rationalnewsletter

Issue #105

Iceland massive testing shows that about half of those who catch Covid-19 do so with no or mild symptoms — suggesting that asymptomatic individuals contribute to the transmission of the disease in great numbers. // www.buzzfeed.com

# Coronavirus

Authorities and Amateurs // jkaufman, 3 min

History's Biggest Natural Experiment // jimrandomh, 1 min

mind viruses about body viruses // nostalgebraist, 12 min

What will the economic effects of a 3 week quarantine be? 3 months? // Elizabeth, 1 min

Loss of sense of smell as marker of COVID-19 infection // trseeker, 2 min

# Instrumental

What are the best online tools for meetups and meetings? // Raemon, 1 min

True Habits // ryqiem, 8 min

Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know // Scott Alexander, 18 min

# Epistemic

"No evidence" as a Valley of Bad Rationality // adamzerner, 2 min

Adding Up To Normality // orthonormal, 3 min

Are veterans more self-disciplined than non-veterans? // Matthew Barnett, 1 min

Solipsism is Underrated // scasper, 3 min

Occam's Guillotine // Hivewired, 1 min

# Ai

What are the most plausible "AI Safety warning shot" scenarios? // Daniel Kokotajlo, 1 min

AGI in a vulnerable world // AI Impacts, abergal, 1 min

Deconfusing Human Values Research Agenda v1 // G Gordon Worley III, 4 min

How important are MDPs for AGI (Safety)? // michaelcohen, 2 min

# Meta-ethics

Against Dog Ownership // Ben Pace, 4 min

# Decision theory

Price Gouging and Speculative Costs // jkaufman, 3 min

How Many Judges? // Robin Hanson, 2 min

# Math and cs

ODE to Joy: Insights from 'A First Course in Ordinary Differential Equations' // TurnTrout, 2 min

Programming: Cascading Failure chains // Donald Hobson, 2 min

3 Interview-like Algorithm Questions for Programmers // lsusr, 2 min

# Ea

When to Donate Masks? // jkaufman, 2 min

Is donating to AMF and malaria interventions the most cost-effective way to save lives from COVID-19? // warrenjordan, 2 min

Charity to help people get US stimulus payments? // skybrian, 1 min

# Community

LW Coronavirus Agenda Update 3/23 // Elizabeth, 2 min

LW Team Updates: Pandemic Edition (March 2020) // Ruby, 5 min

Reflections on a no content January 2020 experiment // Elo, 1 min

Beantown Stomp 2020 Retrospective // jkaufman, 8 min

What are examples of Rationalist posters or Rationalist poster ideas? // Mati_Roy, 1 min

# Misc

Tales From the Borderlands // Jacobian, 6 min

TikTok Recommendation Algorithm Optimizations // Xodarap, 8 min

Could we use current AI methods to understand dolphins? // Daniel Kokotajlo, 1 min

Bogus Exam Questions // Donald Hobson, 3 min

Pulse Oximetry & the Oxygen–Haemoglobin Dissociation Curve // leggi, 1 min

# Podcasts

107 – Talking to Even More Strangers // The Bayesian Conspiracy, 89 min

#194 — The New Future of Work // Waking up with Sam Harris, 104 min

# Videos of the week

Everybody Can Make DeepFakes Now! // Two Minute Papers, 6 min