rationalnewsletter

Issue #140

Researchers build an interactive, real-time, publicly available economic tracker with data from several private companies to measure COVID-19's impact on economic activity and analyze the effectiveness of macroeconomic policy decisions. // opportunityinsights.org

# Coronavirus

Covid 11/26: Thanksgiving // Zvi, 31 min

Why are young, healthy people eager to take the Covid-19 vaccine? // CheerfulWarrior, 1 min

Can we get people to shut up on public transportation? // ChristianKl, 1 min

How to think about wearing masks / distancing within the household? // Sameerishere, 1 min

The Pandemic Monkey Trap // Robin Hanson, 3 min

# Instrumental

Pain is not the unit of Effort // alkjash, 5 min Favorite

Pain is the unit of Effort // lsusr, 4 min

Final Version Perfected: An Underused Execution Algorithm // willbradshaw, 8 min

Small Habits Shape Identity: How I became someone who exercises // adamShimi, 4 min

Success Buys Freedom // lsusr, 7 min

# Epistemic

Learning How to Learn (And 20+ Studies) // maxa, 7 min

The Exploitability/Explainability Frontier // ike, 1 min

Learning from counterfactuals // Gyrodiot, 2 min

# Ai

Commentary on AGI Safety from First Principles // ricraz, 68 min

The next AI winter will be due to energy costs // hippke, 2 min

Continuing the takeoffs debate // ricraz, 11 min

Critiques of the Agent Foundations agenda? // Jsevillamol, 1 min

Delegated agents in practice: How companies might end up selling AI services that act on behalf of consumers and coalitions, and what this implies for safety research // remmelt-ellen, 4 min

# Meta-ethics

Notes on Good Temper // David_Gross, 8 min

Notes on Endurance // David_Gross, 5 min

Notes on Ambition // David_Gross, 7 min

Notes on Benevolence (being “less bad”) // David_Gross, 10 min

Competitive Ethics // milan-cvitkovic, 4 min

# Anthropic

Snyder-Beattie, Sandberg, Drexler & Bonsall (2020): The Timing of Evolutionary Transitions Suggests Intelligent Life Is Rare // Kaj_Sotala, 2 min

Hyperbaric Hyperbole // Josh Mitteldorf, 8 min

# Decision theory

It’s not economically inefficient for a UBI to reduce recipient’s employment // paulfchristiano, 5 min

One small step until Contingentative Capitocracy. // troy-macedon, 4 min

# Math and cs

Convolution as smoothing // maxwell-peterson, 3 min

Squiggle: Technical Overview // ozziegooen, 11 min

# Books

Evading Mind Control // lsusr, 3 min

My intellectual influences // ricraz, 3 min

# Ea

Theory Of Change As A Hypothesis: Choosing A High-Impact Path When You’re Uncertain // lynettebye, 3 min

# Relationships

Straight-edge Warning Against Physical Intimacy // Raphaëll, 6 min

# Community

Manifesto of the Silent Minority // lsusr, 2 min

Retrospective: November 10-day virtual meditation retreat // Kaj_Sotala, 9 min

Prize: Interesting Examples of Evaluations // pktechgirl, 2 min

Survey of Deviant Ideas // lsusr, 1 min

# Culture war

Who Wants Social Insurance? // Robin Hanson, 2 min

# Misc

Deconstructing 321 Voting // abramdemski, 7 min

Is this a good way to bet on short timelines? // daniel-kokotajlo, 1 min

Demystifying the Second Law of Thermodynamics // eigil-rischel, 7 min

Nash Score for Voting Techniques // abramdemski, 7 min

Using false but instrumentally rational beliefs for your career? // rockthecasbah, 1 min

# Podcasts

c21: A Short History of the Constellation // Constellation, 86 min

EP95 Alexander Bard on God in the Internet Age // The Jim Rutt Show, 99 min

Deaths of despair / Effective altruism (Angus Deaton) // Rationally Speaking, 64 min

# Rational fiction

Luna Lovegood and the Chamber of Secrets - Part 1 // lsusr, 4 min

Matryoshka Faraday Box // lsusr, 3 min

(Pseudo) Mathematical Realism Bad? // logan-zoellner, 2 min

# Videos of the week

Raj Chetty on the economic impacts of COVID-19: Real-time evidence from private sector data // Princeton Economics, 79 min