rationalnewsletter

Issue #124

Genetics accounted for about half of the individual differences in the psychological response to the COVID-19 crisis. // assets.researchsquare.com

# Coronavirus

Covid 8/6: The Case of the Missing Data // Zvi, 20 min

RT-LAMP is the right way to scale diagnostic testing for the coronavirus // Kevin, 1 min

The Quantitative Reasoning Deficit // proshowersinger, 3 min

Which COVID-19 serology (antibody) test is best? // knite, 1 min

RFC: COVID-19 Statistical Guilt // Erhannis, 9 min

# Instrumental

Tools for keeping focused // benkuhn, 4 min Favorite

Is Wirecutter still good? // Benito, 1 min

Considerations on Cryonics // niplav, 28 min

Diagramming "Replacing Guilt," Part 1 // armatures, 2 min

How do you organise your reading? // brook, 1 min

# Epistemic

Unifying the Simulacra Definitions // Zvi, 15 min

Tearing down the Chesterton's Fence principle // AllAmericanBreakfast, 3 min

What are some low-information priors that you find practically useful for thinking about the world? // Linch, 1 min

Zen and Rationality: Don't Know Mind // gworley, 2 min

A sketch of 'Simulacra Levels and their Interactions' // Yoav Ravid, 1 min

# Ai

The Fusion Power Generator Scenario // johnswentworth, 3 min

Measuring hardware overhang // hippke, 5 min

Infinite Data/Compute Arguments in Alignment // johnswentworth, 2 min

Three mental images from thinking about AGI debate & corrigibility // steve2152, 5 min

is gpt-3 few-shot ready for real applications? // nostalgebraist, 11 min

# Anthropic

Craniofacial dystrophy: A possible syndrome relating malocclusion, sleep-disordered breathing, allergies, depression and a range of other diseases // ricardo-meneghin-filho, 26 min

Are Americans Becoming More Depressed? // calebo, 5 min

Why is aging research our primary attempt at immortality? // sd1, 1 min

# Decision theory

Property as Coordination Minimization // Vaniver, 5 min Favorite

My paper was signalling the whole time - Robin Hanson wins again // rockthecasbah, 3 min

Engineering Experience Through Score // ZorbaTHut, 4 min

Dissolving the "Is the Efficient Market Hypothesis Dead?" Question // Alexei, 8 min

When Gears Go Wrong // mr-hire, 7 min

# Math and cs

Sufficiently Advanced Language Models Can Do Reinforcement Learning // zachary-robertson, 8 min

How much is known about the "inference rules" of logical induction? // eigil-rischel, 1 min

# Community

What are examples of 'scientific' studies that contradict what you believe about yourself? // MathieuRoy

# Misc

What is filling the hole left by religion? // philip-dhingra, 3 min

A Hierarchy of Abstraction // lsusr, 1 min

Evaluating Opus // jkaufman, 2 min

Exploring Two-Level Visual Mnemonic Compression // armatures, 2 min

The Golden Age of Data // Collisteru, 4 min

# Podcasts

EP70 Art Brock & Fernanda Ibarra on Currencies // The Jim Rutt Show, 88 min

# Rational fiction

The Manual Economy // evan-huus, 5 min

# Videos of the week

OpenAI GPT-3 - Good At Almost Everything! ? // Two Minute Papers, 7 min