The independent Scott Alexander archive
Essays, arguments, and unexpected connections. An independent archive of Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten, and LessWrong.
Scott Alexander critiques therapy books, highlighting their exaggerated claims and questioning the validity of their approaches, based on his clinical experience and historical misdiagnoses in psychology.
Scott Alexander uses three fictional stories to illustrate principles of non-empirical scientific reasoning, ultimately applying them to support the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Scott Alexander examines the paradoxical relationship between autism and intelligence, discussing genetic and environmental factors, and proposing explanatory models for the observed lower IQ in autistic individuals despite genetic links to higher intelligence.
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Body Keeps The Score', a book on PTSD, praising its historical context but criticizing its outdated science and uncritical embrace of alternative therapies.
Scott Alexander argues that non-empirical reasoning, based on principles like simplicity and elegance, is a necessary and legitimate part of scientific practice, even for evaluating seemingly untestable theories.
Scott Alexander examines the rise and fall of New Atheism, arguing it was replaced by social justice as the dominant online 'hamartiology' explaining society's problems.
Scott Alexander critiques an NYT article on the weakness of financial incentives, arguing that they remain crucial as a counterweight to powerful social incentives.
Scott Alexander examines skeptical and supportive comments on claims of enlightenment, arguing that evidence for such states is comparable to other accepted mental phenomena.
The post critically examines the impact of India's 1991 economic reforms, suggesting that the country's economic growth began earlier and that the causes are more complex than commonly believed.
Scott Alexander reviews a study on 'enlightenment', finding it involves internal changes in self-perception and cognition, often without noticeable external effects.
Scott Alexander examines the compatibility of enlightenment with sex scandals, using recent Buddhist teacher scandals as a starting point for broader questions about consciousness and social conditioning.
Scott Alexander reviews 'Against The Grain', which argues that early grain agriculture and state formation were detrimental to human welfare and mainly benefited emerging state powers.
A diverse collection of links on topics ranging from gerrymandering and health insurance to tech bubbles and extinction risk estimates, presented with minimal commentary.
Scott Alexander compares political spending to the almond industry, revealing surprisingly low amounts in politics due to coordination problems.
Scott Alexander argues that pseudoaddiction is a real and important concept, despite being widely denounced as pharma propaganda in the context of the opioid crisis.
Scott Alexander investigates the prevalence of Hallucinogen Persisting Perceptual Disorder (HPPD) and explores potential connections between perception, cognition, and belief in supernatural phenomena.
Scott reviews a paper proposing that psychedelics work by relaxing priors in the brain, potentially treating mental illness but also risking side effects.
Scott Alexander partially retracts and corrects his previous findings on age gaps and birth order effects after errors were identified in his analysis.
Less Wrong is hosting a party in Berkeley for Bay Area SSC readers, with Scott Alexander and the Less Wrong team attending.
Scott Alexander shares and comments on passages from Peter Turchin's 'Ages of Discord', exploring historical cycles of unity and polarization in American society.
Scott reviews 'Ages of Discord', which applies cyclic theories of civilizational rise and fall to modern America, finding the data interesting but the core theory questionable.
Scott reviews 'Reframing Superintelligence' by Eric Drexler, which proposes future AI as specialized services rather than general agents, contrasting with Nick Bostrom's scenarios.
Scott Alexander argues against the fear of angering simulators by testing if we're in a simulation, stating that competent simulators would prevent discovery or expect such tests as part of civilizational development.
Scott Alexander explores a theory suggesting that complex features of human biology evolved as defenses against parasite manipulation, discussing its implications for understanding psychiatric medications and biological complexity.
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