Scott Alexander
@slatestarcodex
I have a place where I say complicated things about philosophy and science. That place is my blog. This is where I make terrible puns.
I prefer to think of it as the late pre-truth era.
hi. yes, Unsong The Musical is real and being made by me and @mastertimblais. If you want progress updates / to know when it's ready: * sign up for emails here: subscribepage.io/EbgHOl * follow @UnsongMusical on Twitter repost if you like unsong. thanks, Bashu.
Concerning...
A Tornado Warning for Scott, Alexander are in effect until: 5/16 7:00PM. wsiltv.com/weather/intera…
The name Kseniia is the Russian version of Greek Xenia, meaning "hospitality to foreigners". According to the tradition of xenia, anyone who harmed a resident foreigner would be cursed by Zeus Xenios ("Zeus protector-of-foreigners") https: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)
Harvard Researcher Kseniia Petrova has been detained when returning to the U.S. on February 16, 2025. She had frog embryos and she didn’t properly declare them. Border agents decided this warranted taking away her J-1 visa and deporting her. 🧵Petrova was arrested in Russia…
Thanks to everyone who chimed in with criticism of my recent POSIWID post. If I understand you all correctly, you think that Stafford Beer had good intentions when he invented the phrase, and that's more important than how it gets misused in real life. Enlightening!
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments on the podcast. The level of thoughtful and productive discussion has been off the charts.
ME, REPEATEDLY, OVER THE PAST SIX MONTHS: Daniel! Publish already! Your predictions keep coming true before anyone even sees them! DANIEL: Oh, that one wasn't even a real prediction, everyone knew that would happen.
I read this and thought it was silly that one of the key assumptions was that CoT wouldn't be faithful. not 4 hours ago, a prediction from this paper was proven right by Anthropic: CoT is not, in fact, truthful most of the time. everyone must read this.
You don't know the half of it - he grilled us for *eight hours* on every little detail, then published the highlights. By the end I felt like I had run a marathon (and he was still as chipper as always).
Dwarkesh podcast is super good, gives nuance sense of everything!!
Excited to reveal a project I've been working on the past few months - an AI forecast with @DKokotajlo , @eli_lifland, @thlarsen, @Jonas_Vollmer and others.
"How, exactly, could AI take over by 2027?" Introducing AI 2027: a deeply-researched scenario forecast I wrote alongside @slatestarcodex, @eli_lifland, and @thlarsen
In the ordo amoris conversation earlier this week, I promised to write a blog post on why budgetary tradeoffs are less than they seem. It's at https:// www.astralcodexten. com/p/money-saved-by-canceling-programs
People had lots of questions about my drowning child tweet yesterday - eg do I believe in infinite moral obligation? Rather than try to answer piecemeal, I'll just give my whole theory of morality and charity here so you can criticize it or let me know if it has unexpected…
I went on a walk and saw a child drowning in the river. I was going to jump in and save him, when someone reminded me that I should care about family members more than strangers. So I continued on my way and let him drown.
The Astral Codex Ten Prediction Contest is back with an expanded $10,000 prize pool: Test your forecasting skills across geopolitics, technology, economics, and more with questions curated by Scott Alexander (@slatestarcodex). Whether you're a seasoned predictor or just…
Me: Have you been following the H1B stuff? My wife: No, what happened? Did it mutate to infect humans?
I've never felt as well-represented by a candidate as when Kamala chose to sacrifice everything rather than go on a podcast.
More pieces fall into place: gotquestions.org/ten-horns-of-t… vs. failory.com/blog/decacorns
Strong Freudian vibes from Kamala's father being named "Donald J. Harris".
The Irish flag is green, white, and orange - green for the southern Catholics, orange for the northern Protestants, and white for the dream of peace between them. Relatedly, the US flag is red, white, and blue, and I think that's beautiful.
"Millions long for [not getting a terminal disease and dying within a year] who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." - Susan Ertz, sort of