rationalnewsletter

Issue #107

The COVID-19 lockdown makes people spend more time in bed, report lower sleep quality, and experience time dilatation. // psyarxiv.com

# Coronavirus

On R0 // Zvi, 19 min

An alarm bell for the next pandemic // AllAmericanBreakfast, 8 min

COVID-19 response as XRisk intervention // tyleralterman, 5 min

Ways you can get sick without human contact // Connor_Flexman, 7 min

Hanson & Mowshowitz Debate: COVID-19 Variolation // Ben Pace, 96 min

# Instrumental

What Surprised Me About Entrepreneurship // lsusr, 6 min

Ethernet Is Worth It For Video Calls // jkaufman, 2 min

[U.S. Specific] Free money (~$5k-$30k) for Independent Contractors and grant recipients from U.S. government // elityre, habryka, 7 min

Self-priming // Connor_Flexman, 3 min

Seeking opinions on the pros and cons of various telepresence tools // mingyuan, 1 min

# Epistemic

How to evaluate (50%) predictions // Rafael Harth, 10 min Favorite

The One Mistake Rule // Zvi, 2 min

The Sandwich Argument // Chris_Leong, 1 min

The Value Is In the Tails // fylo, 1 min

Hydroxychloroquine: the day science stopped // Filipe Marchesini, 3 min

# Ai

Looking for AGI philosopher co-author on Draft Article: 'Optimising Peace to Constrain Risk of War from an Artificial Superintelligence' // JohnCDraper, 1 min

# Meta-ethics

Choosing the Zero Point // orthonormal, 3 min Favorite

Why I'm Not Vegan // jkaufman, 2 min

# Decision theory

An Orthodox Case Against Utility Functions // abramdemski, 10 min

Conflict vs. mistake in non-zero-sum games // Nisan, 2 min

An extra way to gain from multiverse-wide cooperation // Sublation, 2 min

# Community

Assessing Kurzweil's 1999 predictions for 2019 // Stuart_Armstrong, 1 min

Partying over Internet: Technological Aspects // Martin Sustrik, 5 min

Confessions of a Transhumanist: On Life in Known Space // Hivewired, 1 min

Mozilla Hubs Virtual Meetup 10:30 PDT, April 19th // Bjartur Tómas, 1 min

2019 Predictions: Calibration Results // Scott Alexander, 6 min

# Culture war

In Defense of Politics // ChristianKl, 8 min

# Misc

Transportation as a Constraint // johnswentworth, 7 min Favorite

Curiosity: A Greedy Feeling // AllAmericanBreakfast, 11 min

Life as metaphor for everything else. // Charlie Steiner, 5 min

Organizing a Group Buy of Flour // jkaufman, 2 min

Law school taught me nothing // ketchupduck, 8 min

# Podcasts

English summaries of German Covid-19 expert podcast // Chi Nguyen, 2 min

#196 — The Science of Happiness // Waking up with Sam Harris, 59 min

108 – Rudi Hoffman on How to Beat Death and Taxes // The Bayesian Conspiracy, 127 min

#195 — Social Cohesion is Everything // Waking up with Sam Harris, 68 min

# Videos of the week

This AI Makes "Audio Deepfakes" // Two Minute Papers, 5 min