Matt Arnold @matt@penguicon.social

Found on the birdsite.
https://twitter.com/Tjdriii/status/1519675083895283712

I'm thinking late 2023. My next steps include:
- write the invitation emails so they're ready
- create an attendee survey
- shop venues
- apply to the next round of grants from Scott Alexander

What do you think?

Another type of session would be the Kaffeeklatsch. Attendees (10 or fewer, signed up in advance) have coffee & casual conversation together, with one of the weekend's guests of honor.

(Panels, roundtables, kaffeeklatsches, & the Q&A after solo talks, would all have moderators.)

In addition to whichever talks, panel discussions, or round-tables the guests of honor would be comfortable with, the weekend would have a "unconference" component, for the audience to gather in small breakout groups to discuss what they've heard.

Rather than debates, attendees can team up in Slate Star Codex-style "adversarial collaborations", where 2 people who disagree will prepare one unified talk on their best findings. I think attendees should vote to award a prize for the best one.

David asked me what the focus would be, and I said: A gathering of bloggers, their readers, & lay enthusiasts of the intellectual blogosphere, to talk about metamodernity, sense-making, and/or thinking-about-thinking.

All-volunteer not-for-profit fiction conventions have a model with a lot to offer in domains other than fiction publishing. Imagine if this conference were sponsored by, for example, Substack. Writers & bloggers could see it an in-person arm of their community outreach.

The more I think back to the dream, the more I want to run a conference with that guest list, or as close to it as we can get. I'm serious.

David Chapman is up for it. John Nerst said on Twitter this was the most flattering thing anyone ever said about it. I know someone who knows at least 2 others well enough to invite them.

Every few minutes one would have an epochal insight about the human condition, crack open their laptop, & blog silently while the rest chatted about the rain & the cafeteria. I performed "Hello Mudda, Hello Faddah, Here I Am At Camp Granada" and they laughed.

In the dream, I attempted to moderate an impromptu panel discussion, but they wouldn't improvise their thoughts out loud because it made them uncomfortable (...in the dream. I know 2 enough to know this is true, & I know EY well enough to know he's a good speaker, but for most, no idea.)

David Chapman (Meaningness), Scott Alexander (Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten), John Nerst (Everything Studies), Venkatesh Rao & Sarah Perry (Ribbonfarm), Edward Teach (The Last Psychiatrist), Gwern Branwen (gwern.net), Eliezer Yudkowsky (LessWrong), & both guys who are Hanzi Freinacht so he took up 2 bunks.

I've been invited to speak at the Rationalist Meetup Organizer Retreat in July in the SF bay area, all expenses paid. I'll bet I can recruit staff for a new conference I want to start.

It all started when I had a dream. In February, in the runup to attending Vibecamp in Austin TX, I had a dream that I was sharing a cabin at Vibecamp with my favorite bloggers.

Let's give a big penguicon.social welcome to @MagicG , @Mishatuesday , and @Configures !

Let's give a big penguicon.social welcome to @WolfBearWomvat @pkemner @Improvaloo @dougjon10 and @Colleen_RJ_Nora !

Let's give a big penguicon.social welcome to @JamesODell !

Let's give a big penguicon.social welcome to @Vaara !

This references David Chapman's essay on another site, "Ritual Vs Mentalism":

https://vividness.live/ritual-vs-mentalism

In the second part of this episode: "Fundamentalism Is Countercultural Modernism" - Fundamentalism is not traditional; it is a modern, countercultural movement, opposed to tradition and to post-modernity.

https://meaningness.com/fundamentalism-countercultural-modernism

In the first part of this episode: "Modern Mythologies" - The Religious Right and New Age Left both promoted time-distorting meta-myths—imaginary past golden ages and implausible future utopias—to hide their defects.

https://meaningness.com/counterculture-history-myths

On this episode of the Fluidity #audiobook #podcast: "Modern Mythologies - and - Fundamentalism Is Countercultural Modernism"

https://fluidity.libsyn.com/modern-mythologies-fundamentalism-is-countercultural-modernism

On this episode of the Fluidity #audiobook #podcast: "Rotating Politics 90 Degrees Clockwise"

In the 1960s-80s, American politics shifted from economic to sacredness issues. This damaged public discourse, but created a new two-track class system.

https://fluidity.libsyn.com/rotating-politics-90-degrees-clockwise