The Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California, that hosts workshops on rationality and cognitive bias. It was founded in 2012 by Julia Galef, Anna Salamon, Michael Smith and Andrew Critch,[3] to improve participants' rationality using "a set of techniques from math and decision theory for forming your beliefs about the world as accurately as possible".[4] Its president since 2021 is Anna Salamon.[1]
CFAR's training draws upon fields such as psychology and behavioral economics in an effort to improve people's mental habits. Jennifer Kahn visited the group and described its strengths and flaws in the New York Times.[5] CFAR has conducted a survey of participants which indicates that workshops reduce neuroticism and increase perceived efficacy.[6]
A scholarship funded by the founder of Skype, Jaan Tallinn, has been used to send selected Estonian students to workshops held by the Center for Applied Rationality.[9]
"Zizians" and Sonoma County incident
On November 15, 2019, four people dressed in Guy Fawkes masks were arrested for allegedly barricading off a wooded retreat where CFAR was holding an event. According to police, the suspects were not cooperative and said things about their views on rationalism that the officers could not understand.[10] The protesters were members of a splinter group of the rationalist movement that became known as the "Zizians".[11] They alleged that CFAR's leader "discriminates against trans women", and accused CFAR of not "appreciably develop[ing] novel rationality/mental tech". Alleged members of the Zizians later became the suspects or persons of interest in an attempted murder in November 2022 and four murders in 2022 and 2025, including the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer in a shootout.[12] Two of the alleged Zizians also died violently in these incidents.
^ abKahn, Jennifer (January 14, 2016). "The Happiness Code". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on January 15, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2016.
^Ratliff, Evan (February 21, 2025). "The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians". Wired. Archived from the original on February 26, 2025. Retrieved February 26, 2025. They alleged that MIRI had "paid out blackmail (using donor funds)" to quash sexual misconduct accusations and that CFAR's leader "discriminates against trans women."...expressed outrage that MIRI's efforts to create human-friendly AI didn't seem to include other animals in the equation.
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