The Lighthaven that I used to love

Lighthaven is a place dear to my heart. Like any living place, it has changed over the years. While many changes were positive, some were downgrades, some from the glory of it opening, some from a peak that might never be reached again.

Sometimes, I wander through the grounds, and I remember the Lighthaven which once was.

The bus Finnished its trip

In April 2025, Lighthaven hosted Vitalist Bay, an 8-week-long longevity event/pop up city. The organizers were very focused on residents having a healthy lifestyle there. To this end, they somehow managed to acquire a sauna bus and install it at Lighthaven. Yes, a sauna bus, a minibus transformed into a Finnish style wood powered sauna. I spent many evenings basking in its heat, before taking a cold shower on the parking lot (astroturfed for the occasion), only to get back into the sauna and repeat the cycle. The bus stayed on after Vitalist Bay. At LessOnline, I remember dearly a sauna run with my friend from Berlin, where the conversation moved to decision theory and ideal agents. Only at LessOnline can you talk of Solomonoff induction in a sauna, he noted fondly afterward. When I came back for Inkhaven, the bus was absent, moved to storage to free up parking space, never to see the light of day again.

Sisyphus could not bear to push the boulder further

In summer 2024, I was at Lighthaven for MATS. The most magical place at this time was the Sisyphus, an allegedly extremely expensive table, rescued from a failing rationalist program. Under its glass plate, a smooth metal ball would slowly make its way through the sand, slowly creating intricate patterns, under the soft colored light of the LEDs. It was a wonderful place to relax, to lose myself into following the movement of the ball, freed from all concerns. It had always been a finicky artifact, needing regular repair and troubleshooting. I’ve not seen it alive in months. I hope one day someone will take care of it and bring it back its warm hypnotic embrace.

The cathedral lays in ruins.

The Drethelin garden too lost some of its soul. Formerly, the Onion Ring of power was located all the way back, next to the wall of the compound. But, between it and the wall, was small cabin, so easy to miss, but oh so wonderful. Nestled at the far end of Lighthaven, the cathedral stood high. A veil masked the entrance, its internals only hinted at in the breeze. Inside, a chair and a desk, but not any desk, the one and only non-rectangular standing desk at Lighthaven. It looks like a former desk which had been gnawed by an ancient beast, a relic from a long past battle, kept here where it could still have a use, where its shape would perfectly complement the space. During LessOnline 2025, city inspection informed Lightcone that those structures were too close to the wall of the property and had to be moved. Eight people transported the cathedral to another spot in the garden, where it still lays to this day. Its walls are now laid bare without the Onion Ring. Nothing but a dark sheet of plywood. Its veil is gone. Inside is only cobwebs and the old desk, which devoid of seating and power, lies silently, waiting for its golden days to return.