Posts by category

science

• The brightness that comes before
• The best of Scott Aaronson (for laymen)
• Comparing experts and generalists
• Drake, Hanson, and the meaning of life
• Do masks work against COVID, at scale?
• Highlights from my Gists
• Reversals in psychology
• Uncritical thinking
• 'Blindsight' (2006) by Watts
• 'Curiosity' (2012) by Ball
• Einstein
• How lethal are the Tories? Part 1
• Data Science FAQ
• The presumed worth of anthropology
• The Worst Game Ever
• Modelling linguistic accommodation
• Present pieties
• Can you trust your methods?

becoming

• The brightness that comes before
• 'Disco Elysium' (2019): Part 1
• The ladder of abstraction
• get hype
• To be led out
• prospective nostalgia
• The One True Sceptic
• Things I Use
• Worldview in Five Books
• Why I'm not a philosopher
• Who would I be in history?
• Effective Altruism Global: x: Oxford
• Rorty and the Wild Party
• Virtue, work, and the world to come
• Limits to self-invention
• to desperately instrumentalise myself
• On calling people brainwashed
• Economics as philosophy of life
• A Sentimental Journey Through Parts of England
• love, analytically

rationality

• The brightness that comes before
• Drake, Hanson, and the meaning of life
• Unthinking meat
• Self-help, hard and soft
• Uncritical thinking
• The trouble with supplements
• Insurance isn't necessarily a scam
• 'The Unpersuadables' (2013) by Storr
• You do you
• Existential overheads
• Staring at mystics

self-representation

• The brightness that comes before
• Blogging is dead, long live sites
• Worldview in Five Books

music

• Spotify is not a social network
• Pop auteurs
• Taylor Swift as blurry jpeg
• Songs for the Extremely Online
• 'Trompettes de la Mort' (2005)
• Nation playlists
• 'The Decline' (1999) by NOFX
• Rubinations
• 'Have One on Me' by Joanna Newsom
• Punk as ideology

lists

• Spotify is not a social network
• Pop auteurs
• Learn stats without going mad
• The best of Scott Aaronson (for laymen)
• The sense of a start
• Songs for the Extremely Online
• Nation playlists
• Blogging is dead, long live sites
• Things I Use
• Reversals in psychology
• Worldview in Five Books
• Hardening the browser
• Disambiguating the first computer
• Existential overheads
• Taking Hume's name
• Rubinations

maths

• Mathematical dark matter
• The ladder of abstraction
• Favourite maths tools
• Graphs are cool
• Better ways to write maths
• Maths at the Open University
• Perelman
• π vs τ as clash of worldviews
• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?
• Conceptual conversions
• Frege's grand failure

metaphysics

• Mathematical dark matter

work

• Great work
• Limits to self-invention
• to desperately instrumentalise myself

self-help

• Great work
• get hype
• prospective nostalgia
• Stimulant tolerance, or, the tears of things
• Crossing the ocean of my ignorance
• Self-help, hard and soft
• Things I Use
• Hardening the browser
• You do you
• Existential overheads
• Comparing up and down
• Limits to self-invention

stats

• Learn stats without going mad
• How lethal are the Tories? Part 1
• The Worst Game Ever
• Modelling linguistic accommodation

arb

• LLM alignment via activations
• Can policymakers trust forecasters?
• Scoring the Big Three
• Comparing experts and generalists

alignment

• LLM alignment via activations

AI

• LLM alignment via activations
• AI alignment & academia
• AI ethics for present & future
• Notes on inductive logic programming
• Preventing Side-effects in Gridworlds
• A ceiling for human expertise
• Automatic for the people
• Neither Turing, neither Searle

forecasting

• Can policymakers trust forecasters?
• Scoring the Big Three
• Comparing experts and generalists
• A ceiling for human expertise

art

• 'Disco Elysium' (2019): Part 1
• To be led out
• Cracking country
• Songs for the Extremely Online
• Cracking cultures
• 'Trompettes de la Mort' (2005)
• 'Homicide' (1991) by Simon
• 'The Decline' (1999) by NOFX
• 'Have One on Me' by Joanna Newsom

