Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023.

I’m Andrew Willsen, and this episode is part 2 of an extended conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Berkeley, California, in October of 2023. This meetup took place at Lighthaven, a beautiful events space and conference facility located in the heart of Berkeley. Thanks to Skyler for organizing the Meetup, and thank you to everyone at Lighthaven for their hospitality.

The first 35 minutes of this episode continues where episode 7 left off and you'll find the topics in the title of this episode. The second part is a dialogue with ACX Global Meetup Czar Skyler Crossman in which we discuss our experiences with ACX Meetups in 2023, the basics of running a Meetup, the quest to build "Meetup in a Box", and Skyler's other plans for 2024. Skyler was incredibly supportive of my efforts to facilitate the creation of this podcast, both in terms of being receptive to the idea of trying something new (rare) and by helping me communicate with other ACX organizers around the country. Thanks Skyler, really appreciate the help, and also a big thanks to everyone who helped this podcast exist. It's been a lot of fun, and I couldn't have done it without you.

Finally, the purpose of this podcast is to make ACX more discoverable for people who, for whatever reason, don't read long blog posts. I believe there are a large number of humans who don't read long blog posts and who, simultaneously, also want to be part of an ethical nerd community. Hopefully this podcast makes us easier to find.

Below are some links from the episode covering carbon footprints, the Culture novels, ethical cults, and one definition of "Grey Tribe". Below that are links to things I covered in the conclusion regarding the logistics of crowdsourcing an ACX podcast on a global scale. Thanks for tuning in.

Carbon Footprint Basics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint

The Culture Novels - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

Ethical Cult Checklist - https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5e74e8349194e2f76b9ffcd1/5e754938d25345a72291f0a3_Ethical%20Cult%20Checklist.pdf

Balaji and Grey tribe - https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/what-does-the-gray-tribe-want

Recording with Google Meet - Only available on a computer, but easy to set up before a meetup so that everyone can just log in on their own device.

Recording Audio on Discord - Discord is way better than Facebook (why are these our Schelling Points?)

Twitter / X Help Section - Look for the option on recording audio.

Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023.

I’m Andrew Willsen, and this episode is an extended conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Berkeley, California, in October of 2023. This meetup took place at Lighthaven, a beautiful events space and conference facility located in the heart of Berkeley. Thanks Skyler for organizing, and thank you to everyone at Lighthaven for their hospitality.

I don't know what to say about this episode, frankly. How you describe a conversation that covers so much ground? The participants were awesome, and thanks to one participant in particular for educating me about Kaifeng Jews. I'm a fan of people who propose novel and audacious plans , even if the logistics appear insurmountable.

Thanks, hope you enjoy.

Hello, and Welcome to ACX Everywhere 2023.

I’m Andrew Willsen, and this episode is conversation recorded at an ACX Everywhere Meetup in Houston, Texas, in October of 2023. The meetup was at Segundo Coffee Lab, which was awesome, local art everywhere, coffee, snacks, in a beautiful space with great AC.

I really appreciate the post-cynical optimism displayed by everyone in this episode, thanks Joe for organizing, and thanks to everyone who participated.

If you're new here, ACX stands for Astral Codex Ten, which is a rationalist blog written by Scott Alexander. Scott is a doctor on the US West Coast, and is currently working on new models for mental health care at Lorien Psychiatry.

I'm doing this podcast because it's hard to know what an ACX meetup is if you've never been to one, mostly because people don't believe you when you tell them about it. My hope is that these recordings will make it easier for people to discover ACX and to hopefully get a sense of whether or not ACX might be for them. And, just to make it more personal, if you want more high quality conversations in your life, ACX might be for you.

If you’re interested in attending an ACX Meetup in Fall of 2023, click here. You will find a list of over 170 meetups happening around the world in September and October of 2023, hopefully there is one near you.

Thanks for checking out these conversations, I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you are interested in hearing more conversations about ideas associated with Rationalism check out the podcast Rationally Speaking, with Julia Galef, it's great.

Cheers,

Andrew