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Google Correlate does not imply Google Causation
Scott Alexander examines Google Correlate, finding it produces both obvious and nonsensical correlations, and explores its potential uses and limitations.
9 min read 1,267 words
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2,008 essaysSSC
GPT-2 As Step Toward General Intelligence
Scott Alexander explores GPT-2's unexpected capabilities and argues that it demonstrates the potential for AI to develop abilities beyond its explicit programming, challenging skepticism about AGI.
23 min read 3,491 words
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Ground Morality In Party Politics
Scott proposes adapting DW-Nominate, a political spectrum analysis tool, to study morality through real-life decisions, exploring its potential implications and limitations.
12 min read 1,803 words
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Growing Children For Bostrom’s Disneyland
Scott explores a dystopian future scenario of hyper-optimized economic productivity, speculating on the emergence of new patterns and forms of life from this 'economic soup'.
15 min read 2,254 words
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Growing Old
Scott reflects on turning thirty, using Byron's poem to explore the transition from youthful intensity and ambition to a more settled adult perspective.
21 min read 3,111 words
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Growth Mindset 3: A Pox On Growth Your Houses
The post deconstructs a growth mindset study, revealing that its positive claims in the abstract are not supported by the actual data, demonstrating the importance of critical analysis of scientific papers.
12 min read 1,709 words
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Growth Mindset 4: Growth Of Office
Scott Alexander responds to criticism of his growth mindset study analysis, acknowledging some errors while maintaining other criticisms.
29 min read 4,437 words
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[GUEST POST] The International Refugee Assistance Project
Elizabeth Van Nostrand explains how the International Refugee Assistance Project's (IRAP) ground-level work with refugees enabled a rapid response to Trump's immigration ban, highlighting the importance of maintaining emergency response capacity.
8 min read 1,099 words
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Guided By The Beauty Of Our Weapons
Scott Alexander argues that true logical debate, rarely attempted, could be more effective in changing minds than commonly believed, and is necessary for long-term progress in distinguishing truth from falsehood.
40 min read 6,166 words
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Guns And States
Scott Alexander examines the relationship between gun ownership and homicide rates, finding a likely causal link but noting it's not the main factor in the US's high murder rate.
32 min read 4,871 words
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Guns and States 2: Son of a Gun
Scott Alexander offers follow-up insights on his guns and states analysis, addressing cultural factors, rape correlations, replication issues, and the complexity of gun control debates.
7 min read 1,020 words
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Gupta On Enlightenment
Scott Alexander examines Vinay Gupta's ideas on enlightenment, comparing them with other sources and discussing the challenges of interpreting mystical experiences from a scientific viewpoint.
19 min read 2,909 words
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Guyenet On Motivation
Scott Alexander explores the motivational system as described in 'The Hungry Brain', connecting it to dopamine, willpower, and predictive processing theory.
13 min read 1,864 words
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Gwern’s AI-Generated Poetry
Scott Alexander examines AI-generated poetry produced by Gwern's GPT-2 model trained on classical poetry, highlighting its strengths and limitations.
16 min read 2,349 words
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Hansonian Optimism
Scott Alexander uses a king-and-viziers analogy to argue that people can be inherently good even when their actions seem selfish, and explores the nature of evil and human goodness.
8 min read 1,224 words
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Hardball Questions For The Next Debate
Scott Alexander presents satirical, absurdist 'hardball' questions for presidential candidates, blending their backgrounds with outlandish scenarios and philosophical puzzles.
20 min read 2,992 words
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Hardball Questions For The Next Debate (2020)
Scott Alexander presents satirical and absurd 'hardball questions' for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, showcasing clever wordplay and humorous connections.
7 min read 1,013 words
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Hasta La Victorians Siempre
Scott Alexander critiques a paper claiming superior Victorian health, finding issues with its key arguments while agreeing on some points about diet-linked disease increases.
24 min read 3,628 words
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He Kept Us Out Of War?
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.
17 min read 2,606 words
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HeartMath Considered Incoherent
Scott Alexander critically examines the Institute of HeartMath, exposing a mix of misused science and pseudoscience in their 'heart coherence' claims and practices.
35 min read 5,343 words
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Heuristics Work Until They Don’t
Scott Alexander warns against forming strong heuristics based on limited data, using examples from AI research, elections, and campaign strategies to illustrate the pitfalls of this approach.
7 min read 1,067 words
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Hidden Test Post
The post only contains the phrase 'Hidden test post' without any additional content.
1 min read 3 words
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Extremism In Thought Experiment Is No Vice
Scott Alexander defends the use of extreme thought experiments in moral philosophy, using Phil Robertson's controversial remarks as an example to explain their necessity and purpose.
15 min read 2,226 words
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Highlights From My Notes From A Forensic Psychiatry Conference Last Week
The post shares insights and anecdotes from a forensic psychiatry conference, covering topics like the insanity defense, criminal psychology, and death penalty cases.
9 min read 1,305 words
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Highlights From My Notes From Another Psychiatry Conference
Scott Alexander shares insights and critiques from a psychiatry conference, covering topics from medication prescribing rights to new monitoring technologies and research methodologies.
12 min read 1,782 words