politics

• 'Disco Elysium' (2019): Part 1
• π vs τ as clash of worldviews
• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?
• 'The Decline' (1999) by NOFX
• On calling people brainwashed
• Punk as ideology

mind

• 'Disco Elysium' (2019): Part 1

philosophy

• The ladder of abstraction
• The best of Scott Aaronson (for laymen)
• Ramsey
• Drake, Hanson, and the meaning of life
• Cracking cultures
• The One True Sceptic
• Irony, sincerity, nostalgia, neoteny
• 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe
• Worldview in Five Books
• 'Blindsight' (2006) by Watts
• Existential risk as common cause
• 'The Unpersuadables' (2013) by Storr
• 'Curiosity' (2012) by Ball
• Why I'm not a philosopher
• Does the gut cross the epistemic barrier?
• The presumed worth of anthropology
• Effective Altruism Global: x: Oxford
• magic words
• Why is quality rare?
• Conceptual conversions
• Comparing up and down
• Limits to self-invention
• Taking Hume's name
• to desperately instrumentalise myself
• Frege's grand failure
• On calling people brainwashed
• Misreading Russell on radical scepticism
• 'The Scotch' (1880) by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Economics as philosophy of life
• Staring at mystics
• Neither Turing, neither Searle

meaning

• get hype
• To be led out
• The sense of a start
• prospective nostalgia
• Legacy and the memory of legacy
• 'Terra Ignota': the ecstasy of uncertainty
• Cracking cultures
• Irony, sincerity, nostalgia, neoteny
• hope dies last
• Against the Culture
• 'Blindsight' (2006) by Watts
• 'Strangers Drowning' (2015) by MacFarquhar
• Is education worth it for society?
• Why is quality rare?
• Anaesthetatron
• 'Infinite Jest' (1996)

fun

• get hype
• prospective nostalgia
• hope dies last

poem

• To be led out

literature

• To be led out
• 'The Odyssey' (2017) by Emily Wilson

status

• Cracking country

subculture

• Cracking country
• Songs for the Extremely Online
• Cracking cultures
• Punk as ideology

longtermism

• The sense of a start
• Ramsey
• Legacy and the memory of legacy
• 'Terra Ignota': the ecstasy of uncertainty
• Drake, Hanson, and the meaning of life
• Against the Culture
• AI ethics for present & future
• Blogging is dead, long live sites
• Existential risk as common cause

scifi

• Scoring the Big Three
• Drake, Hanson, and the meaning of life
• Against the Culture

personal

• prospective nostalgia

writing

• prospective nostalgia
• Crossing the ocean of my ignorance
• Blogging is dead, long live sites

machine-learning

• brief history
• Data Science FAQ

greats

• Ramsey
• von Neumann
• Perelman
• Einstein
• Turing
• Frege's grand failure

epistemology

• Comparing experts and generalists
• The One True Sceptic
• 'Peter Watts is an Angry Sentient Tumor' (2019)
• 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry
• Does the gut cross the epistemic barrier?
• On calling people brainwashed
• Misreading Russell on radical scepticism

social-science

• Comparing experts and generalists
• Uncritical thinking
• How lethal are the Tories? Part 1
• The presumed worth of anthropology
• The Worst Game Ever
• Modelling linguistic accommodation
• Present pieties

effective-altruism

• Phil Harvey (1938 - 2021)
• AI alignment & academia
• 'Strangers Drowning' (2015) by MacFarquhar
• Turing
• Estimating political controversy
• Effective Altruism Global: x: Oxford
• What's the highest moral wage?
• Rorty and the Wild Party
• Virtue, work, and the world to come
• to desperately instrumentalise myself

poverty

• Phil Harvey (1938 - 2021)

death

• Legacy and the memory of legacy
• 'Trompettes de la Mort' (2005)

fiction

• 'Terra Ignota': the ecstasy of uncertainty
• Unthinking meat

code

• Do masks work against COVID, at scale?
• Highlights from my Gists

research

• Do masks work against COVID, at scale?
• Crossing the ocean of my ignorance

ai

• Why worry about future AI?
• Using courts for algorithmic fairness

xrisk

• Why worry about future AI?
• Existential risk as common cause
• 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry

