The independent Scott Alexander archive
Essays, arguments, and unexpected connections. An independent archive of Slate Star Codex, Astral Codex Ten, and LessWrong.
Scott summarizes diverse perspectives from comments on his school choice article, covering topics like education costs, charter schools, and potential market failures in education.
Scott Alexander critiques arguments against school vouchers, discussing potential efficiency gains and drawbacks of privatization in education, while proposing experimental approaches to school reform.
A study on expert prediction of behavioral economics experiments finds that experts have only a slight advantage over non-experts, suggesting that a separate 'rationality' skill may be more important than specific expertise.
Scott Alexander analyzes a photo of Alois Alzheimer's research team, discussing the reasons for their scientific productivity and theorizing about patterns of scientific progress.
Scott Alexander argues that accusations of Trump being an 'openly white supremacist' candidate are exaggerated and harmful, and calls for more measured criticism of Trump's actual flaws.
Scott Alexander reviews 'House of God', a satirical novel about medical internship that exposed systemic issues in healthcare and influenced real-world changes.
Scott Alexander argues that the 2016 US election outcome shouldn't drastically change our understanding of politics, given how close the race is.
Scott Alexander examines a pseudoscientific claim about the Great Pyramid of Giza to illustrate how coincidences can appear more significant than they are, relating this to challenges in evaluating scientific studies.
Scott Alexander shares a collection of interesting links and studies on various topics, including scientific research, cultural observations, and current events, with brief commentary on each.
Scott Alexander examines how recent AI progress in neural networks might challenge the Bostromian paradigm of AI risk, exploring potential implications for AI goal alignment and motivation systems.
Scott Alexander's experiment tested how different essays affect people's concerns about AI risk, finding a modest but persistent increase in concern after reading.
Scott examines conflicting evidence on whether humans choose mates based on parental imprinting or genetics, concluding that mate choice might be based on mysterious romantic love.
Scott Alexander requests participants of last month's AI persuasion experiment survey to complete a brief followup survey, providing a link.
Scott presents a series of short stories, each concluding with a pun-based moral, demonstrating his wit and love for wordplay.
The post presents challenging hypothetical debate questions for presidential candidates, addressing controversial aspects of their platforms or backgrounds.
Scott Alexander examines a theory linking autism and schizophrenia to human self-domestication, initially dismissing it before reconsidering its merits in light of Williams Syndrome.
Scott shares various interesting news items and studies spanning history, science, politics, and technology, with commentary on each item's significance or irony.
Scott Alexander argues that, contrary to his reputation as an isolationist, Trump's statements suggest he may be more likely to engage in military interventions than Clinton, who represents a more predictable foreign policy approach.
Scott Alexander endorses Clinton (or Johnson/Stein in safe states) over Trump, citing concerns about Trump's unpredictability and potential negative impacts on conservatism and social dynamics.
Scott Alexander is running an experiment to test the effectiveness of persuasive essays about AI risk, asking readers to participate by reading an essay and answering questions.
Scott explains why superintelligent AI poses serious risks, how a 'fast takeoff' could leave insufficient time to solve safety problems, and why even simple-sounding goals could lead to catastrophic outcomes without proper alignment research.
A links post featuring stories about AI research, scientific studies, historical oddities, and current events, ranging from antibacterials in soap to disco riots at baseball games.
Scott criticizes a NYT article on sugar industry influence, arguing that such bias is common across food industries and doesn't justify completely reversing nutritional advice.
The post explores how Bayesian processes in the brain might explain perception and various mental disorders, linking neurotransmitters to different aspects of Bayesian reasoning.
Scott argues against Vox's proposal for drug price controls, citing studies that such policies would significantly reduce pharmaceutical innovation and potentially cost millions of life-years long-term.
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