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MR Tries The Safe Uncertainty Fallacy
Scott Alexander critiques Tyler Cowen's use of the 'Safe Uncertainty Fallacy' in discussing AI risk, arguing that uncertainty doesn't justify complacency.
14 min read 2,052 words
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2,007 essaysACX
Crime As Proxy For Disorder
Scott examines whether reported increases in "crime" actually reflect concerns about "disorder" (litter, graffiti, shoplifting, homelessness, tent encampments), finding that most disorder metrics are either stable or down from historical highs, contradicting narratives of societal collapse.
19 min read 2,874 words
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Movie Review: Don't Look Up
Scott Alexander reviews 'Don't Look Up', critiquing its contradictory narratives about trusting science and experts vs. outsiders.
22 min read 3,400 words
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Preliminary Thoughts On The Midjourney Scanner
Scott explains why Midjourney's new ultrasound tomography scanner, despite being technologically interesting, faces major medical limitations and is unlikely to replace existing imaging methods or enable useful whole-body screening without significant future AI improvements.
26 min read 4,009 words
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Why Should Intelligence Be Related To Neuron Count?
Scott investigates the correlation between intelligence and neuron count, exploring various theories before suggesting that more neurons allow for less polysemantic (overlapping) representations of concepts.
10 min read 1,533 words
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Book Review: From Oversight To Overkill
Scott Alexander reviews a book critiquing Institutional Review Boards, arguing they now harm medical research more than they help.
38 min read 5,765 words
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Secrets Of The Great Families
Scott Alexander examines why certain families produce multiple generations of high achievers, exploring genetic, environmental, and psychological factors.
28 min read 4,297 words
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Highlights From The Discourse On The Hugging Face Incident
Scott analyzes reactions to the Hugging Face incident and celebrates a major open letter from AI lab employees calling for coordinated slowdowns, which he sees as significantly improving humanity's chances of surviving AI development.
45 min read 6,868 words
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Links For December 2025
Scott's monthly roundup of interesting links covering AI policy developments, technology news, cultural observations, and scientific research from December 2025.
51 min read 7,822 words
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Use AI This Election
Scott uses Claude AI to help research California primary races and finds its tailored candidate analyses and recommendations align well with his eventual voting choices, suggesting AI advisors could improve democratic participation.
22 min read 3,392 words
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Book Review: The Others Within Us
Scott Alexander reviews a book on Internal Family Systems therapy that controversially claims some mental health issues are caused by literal demons.
49 min read 7,470 words
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Effective Altruism As A Tower Of Assumptions
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.
9 min read 1,259 words
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Is There An Illusion Of Moral Decline?
Scott Alexander critiques a study claiming an illusion of moral decline, pointing out methodological flaws and suggesting alternative explanations for the perception of declining morality.
22 min read 3,354 words
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The Apologist and the Revolutionary
Scott explains Ramachandran's theory that anosognosia and split-brain confabulation reflect a left-brain 'apologist' and a right-brain 'revolutionary' whose balance governs our ability to change our minds.
11 min read 1,618 words
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Book Review: Sadly, Porn
Scott Alexander reviews the obscure psychoanalytic book 'Sadly, Porn', attempting to decipher its core ideas about human psychology and society.
79 min read 12,094 words
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Your Book Review: Breakdown In Pakistan
This review of Masooda Bano's 'Breakdown in Pakistan' examines how Western aid systematically destroys the capacity of local voluntary organizations to mobilize collective action, replacing diverse community-driven institutions with professionalized NGOs dependent on foreign funding.
49 min read 7,544 words
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Here's Why Automaticity Is Real Actually
Scott Alexander defends the concept of automaticity in psychology, arguing that core cognitive biases and priming effects are real, while acknowledging some claims have been overstated.
23 min read 3,462 words
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Moments Of Awakening
Scott explores various accounts of people's first memories and moments of consciousness, particularly focusing on claims of sudden 'awakening' experiences, and discusses what this might tell us about the nature of consciousness.
15 min read 2,188 words
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Contra Kriss On Nerds And Hipsters
Scott Alexander critiques Sam Kriss's analysis of nerds and hipsters, offering an alternative theory about identity investment in cultural products.
11 min read 1,646 words
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From Nostradamus To Fukuyama
Scott Alexander examines how public predictions are judged over time, using examples like Nostradamus and Fukuyama to illustrate common pitfalls and offer advice on making predictions.
27 min read 4,045 words
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Three Model Organisms For Taste
Scott examines three "model organisms" for understanding aesthetic taste: vexillology (flag design), movie plot holes, and tech company naming, using each to explore different aspects of what makes something tasteful or tasteless.
14 min read 2,142 words
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Why Match School And Student Rank?
Scott Alexander explores various explanations for why top students attend the best colleges, including optimistic views about maximizing potential and cynical views about signaling and 'privilege laundering'.
8 min read 1,124 words
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Links For April 2026
Scott Alexander's April 2026 links roundup covers diverse topics including Venn diagram complexity, flag desecration laws, AI developments, political analysis, scientific studies, and various cultural curiosities.
53 min read 8,070 words
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In Defense Of The Amyloid Hypothesis
A guest post defending the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease, explaining why amyloid is likely the root cause despite recent criticism and discussing why early treatments have only been partially effective.
70 min read 10,813 words
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The Pledge
Scott argues that taking the Giving What We Can Pledge to donate a fixed percentage of income is the single most impactful decision most people can make, eliminating donation stress while maximizing charitable impact.
8 min read 1,182 words