ethics

• Using courts for algorithmic fairness
• The One True Sceptic
• Against the Culture
• AI ethics for present & future
• Perelman
• 'Strangers Drowning' (2015) by MacFarquhar
• on veganism
• Anaesthetatron
• What's the highest moral wage?
• Misreading Russell on radical scepticism

ethics-of-belief

• The One True Sceptic
• Anaesthetatron
• Misreading Russell on radical scepticism

tools-for-thought

• Graphs are cool
• Better ways to write maths

biochemistry

• Stimulant tolerance, or, the tears of things

quantified-self

• Stimulant tolerance, or, the tears of things
• The trouble with supplements
• Existential overheads

biology

• Stimulant tolerance, or, the tears of things
• The trouble with supplements
• Why is quality rare?

health

• Metabolism is violent
• 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe
• Comparing up and down

academia

• Better ways to write maths
• AI alignment & academia
• to desperately instrumentalise myself

suffering

• Against the Culture
• Why is quality rare?

RL

• Robots, Games, Life, Markets
• Preventing Side-effects in Gridworlds

game-theory

• Robots, Games, Life, Markets
• The Worst Game Ever

economics

• Robots, Games, Life, Markets
• Is education worth it for society?
• Automatic for the people
• What's the highest moral wage?
• Economics as philosophy of life

rosetta-stone

• Robots, Games, Life, Markets
• Conceptual conversions

quantification

• Things I Use
• Estimating political controversy

review

• 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe
• 'Peter Watts is an Angry Sentient Tumor' (2019)
• 'The Odyssey' (2017) by Emily Wilson
• Maths at the Open University
• Perelman
• 'Homicide' (1991) by Simon
• 'Blindsight' (2006) by Watts
• 'Curiosity' (2012) by Ball
• 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry

mental-health

• 'Starting Strength' by Rippetoe
• Comparing up and down

replication

• 'Peter Watts is an Angry Sentient Tumor' (2019)

long-content

• Reversals in psychology
• Hardening the browser
• Why I'm not a philosopher

psychology

• Reversals in psychology

uni

• Uncritical thinking
• Maths at the Open University

utility

• Insurance isn't necessarily a scam

finance

• Insurance isn't necessarily a scam

bio

• Stimulant tolerance, or, the tears of things
• The trouble with supplements
• Perelman
• Einstein
• 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry
• Turing
• 'Hitler's Uranium Club' (2008) by Bernstein
• Why is quality rare?

goodhart

• 'Homicide' (1991) by Simon

computers

• Hardening the browser
• Turing
• Disambiguating the first computer
• Conceptual conversions

history

• 'Curiosity' (2012) by Ball
• Disambiguating the first computer
• 'Hitler's Uranium Club' (2008) by Bernstein
• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?
• Taking Hume's name

progress

• 'Curiosity' (2012) by Ball

biorisk

• 'The Great Influenza' (2004) by Barry

argument

• A ceiling for human expertise
• Does the gut cross the epistemic barrier?
• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?
• Neither Turing, neither Searle

conceptual-analysis

• Disambiguating the first computer

education

• Is education worth it for society?

physics

• Mathematical dark matter
• 'Hitler's Uranium Club' (2008) by Bernstein

scary-futurism

• Why care about genetic privacy?

naturalism

• Does the gut cross the epistemic barrier?

scepticism

• Does the gut cross the epistemic barrier?
• The presumed worth of anthropology
• Can you trust your methods?

reason

• π vs τ as clash of worldviews

data-science

• Data Science FAQ

the-two-cultures

• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?

STEM

• Is Yitang Zhang an intellectual?

cause-prioritisation

• Estimating political controversy
• 'Why study economics?'

transhumanism

• Automatic for the people
• Why is quality rare?

criticism

• Present pieties
• Rubinations
• Punk as ideology

false-framework

• Limits to self-invention

punk

• 'The Decline' (1999) by NOFX

scotland

• 'The Scotch' (1880) by Friedrich Nietzsche

travel

• A Sentimental Journey Through Parts of England

nonsense

• Staring at mystics

love

• 'Have One on Me' by Joanna Newsom

written in blood