Bay Rationality
The Bay Area rationalist community has an entry problem! Lots of listed groups are dead, the last centralized index disappeared, communication moved to private discord and slacks. This is bad, so we’re making a new index, hopefully up to date and as complete as we can!
Communication
Email Group: BayAreaLessWrong
Discord: Bay Area Rationalists
Local Meetup Groups
Taco Tuesday: by Austin Chen, founder emeritus of Manifold. Check his Manifold questions page for the next date!
North Oakland LessWrong Meetup: every Wednesday, hosted by @Czynski.
Thursday Dinners in Berkeley: Advertised on the Discord server and Google group, alternating between a few restaurants on the northwest side of UC campus.
Lighthaven Sequences Reading Group: Currently Tuesday, hosted by the Lighthaven team. They advertise on LessWrong.
Bay Area ACX Meetups: For the ACX everywhere meetups twice per year, and some other sporadic events.
The Bayesian Choir: Usually meets every other Sunday near North Oakland, and more often during the fall to rehearse for the Solstice. Choir Director and primary organizer is Blake Jones, and coordination happens on the linked Discord server. Official policy on new singers is “Anyone who can pitch-match is welcome.”, though joining tends to be suspended during the rehearsals for Solstice. See more detail on the introduction doc.
South Bay
David Friedman hosts irregular SSC/ACX meetups at his home in San Jose, tracked on a page of his personal website and typically also announced on the email group and Discord server. They are weekend events, starting early afternoon and running through dinner (provided) and into the evening. RSVPs are preferred for meal planning purposes.
Charles’ Sunday Roasts: Charles <Lastname> has recently begun to host monthly meetups in Sunnyvale on the first Sunday afternoon of the month. They are announced on Discord and he can be reached by email. RSVPs are necessary.
Housing
To find spots in group houses, temporary or long term, you can use the Bay Area EA/Rationality Housing Board. The EA Houses spreadsheet also has some entries in the Bay.
It probably works best to ask people in the Bay if they know of housing opportunities, as lots of housing is provided peer-to-peer.
EA
If you want to discover the EA community, the EA’s Guide to Berkeley and The Bay Area and the SF Bay Area EA website are great resources. They both have more links to local groups and other resources, and you can register to the email newsletter.
Events sometimes get advertised on those websites:
SF Bay Area EA event calendar on Luma
East Bay EA Hangout on Facebook
AI Safety
There are two AI safety coworking spaces in Berkeley. They sometime accept visitors, so you can try reaching out or applying via their website:
Most AI Safety events don’t get advertised publicly, so get in contact with people in the community to know what’s happening.
Last Updated: 2024-09-17
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