rationalnewsletter

Issue #8: Full List

45 times as many people would have to die in an African disaster for it to garner the same media attention as a European one // ourworldindata.org

# Instrumental

Trivial inconveniences as an antidote to akrasia // adamzerner, 4 min

# Epistemic

Low-Decoupling vs High-Decoupling Norms // Chris_Leong, 2 min Favorite

Of Two Minds // Valentine, 3 min

Fun With DAGs // johnswentworth, 7 min

Dimensional decoupling // brianlui, 6 min

# Ai

Challenges to Christiano’s capability amplification proposal // Eliezer_Yudkowsky, 28 min Favorite

The First Circle // Zvi, 3 min

Henry Kissinger: AI Could Mean the End of Human History // ESRogs, 1 min

Why Universal Comparability of Utility? // AK, 1 min

RFC: Philosophical Conservatism in AI Alignment Research // gworley, 1 min

[CKC] [May 2018] What subjects are most important for an AI safety researcher to know? (Open Call) // Andrew Quinn, 1 min

The potential exploitability of infinite options // Donald Hobson, 2 min

# Books

A Detailed Critique of One Section of Steven Pinker’s Chapter “Existential Threats” in Enlightenment Now (Part 2) // philosophytorres, 21 min

# Ea

Personal relationships with goodness // KatjaGrace, 3 min Favorite

$5m cryptocurrency donation to Alcor by Brad Armstrong in memory of LWer Hal Finney // gwern, 1 min

The reverse job // toonalfrink, 1 min

Last chance to participate in the 2018 EA Survey // peter_hurford, 1 min

# Culture war

Basic Income, Not Basic Jobs: Against Hijacking Utopia // Scott Alexander, 54 min Favorite

The Context is Conflict // Jacobian, 11 min

Hotel Concierge: Shame & Society // norswap, 2 min

"Politics is the Mindkiller" is a mindkiller // Odinn, 1 min

# Misc

Talents // Benquo, 4 min

Mental Illness Is Not Evidence Against Abuse Allegations // sarahconstantin, 1 min

Lotuses and Loot Boxes // Davidmanheim, 5 min

Fundamentals of Formalisation level 2: Basic Set Theory // toonalfrink, 1 min

Gaining Approval: Insights From "How To Prove It" // elriggs, 2 min

The Devil's Advocate: when is it right to be wrong? // Jameson Quinn, 3 min

Rational spirituality: transcending your metaphysics // monktastic, 1 min

AskReddit: Hard Pills to Swallow // ESRogs, 1 min

Radical skepticism and you // monktastic, 1 min

# Podcasts

#30 - Dr Eva Vivalt on how little social science findings generalize from one study to another // The 80,000 Hours team, 121 min

#31 - Prof Dafoe on defusing the political & economic risks posed by existing AI capabilities // The 80,000 Hours team, 48 min

084: Discussion of Conversational AI and Digital Currency // Review the Future, 66 min

Rationally Speaking #208 - Annie Duke on "Thinking in bets" // NYC Skeptics, 52 min

# Videos of the week

The real reason for brains - Daniel Wolpert // TED-Ed, 20 min