rationalnewsletter

Issue #149

COVID-19 warnings were on Twitter well before the outbreak of the pandemic: revealing concern for 'pneumonia' circulated very early, which suggests social media can be an effective tool for epidemiological surveillance. // www.eurekalert.org

# Coronavirus

Covid 1/28: Muddling Through // Zvi, 43 min

Tentative covid surface risk estimates // KatjaGrace, 2 min

Covid: Bill Gates and Vaccine Production // Zvi, 8 min

Covid Canada Jan25: low & slow // malcolmocean, 4 min

How likely is it that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a laboratory? // CTVKenney, 1 min

# Instrumental

Li’l pots // KatjaGrace, 5 min

Define Your Learning Goal: Competence Or Broad Knowledge // AllAmericanBreakfast, 4 min

Fight Akrasia and Decision Fatigue with DIY Productivity Software // DanB, 2 min

Non-Coercive Perfectionism // mr-hire, 3 min

Spaced Repetition Systems for Intuitions? // alex-ray, 1 min

# Epistemic

Simulacrum 3 As Stag-Hunt Strategy // johnswentworth, 4 min

Catching the Spark // BrienneYudkowsky, 43 min

Where numbers come from // eigil-rischel, 5 min

On clinging // joekc, 10 min

Confirmation Bias in Action // Jacobian, 16 min

# Ai

Wordtune review // KatjaGrace, 2 min

Optimal play in human-judged Debate usually won't answer your question // Joe_Collman, 15 min

Play with neural net // KatjaGrace, 1 min

Policy restrictions and Secret keeping AI // donald-hobson, 4 min

# Meta-ethics

Dumb Dichotomies in Ethics, Part 1: Intentions vs Consequences // aaronb50, 4 min

Notes on Judgment and Righteous Anger // David_Gross, 6 min

Is Immortality Ethical? // harsimony, 3 min

Notes on Forgiveness // David_Gross, 26 min

# Longevity

A study on air purifiers and birth weight // braces, 3 min

#4.1: Types of life insurance // mingyuan, 11 min

How is Cryo different from Pascal's Mugging? // evan-huus, 1 min

Reasons against anti-aging // mark-miro, 1 min

Universal Clock implies Universal Clockwork // Josh Mitteldorf, 10 min

# Anthropic

Dissolving Sleeping Beauty // Chris_Leong, 4 min

# Decision theory

Taking money seriously // dominicq, 6 min

The GameStop Situation: Simplified // jorge-velez, 4 min

New Empty Units // jkaufman, 1 min

What are some real life Inadequate Equilibria? // elityre, 3 min

Extracting Money from Causal Decision Theorists // Caspar42, 1 min

# Math and cs

What's the big deal about Bayes' Theorem? // AVoropaev, 4 min

What is a VNM stable set, really? // Nisan, 8 min

# Ea

Qualia Research Institute: History & 2021 Strategy // andzuck, 13 min

AMA on EA Forum: Ajeya Cotra, researcher at Open Phil // ajeya-cotra, 1 min

# Community

AISU 2021 // Linda Linsefors, 1 min

Sam Harris understates his social media vices // mike_hawke, 1 min

When Hope Fails // resurgam, 8 min

Coordination attempt: Facilitating conversational splinters in Gathertown // femtogrammar, 1 min

# Misc

Unpopularity of efficiency // KatjaGrace, 1 min

The Upper Limit of Value // Davidmanheim, 3 min

Has anyone on LW written about material bottlenecks being the main factor in making any technological progress? // George3d6, 1 min

Less Wrong Poetry Corner: Coventry Patmore's "Magna Est Veritas" // Zack_M_Davis, 1 min

Revelation and mathematics // George3d6, 6 min

# Videos of the week

How AI can help shatter barriers to equality | Jamila Gordon // TED, 5 min