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Scott analyzes how the term 'fascist' combines factual meaning with implied violence-justifying connotations, making its casual use potentially dangerous in current political discourse.
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Scott examines the logical inconsistency between three commonly held beliefs: that many Americans are fascists, that fascists are legitimate targets for violence, and that political violence in America is currently unacceptable. Using the recent Twitter dispute between Gavin Newsom and Stephen Miller as a starting point, he explores how the term 'fascist' has both denotative meaning (far-right nationalist) and violent connotations. The post discusses the challenges of determining when political violence becomes justified, and concludes that while the term 'fascist' shouldn't be banned, it's better to avoid using it when possible to prevent contributing to dangerous rhetoric.
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Scott opens voting for the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest finalists, listing all thirteen entries and providing a link to the ranked-choice voting form.
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Scott Alexander announces voting for the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest finalists, providing links to all thirteen finalist entries and the voting form. The post lists the diverse topics of the finalists, ranging from education and science to personal experiences and historical events. Voting will use ranked choice format where voters pick their top three choices, and closes on October 13.
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A personal account of fighting as a foreign volunteer in Ukraine, from leaving a boring IT job to joining the International Legion and experiencing trench warfare firsthand.
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The author describes their journey from an unfulfilling IT job to joining Ukraine's International Legion as a foreign volunteer fighter in 2022. They detail the process of getting to Ukraine, the initial experience in Lviv, and working with various volunteer organizations before joining the military. The bulk of the post describes daily life in the trenches, the structure of the International Legion, and the realities of modern warfare including drone combat. The author reflects on the experience of war, arguing that while destructive, it can provide meaning and purpose for young men seeking adventure and honor.
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A satirical story about a Bay Area house party where men pretend to be connected to right-wing figures to attract journalists, while exploring tech culture and social media dynamics.
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Scott writes a satirical story about a Bay Area house party where men engage in 'curtfishing' - pretending to be connected to right-wing figures to attract female journalists. The story follows various conversations at the party, including one with someone pretending to be Curtis Yarvin, a startup founder working on automated condemnations, and a discussion about the addictive and damaging nature of Twitter (now X). The story is filled with tech culture in-jokes and commentary on social media dynamics, journalism, and Silicon Valley culture.
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A book review exploring the history of Project Xanadu, Ted Nelson's pioneering but ultimately unsuccessful vision for a hypertext-based internet system that preceded and differed significantly from the World Wide Web.
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This book review traces the fascinating history of Project Xanadu, Ted Nelson's ambitious vision for a hypertext-based internet system that predated and rivaled the World Wide Web. Starting with Vannevar Bush's 1945 concept of the memex, through Doug Engelbart's groundbreaking demos, to Nelson's decades-long quest to build Xanadu, the post explores how this alternative vision for the internet - featuring bidirectional links, embedded content, and built-in attribution - ultimately failed to materialize despite its early start and innovative ideas. The review ends by questioning whether the simpler Web we got instead, built by Tim Berners-Lee, might have cost us something valuable in terms of how we connect and share information online.
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Scott explains why true democracy requires more than just winning elections - it needs a complex system of checks and balances to ensure future elections remain fair and free.
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Scott Alexander explains why 'democracy' requires more than just having one election where the winner gets unlimited power. He argues that to ensure future fair elections, a democracy needs various checks and balances that we associate with liberalism - like an independent judiciary, free press, and civil society organizations. He describes how these institutions work together to prevent a leader from subverting future elections, using the example of what would happen if a leader tried to rig an election by firing election monitors. The post concludes by noting that both progressive and conservative authoritarians can threaten these democratic safeguards, though through different methods.
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A review of the synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis arguing that it is insufficient to explain memory, and proposing a broader cellular processes and memory hypothesis that includes molecular and intracellular mechanisms.
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The post reviews the synaptic plasticity and memory (SPM) hypothesis, which claims that learning and memory are stored in changes to synaptic weights between neurons. Through several compelling examples, from cannibalism rituals to heart transplant stories and single-cell learning, the author argues that while the SPM hypothesis has been productive, it is incomplete and partially wrong. The post presents evidence that memory can be stored through non-synaptic mechanisms, and proposes an alternative called the cellular processes and memory (CPM) hypothesis, which suggests memory storage involves multiple molecular and intracellular processes beyond just synaptic weights.
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Scott reviews a new book by Yudkowsky and Soares that makes an uncompromising case for halting AI development to prevent human extinction, analyzing both its arguments and its potential impact as a call to action.
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Scott reviews Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares' upcoming book 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies' about AI safety. The book makes an uncompromising case that AI development will likely lead to human extinction and should be halted immediately through an international treaty and arms control regime. Scott analyzes both the book's arguments and writing style, finding the core message compelling but questioning some of the specific scenarios presented. He reflects on why many people reject existential AI risk warnings using similar dismissive patterns seen with other potential catastrophic risks.
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A detailed insider look at Phase I clinical drug trials, revealing how the system's structure encourages participants to routinely lie about their medical history and symptoms to continue participating.
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This review explores Phase I clinical pharmaceutical trials from a participant's perspective, detailing the process, the people involved, and systemic issues. The author explains how participants are recruited, screened, and monitored during trials, then describes the peculiar demographics of regular trial participants. A key focus is how the system's incentives encourage dishonesty: participants routinely lie about medical history and symptoms because being truthful often leads to disqualification from future trials. The author concludes that while this systemic dishonesty probably doesn't catastrophically compromise drug safety, it does make the research pipeline less effective than it could be.
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Scott Alexander presents his monthly collection of interesting links and developments across technology, science, culture, and policy, with personal commentary on each item.
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Scott Alexander shares a collection of 61 interesting links, spanning topics from AI development and scientific studies to cultural observations and policy discussions. The post covers diverse subjects including GPT-5's reception, genetic research, religious demographics, urban development, mental health studies, and various scientific discoveries. Scott provides commentary and analysis on many of these items, often connecting them to broader themes or offering his perspective on controversial issues.
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In a fictional podcast dialogue, God and Iblis debate whether human intelligence shows genuine promise or is fundamentally flawed, with God defending humans despite their limitations while Iblis argues they're a failed experiment.
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The post is a fictional dialogue between God, Iblis (Satan), and podcast host Dwarkesh Patel debating the merits and flaws of human intelligence. Iblis criticizes humans by showing examples of their logical failures, ethical inconsistencies, and inability to generalize knowledge, while God defends humans by emphasizing their potential and progress. The debate touches on topics like mathematical understanding, ethical reasoning, and pattern recognition. God ultimately argues that despite their flaws, humans show genuine promise and deserve patience and nurturing, comparing them to children who make mistakes but have potential.
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