Scott Alexander methodically rebuts Steven Pinker's arguments against AI risk concerns and documents fifteen years of what he considers misrepresentations and bad-faith arguments from Pinker about the AI safety community.

Scott explains why Midjourney's new ultrasound tomography scanner, despite being technologically interesting, faces major medical limitations and is unlikely to replace existing imaging methods or enable useful whole-body screening without significant future AI improvements.

Scott analyzes comments on his previous post about POSIWID, showing how the phrase's ambiguity leads to multiple contradictory interpretations while promoting conspiracy thinking.

Scott shares various interesting links and news items from January 2025, covering topics from AI development and politics to historical curiosities and economic trends.

Scott shares 55 interesting links covering topics from AI poetry to religious movements, including updates on various projects, unusual historical events, and current developments in technology, politics, and society.

Scott Alexander discusses the political battle over California's AI safety bill SB 1047, its veto by Governor Newsom, and the implications for future AI regulation efforts.

Scott Alexander examines the surprisingly broad effects of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, exploring their mechanisms and speculating on why they seem to impact so many different conditions.

Scott Alexander presents a satirical, fictional Republican primary debate with absurd rules to highlight candidate personalities and critique political debate formats.

Scott Alexander reviews 'The Gervais Principle', a book offering insights into organizational dynamics through a classification of three personality types, finding it thought-provoking but not entirely convincing.

Scott Alexander reviews 'Don't Look Up', critiquing its contradictory narratives about trusting science and experts vs. outsiders.

Scott Alexander analyzes prediction market forecasts about the Omicron COVID-19 variant, discussing its potential transmissibility, lethality, and prevalence.

Scott Alexander discusses reader responses to his review of Viktor Orban's leadership in Hungary, exploring debates around authoritarianism, democracy, and effective governance.

Scott Alexander reviews Nassim Taleb's 'Antifragile', which explores the concept of benefiting from disorder across various domains and critiques modern attempts to reduce volatility.

Scott Alexander argues that a New York Times article misrepresented economists' views on school vouchers, offering evidence and proposing a bet to prove the article was misleading.

Scott Alexander examines the relationship between gun ownership and homicide rates, finding a likely causal link but noting it's not the main factor in the US's high murder rate.

Scott Alexander reviews 'Hive Mind' by Garett Jones, which argues that national IQ matters more for economic success than individual IQ, while raising several criticisms of the book's methodology and conclusions.

Scott Alexander presents 50 new 'Tom Swifties', a form of wordplay combining quotes with punning adverbs, in his third collection of these jokes.

Scott Alexander reviews Malcolm Muggeridge's autobiography, examining his experiences exposing Stalin's regime and the West's willful ignorance of Soviet crimes.

Scott Alexander explores the declining effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, proposing that its core ideas have become part of popular culture, potentially explaining its decreased impact.

The post presents 50 'Tom Swifties', a form of wordplay involving quotes and related adverbs, demonstrating the author's wit and knowledge across various fields.

Scott Alexander examines the parallels between social justice and anti-social justice groups, arguing that shared experiences of perceived persecution could lead to better understanding and less conflict.

Scott Alexander reimagines the biblical story of Job as a philosophical dialogue about the existence of evil and suffering in God's creation.

A collection of interesting links covering topics like Chinese religion, economics, science, and technology, with commentary on their broader implications.

Scott Alexander critiques feminist stereotyping of nerds, arguing that nerds' social struggles are real and not simply male entitlement.

Scott Alexander uses an analogy between race and culture to argue that mathematical clustering arguments don't determine whether race 'exists' any more than they determine whether culture 'exists'.