rationalnewsletter

Issue #53

Percentage of US men age 18-29 reporting no sex in the past year has nearly tripled in 10 years to 28%. Women that age show just an 8 percent increase. // www.washingtonpost.com

# Instrumental

Subagents, akrasia, and coherence in humans // Kaj_Sotala, 20 min Favorite

Dependability // Unreal, 10 min

[Method] The light side of motivation: positive feedback-loop // Vincent B, 3 min

To perform best at work, look at Time & Energy account balance // SerenaTan19, 2 min

# Ai

Unsolved research problems vs. real-world threat models // catherio, 1 min

Being wrong in ethics // Stuart_Armstrong, 3 min

The low cost of human preference incoherence // Stuart_Armstrong, 3 min

Will superintelligent AI be immortal? // avturchin, 1 min

Why the AI Alignment Problem Might be Unsolvable? // Sailor Vulcan, 8 min

# Anthropic

What If We Already Know How to Live? // Contributor, 15 min

# Math and cs

A Concrete Proposal for Adversarial IDA // evhub, 6 min

# Ea

Partial Retraction Of Post On Animal Value And Neural Number // Scott Alexander, 1 min

Cortical Neuron Number Matches Intuitive Perceptions Of Moral Value Across Animals // Scott Alexander, 2 min

# Community

Do you like bullet points? // Raemon, 2 min Favorite

Review of Q&A [LW2.0 internal document] // Ruby, 15 min

List of Q&A Assumptions and Uncertainties [LW2.0 internal document] // Ruby, 3 min

Please use real names, especially for Alignment Forum? // Wei_Dai, 1 min

If you've attended LW/SSC meetups, please take this survey! // mingyuan, 1 min

# Culture war

What I've Learned From My Parents' Arranged Marriage // squidious, 6 min

Did the recent blackmail discussion change your beliefs? // Dagon, 1 min

The Politics of Age (the Young vs. the Old) // Martin Sustrik, 1 min

Revolt of The Public // Robin Hanson, 3 min

Infinite Machines: 2 – Plasticized Erotica // James Vanié, 1 min

# Art

Parfit's Escape (Filk) // G Gordon Worley III, 1 min

# Fun

Two Wolves And A Sheep // Scott Alexander, 1 min Favorite

Deck Guide: Biomancer’s Familiar // Zvi, 14 min

# Misc

Neurons And Intelligence: A Birdbrained Perspective // Scott Alexander, 4 min Favorite

The Amish, and Strategic Norms around Technology // Raemon, 3 min

Microcosmographia excerpt // ioannes_shade, 1 min

General v. Specific Planning // james_t, 5 min

Parable of the flooding mountain range // RorscHak, 2 min

# Podcasts

#152 — The Trouble with Facebook // Waking up with Sam Harris, 113 min

81 – That’s Too Much Feedback, Man // The Bayesian Conspiracy, 116 min

# Rational fiction

A Tale of Four Moralities // Sailor Vulcan, 3 min

# Videos of the week

Is your country at risk of becoming a dictatorship? Here's how to know | Farida Nabourema // TED, 11 min