This used to be hosted on a wiki, but I moved it here.
This is my directory of interesting people and sources. It's a personal project to get me to look into what's in the online (esp. intellectual and artistic) world.
My interests tend to be in religion and altruism and adjacent topics like art, philosophy, development, the developing world, and cultures.
I avoid social media and paywalled sources. (Social media = Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and things that work like them, like Mastodon. But forums are OK.) In part, this directory is for people who want to avoid social media.
One criterion as I start is "low-hanging fruit" -- which sources will help broaden your perspective the most within the space of a social scene or ideology? There are worthy sources that are still not low-hanging fruit. But if I have time, I'll look into them.
My categorizations are based on my natural reactions to what I encounter and not on rigorous thinking, comparing, taxonomy.
Here is a motivating thought for this directory:
The "Long Reflection" is a term from Effective Altruism. They want to do the most good, but how do we know what "good" really is? We need to have the right values. But how can we know that? By thinking for a long time (10,000 years?). EAs have thought that this should happen after we secure our physical well-being (prevent "X-risks"). But some people say "No, we should start the Long Reflection now".
The Long Reflection is an obvious point at which EA could articulate with the humanities (or any other inputs to culture, like "ordinary people not on the Internet"). I think current EA thinking is more "we should have the best moral philosophy i.e. analytic philosophy about what's moral", but I think that it makes more sense to consider all facets of culture. EA could be seen as a bridge between STEM, government, charity entrepreneurship, (current emphases), and "whatever relates to 'doing the most good'"
Another motivating thought:
How has culture changed over time? Has anything been lost? What has been gained? Is it possible to intentionally change culture? To what extent is it possible to bring back what is good from the past?
Earnest, world-saving, creative, lean utilitarian, futurist, lean technophilic, rationalist, science, lean atheist
* Scott Alexander (old blog: https://slatestarcodex.com/, new Substack: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/) -- Alexander is a popularizer of EA and rationalist thinking, "greatest hits" often about culture
* Effective Altruism Forum (https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/) -- central place for longer-form effective altruism writing and community discussion
* EA for Christians (https://www.eaforchristians.org/) -- Christian EA group that has been recognized on main EA forum.
* R. W. Richey (writer of the substack We Are Not Saved - https://wearenotsaved.com) -- influenced by and sometimes fan of EA/Rationalist writing, but criticizes from a pro-religion, pro-tradition, Nassim Nicholas Taleb-fan, pessimistic ("secular eschatology -- how things end"), risk management perspective
* James Banks (me) (https://10v24.net, https://formulalessness.blogspot.com) -- Not sure how to talk about my own writing, but it's definitely influenced by EA and is critical of it in some ways
* "effective accelerationism" -- (e/acc). Something like "advancement of technology to a potentially post-human future is inevitable and desirable, accelerate it and don't fight it" (but guide it somehow?) One (as of Oct 2023) sparse, but (seemingly) important source:
** Beff Jezos (https://beff.substack.com/)
* Post-rationalists -- (don't know of non-social media sources yet). Influenced by rationalist community, perhaps former members, now have turned against it in some sense?
* David Chapman (https://meaningness.com/) -- somehow there is neither meaning nor lack of meaning?
(Not sure I've looked at this much in 2022 or 2023, so this could be out of date, maybe.)
(Generally, or some combination of the following:) Critique of modernity (regenerative agriculture, pro-tradition, pro-old books, pro-family, sometimes anti-liberal, anti-individualism / pro-community, against some technologies and technology as a dehumanizing thing), political theology, socially conservative, fiscally liberal (in the "generous" rather than "minarchist" sense), high church, academia, aesthetics, establishedness, "pro-life" (anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia, pro-disabled, I guess anti-capital punishment though I don't remember that specifically)
* Plough (online and print magazine: https://www.plough.com, https://www.plough.com/en/podcast ).
* Mere Orthodoxy (set of blogs: https://mereorthodoxy.com) / Mere Fidelity (podcast https://merefidelity.com)
* Matthew Hartke (https://mlhartke.wordpress.com, https://www.youtube.com/@MatthewHartke) -- ex-Christian (ex-Charismatic) interested in failed prophecy
* Willa Cather's novel The Song of the Lark (I have read) -- is largely about ambition (relevant to "decline of the West"?) What did ambition look like in late 1800s, early 1900s, when the book was set?
* We Are Not Saved (https://wearenotsaved.com/) has both post-liberal and progress studies relevance
* An introduction to the post-rationalists from an outsider: https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/rational-magic
If the Long Reflection organizes this directory, then what about: non-Christian religious intellectual scenes? (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Sikh, Jain, Mormon if that's not Christian, indigenous religions, "spiritual but not religious")? (We Are Not Saved is by a Mormon with some discussion of distinctly Mormon doctrines, IIRC.)
What about less-Catholic Christian intellectuals, or those otherwise not represented by the "Christian Humanist"/etc. scene? (Baptists, Reformed, Orthodox, Mormon?)
Other articulations between religion and futurism? (The Christian Transhumanist Association?)
What about non-intellectuals who still say things (make things) online that are relevant to truth or culture?
What about other forms of post-liberalism? Or other political ideologies (which function sort of like religions)?
What about cultures in the developing world? (As an emphasis in the above, or to catch what falls through the cracks.)
If anyone reads this and has suggestions, let me know (email).
(last updated 21 January 2024)