The independent Scott Alexander archive
Essays, arguments, and unexpected connections. An independent archive of Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten, and LessWrong.
Scott Alexander summarizes and responds to comments on his review of 'What We Owe The Future', addressing debates around population ethics, longtermism, and moral philosophy.
Scott Alexander defends Effective Altruism by presenting it as a 'tower of assumptions,' arguing that critics often miss its core principles of systematic giving and maximizing impact.
Scott Alexander reviews Will MacAskill's 'What We Owe The Future', a book arguing for longtermism and considering our moral obligations to future generations.
Scott Alexander discusses reader comments on his cyclic theory of subcultures, addressing critiques and expanding on the model's applications and limitations.
A review of Ray Huang's '1587, A Year of No Significance', examining the decline of the Ming dynasty through the lens of an apparently uneventful year.
Scott Alexander examines why skills plateau, proposing decay and interference hypotheses to explain the phenomenon across various fields.
Scott Alexander examines the shutdown of PredictIt and its implications for the prediction market industry, while also highlighting new developments and forecasts in the field.
A review of 'God Emperor of Dune' by Frank Herbert, analyzing its themes of power, AI risk, and human evolution, while drawing parallels to modern concerns about artificial intelligence.
Scott Alexander investigates whether non-religious people are more prone to believing conspiracy theories, finding a U-shaped relationship between religiosity and skepticism.
Scott proposes a four-phase cyclic theory of subculture evolution, explaining their rise and fall without requiring sociopathic takeovers.
Scott examines why the AI safety community isn't more actively opposing AI development, exploring the complex dynamics between AI capabilities and safety efforts.
Anna Schaffner's 'Exhaustion: A History' traces explanations for chronic fatigue from ancient times to modern Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, showing how they reflect contemporary cultural and scientific ideas.
Scott Alexander examines the use of absurdity arguments, reflecting on his critique of Neom and offering strategies to balance absurdity heuristics with careful reasoning.
Scott Alexander argues that underpopulation concerns are overstated and likely irrelevant due to expected technological changes by 2100.
Scott Alexander examines several model city projects, including Saudi Arabia's Neom, criticizing its unrealistic plans and discussing other developments in crypto-friendly zones and floating cities.
A review of 'Viral' by Chan and Ridley explores competing hypotheses about COVID-19's origins, critiquing institutional responses and emphasizing ongoing uncertainty.
Scott Alexander presents a diverse collection of interesting links and news items from July, covering topics from linguistics and AI to politics and economics.
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his post about criticism of EA, addressing various points about scientific paradigms, types of criticism, and the ethics of evangelism.
Scott Alexander examines the Forer Effect, reframing common 'psychic' statements as insights about human nature and self-compassion tools.
Scott Alexander examines the Eliciting Latent Knowledge (ELK) problem in AI alignment and various proposed solutions.
A review of Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle', examining its critique of capitalism and mass media, and relating its ideas to modern issues.
Scott Alexander analyzes EA's approach to criticism, arguing that specific, targeted critiques are more valuable than vague, paradigmatic ones for driving real change.
Scott Alexander discusses the technical implementation details of impact markets for charity funding, exploring various options and challenges.
The review critiques Haidt's 'The Righteous Mind', praising its contributions while highlighting flaws in its moral foundations theory and political predictions.
Scott reviews a biography of John von Neumann, exploring the mathematician's life, genius, and views on existential risk from technology.
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