ACX
AI Art Turing Test
Scott Alexander announces an AI Art Turing Test with a link to a form, closing on 10/21, with results to be posted the following week.
1 min read 62 words
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2,008 essaysACX
I Won My Three Year AI Progress Bet In Three Months
Scott Alexander won his three-year bet on AI progress in image generation compositionality within three months, demonstrating unexpectedly rapid AI advancement.
10 min read 1,502 words
ACX
Your Book Review: The Outlier
A review of 'The Outlier' by Kai Bird, examining Jimmy Carter's life and presidency, highlighting his unconventional approach and mixed legacy.
42 min read 6,392 words
ACX
Declining Sperm Count: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Scott Alexander reviews the evidence for declining sperm counts, discussing major studies, criticisms, and potential causes, while remaining uncertain about the true extent and reasons for any decline.
31 min read 4,739 words
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Unpredictable Reward, Predictable Happiness
Scott examines two types of happiness - one affected by predictability and one that persists - through various examples and neuroscientific concepts.
23 min read 3,488 words
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Updates on Lumina Probiotic
Scott Alexander updates on Lumina probiotic, discussing FDA trials, effectiveness, potential risks, and his nuanced stance on the product.
12 min read 1,707 words
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Your Book Review: The Anti-Politics Machine
A review of 'The Anti-Politics Machine' by James Ferguson, discussing its critique of development projects and implications for Effective Altruism.
31 min read 4,689 words
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Book Review: The Scout Mindset
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Scout Mindset' by Julia Galef, a book on rationality that emphasizes seeking truth over defending beliefs and addresses both intellectual and emotional aspects of clear thinking.
35 min read 5,421 words
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Does Georgism Work? Part 1: Is Land Really A Big Deal?
Lars Doucet presents evidence that land is still a major economic factor in modern times, contrary to some economists' claims.
94 min read 14,488 words
LW
Bayes for Schizophrenics: Reasoning in Delusional Disorders
Scott examines neurological theories explaining delusions like Capgras syndrome through Bayesian reasoning, arguing that damage to the right prefrontal cortex causes patients to ignore priors and base their beliefs solely on explanatory adequacy.
22 min read 3,339 words
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Coronavirus: Links, Discussion, Open Thread
Scott Alexander analyzes the COVID-19 pandemic's progress, predicts future waves, and speculates on its long-term impact and transition to an endemic disease.
22 min read 3,287 words
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Jhanas and the Dark Room Problem
Scott explores the connection between the Dark Room Problem in neuroscience, meditative jhanas, and theories of beauty, suggesting that intense focus on regular stimuli can produce extreme bliss.
4 min read 606 words
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Verses Written On The Occasion Of Getting The COVID Vaccine
Scott Alexander writes a humorous poem about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, set to a Les Misérables tune, exploring lockdown frustrations and the complexities of returning to normalcy.
3 min read 456 words
LW
Doing your good deed for the day
A study shows people who do one good deed are less likely to do another soon after, suggesting moral behavior operates on a limited resource that gets depleted.
7 min read 1,071 words
LW
Defense Against The Dark Arts: Case Study #1
Scott identifies five logical fallacies in a popular anecdote about Steve Jobs rejecting Indian spirituality, arguing it succeeded through tribal appeal rather than logical merit, and uses it as a case study for why careful argument analysis must become automatic.
13 min read 1,992 words
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Book Review: Antifragile
Scott Alexander reviews Nassim Taleb's 'Antifragile', which explores the concept of benefiting from disorder across various domains and critiques modern attempts to reduce volatility.
36 min read 5,496 words
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No, Really, Why Are So Many Christians In Colombia Converting To Orthodox Judaism?
Scott Alexander examines the unusual trend of Colombian Christians converting to Orthodox Judaism, exploring various sociological and cultural explanations for this phenomenon.
23 min read 3,475 words
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Your Book Review: On The Natural Faculties
This review of Galen's 'On the Natural Faculties' challenges common misconceptions about the ancient physician, portraying him as more empirical and scientifically-minded than typically believed.
50 min read 7,731 words
LW
What Is Signaling, Really?
Scott defines signaling and explains how it works through examples ranging from college degrees to diamond necklaces, emphasizing both its necessity for conveying credible information and its potential for wasteful resource destruction.
13 min read 1,889 words
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Highlights From The Comments On The Substack Religion Debate
Scott defends his dismissal of the Substack religion debate against charges of hypocrisy and engages with technical objections about Kolmogorov complexity, arguing that 'mind without limits' isn't actually simple and that explaining multiple anomalies with God is like explaining Napoleon's success with aliens.
33 min read 4,980 words
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Your Book Review: How Children Fail
The review examines John Holt's 'How Children Fail', critiquing traditional education and suggesting modern alternatives to improve learning.
31 min read 4,733 words
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Critical Periods For Language: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Scott Alexander investigates the claim that children learn languages faster than adults, finding it partially true but more nuanced than commonly believed.
16 min read 2,373 words
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Links For February 2023
Scott Alexander presents a diverse collection of 49 links and brief commentaries on various topics, ranging from cultured meat to AI developments and current events.
40 min read 6,180 words
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Toward A Bayesian Theory Of Willpower
Scott Alexander proposes a Bayesian theory of willpower as a process of weighing evidence from different mental processes to determine actions.
13 min read 1,995 words
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Why Do Transgender People Report Hypermobile Joints?
Scott Alexander investigates the unexpectedly high prevalence of joint hypermobility in transgender individuals, exploring various theories and presenting survey data on the phenomenon.
14 min read 2,112 words