what felt like a long time.</p>
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<p>There are two things I want to tell you about him tonight, about what
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kind of person he was.</p>
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<p>Here’s one. My father was, as far as we can tell, the last person to
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have a conversation with my grandfather. Grandpa had been in bed,
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receiving gentle assistance breathing and turning himself for at least a
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couple of days, when my dad walked in to sit with him a while. The first
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thing Grandpa said when dad entered was “How can I help you?”</p>
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<p>When my father related this to the rest of the family, none of us
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were at all surprised. We had all heard those words countless times from
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him. The first thing he would do when meeting someone new was to see how
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he could make things better, and the most important question he would
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have after seeing an old acquaintance was to find out if they could use
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a hand.</p>
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<p>Here’s the other. My grandfather was a devout Christian, and
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sincerely believed in the rapture. There would come a day when the son
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of God would come again, and the work of the world would be ended. We
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talked about the bible a lot- not so much that I wouldn’t love to talk
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with him again, on that or any subject- and towards the end of his life
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the rapture came up more often. Even when I was a child though, I always
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got the impression that he believed it would come in his lifetime. This
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wasn’t something he thought might happen eventually, or a metaphor, but
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something he expected to see with his own eyes.</p>
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<p>I wondered what that would be like, each year it didn’t happen being
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some small evidence that it wouldn’t happen, but not enough to shake
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ones faith that it would. Then again, I did sometimes sit with him and
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watch the news, and listened as he pointed out the mounting evidence
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that the end of the world was growing sooner, not less likely. Maybe, at
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the end, he thought he would see it if he just held on for another
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day.</p>
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<p>Another hour.</p>
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<p>Five more minutes?</p>
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<p>Since we’re all standing here, I guess you know it didn’t come in
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time.</p>
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<p>So uh, I can’t help but draw a connection here. I’m increasingly sure
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Artificial Intelligence is going to wind up eating the world at some
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point, that the child of mankind is going to be some strange arrangement
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of math and electrons which will remake the world into something I might
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not recognize. I don’t watch the news, but recent announcements and
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research papers make me think the end of the world is growing sooner,
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not less likely. I do expect to see this in my lifetime.</p>
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<p>Here’s something I learned from Grandpa. This is how to wait for the
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end of the world; you look people in the eye, and you ask</p>
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<p>“How can I help?”</p>
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<a href=https://github.com/SecularSolstice/SecularSolstice.github.io/edit/master/speeches/How_Can_I_Help.md class=editbutton>edit</a>
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‎speeches/gen/Intro_Boston_2024.html‎

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</div>
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<h1 id="intro-boston-2024">Intro (Boston, 2024)</h1>
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<p>Hello!</p>
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<p>Welcome to Winter Solstice. We are gathered here tonight on the
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longest night of the year, and most importantly NOT DEAD YET.</p>
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<p>Some of you might have been coming here for years. Some of you might
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be here for the very first time. All of you are welcome. Those of you
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who have been to these before, please shout out what number Solstice
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this is for you. </p>
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<p>…</p>
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<p>And those of you who haven’t, please shout “What’s going on?”</p>
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<p>…</p>
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<p>I’m so glad you asked. I’m going to be unusually overt about what
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we’re doing.</p>
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<p>Holidays and traditions are, among other things, a way to feel a
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sense of camaraderie with one another. It helps make friends, and if
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you’re persistent about doing them regularly, it helps feel like you’re
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a part of a larger community. </p>
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<p>The first step of Solstice was about fourteen billion years ago,
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which is the current estimate for the origin of the universe. Really,
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that’s the first step of anything if you think about it. The second step
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of Solstice was about four and a half billion years ago, which is about
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when the earth formed in its orbit and would begin to have a point when
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parts of its surface were tilted away from the sun more often, creating
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shorter days and longer nights. The third step of Solstice was around
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twelve thousand years ago, which is our current best guess for when
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religion became a feature of human society. We started telling stories
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about why it was that things got dark, and cold, and hard. We started
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traditions.</p>
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<p>Our stories were wrong. But in the telling of those stories, we
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bonded with each other. That bond was good and valuable thing, and those
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stories weren’t utterly and completely wrong; it really did get colder
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for a while, then warmer. As well as being persistence hunters, humans
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turn out to be really persistent about forming bonds with each other too
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so tonight we’re here to carry on a pattern that’s older than writing.
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We are gathered here as a community to mark the longest night of the
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year with a ritual that upholds our values.</p>
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<p>It’s also fun. I’m here because I enjoy it. I hope you do too.</p>
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<p>I only want to gently nudge you towards thinking of yourself as one
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of us. Such things shouldn’t be rushed. Eventually you will know whether
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you are or not.</p>
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<p>But I do want you to feel welcome. Even if you’re confused. We’re all
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confused, one way or another.</p>
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<p>And I do want you to be a part of things tonight. Tonight isn’t about
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those of us on stage doing things to you or for you. It’s about everyone
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in this room doing things together. We’re going to have music tonight,
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but the music is for all of us to sing along with together. We’ll have
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speeches, but the speakers are members of the community who volunteered
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when I asked.</p>
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<p>I keep saying the word “community” like it’s something weighty. Some
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of us have known each other for a decade, some of us just show up for
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the board game nights. There are serious, long-term efforts to make the
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world a lastingly better place, and also I found these people because of
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some funny Harry Potter fanfiction on the internet. We contain
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multitudes.</p>
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<p>Speaking of the Harry Potter thing- some of you are going to pick up
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on a particular theme that many of the speeches and songs will touch on
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tonight. It’s an appreciation for hard work and loyal friendship. I’m
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not going to badger you too much with jokes about it- well, apart from
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that one pun- but I wanted you to have that frame in mind.</p>
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<p><em>“Clever kids in Ravenclaw, evil kids in Slytherin, wannabe heroes
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in Gryffindor, and everyone who does the actual work in
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Hufflepuff.”</em></p>
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<ul>
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<li>Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Chapter 9</li>
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</ul>
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<p>That’s enough introduction for now. On with the ritual. Stepping up
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the seriousness one small notch.</p>
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‎speeches/gen/It_Is_A_Common_Misperception.html‎

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<h1 id="it-is-a-common-misperception">It Is A Common Misperception</h1>
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<h2 id="by-eliezer-yudkosky">by Eliezer Yudkosky</h2>
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<p>It is a common misconception that the best rationalists are Sorted
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into Ravenclaw, leaving none for other Houses. This is not so; being
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Sorted into Ravenclaw indicates that your strongest virtue is curiosity,
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wondering and desiring to know the true answer. And this is not the only
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virtue a rationalist needs. Sometimes you have to work hard on a
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problem, and stick to it for a while.</p>
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<a href=https://github.com/SecularSolstice/SecularSolstice.github.io/edit/master/speeches/It_Is_A_Common_Misperception.md class=editbutton>edit</a>
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