rationalnewsletter

Issue #210

Can a neural network generate optical illusions? This paper studies if these machine vision systems “see” the world similarly enough to humans and are able to be fooled the same way. // twitter.com

# Instrumental

Working Out in VR Really Works // yonatan-cale-1, 3 min

Giving calibrated time estimates can have social costs // Alex_Altair, 6 min

Why Take Care Of Your Health? // MondSemmel, 7 min

Becoming a Staff Engineer // gworley, 7 min

You get one story detail // gworley, 5 min

# Epistemic

Prompt Your Brain // En Kepeig, 2 min

A Word to the Wise is Sufficient because the Wise Know So Many Words // lsusr, 1 min

Convincing Your Brain That Humanity is Evil is Easy // johannes-c-mayer, 2 min

Predicting a global catastrophe: the Ukrainian model // RomanS, 2 min

Edge cases don't invalidate the rule // adam-selker, 2 min

# Ai

Don't die with dignity; instead play to your outs // jeff-ladish, 6 min

Playing with DALL·E 2 // dave-orr, 6 min

Testing PaLM prompts on GPT3 // yitz, 10 min

What Would A Fight Between Humanity And AGI Look Like? // johnswentworth, 3 min

PaLM in "Extrapolating GPT-N performance" // Lanrian, 2 min

# Anthropic

A paradox of existence // chrisvm, 6 min

The doomsday argument is normal // avturchin, 2 min

Why are we so early? // Flaglandbase, 1 min

# Decision theory

Ideal governance (for companies, countries and more) // HoldenKarnofsky, 16 min

How Real Moral Mazes (in Bay Area startups)? // gworley, 6 min

The Debtors' Revolt // Benquo, 50 min

Down By 30 // adamzerner, 4 min

Game Theory is Not Selfish // sil-ver, 4 min

# Math and cs

The Case for Frequentism: Why Bayesian Probability is Fundamentally Unsound and What Science Does Instead // lsusr, 7 min

Optimizing crop planting with mixed integer linear programming in Stardew Valley // hapanin, 7 min

Are the fundamental physical constants computable? // yair-halberstadt, 2 min

A Solution to the Unexpected Hanging Problem // dawn-drain, 5 min

Practical use of the Beta distribution for data analysis // maxwell-peterson, 3 min

# Books

Dictator Book Club: Xi Jinping // Scott Alexander, 22 min Favorite

Convincing All Capability Researchers // elriggs, 3 min

Notes on the Autobiography of Malcolm X // Benquo, 3 min

[Book Review] Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective // Stuckwork, 1 min

# Community

I discovered LessWrong... during Good Heart Week // identity.key, 4 min

My Recollection of How This All Got Started // gworley, 5 min

5-Minute Advice for EA Global // elriggs, 2 min

What are rationalists worst at? // gworley, 1 min

A conversation about growing through the history of the rationality movement and some of it's history // Elo, 1 min

# Culture war

Ukraine Post #9: Again // Zvi, 19 min

What Twitter fixes should we advocate, now that Elon is on the board? // Jackson Wagner, 1 min

The Jordan Peterson vs Sam Harris Debate // lsusr, 7 min

Why Iraq is so violent // rockthecasbah, 4 min

Highlights From The Comments On Self-Determination // Scott Alexander, 13 min

# Misc

The case for using the term 'steelmanning' instead of 'principle of charity' // ChristianKl, 3 min

Case for emergency response teams // Jan_Kulveit, 6 min

I was asked about how to resolve strong emotional fear concerns around the basilisk and this is my instructions as to how to do that. // Elo, 8 min

The Zombie Argument for Empiricists // JonathanErhardt, 4 min

# Podcasts

DeepMind: The Podcast - Excerpts on AGI // WilliamKiely, 6 min

AXRP Episode 14 - Infra-Bayesian Physicalism with Vanessa Kosoy // DanielFilan, 64 min

#126 - Bryan Caplan on whether lazy parenting is OK, what really helps workers, and betting on beliefs // , 135 min

YANSS 230 – Britt Frank’s advice for escaping life loops, dealing with trauma, and building the psychological momentum required to get yourself unstuck //

EP 154 Iain McGilchrist on The Matter With Things // The Jim Rutt Show, 107 min

# Rational fiction

[Invisible Networks] Goblin Marketplace // Kaj_Sotala, 3 min

Bayeswatch 9.5: Rest & Relaxation // lsusr, 2 min

If Dumbledore Was Named Eldore // TourmalineCupcakes, 7 min

Bayeswatch 6.5: Therapy // lsusr, 1 min

# Videos of the week

AI vs Humans | Fighting Money Laundering // Sumsub, 20 min