Scott Alexander examines the 'canalization' theory in computational psychiatry and its refinement through deep learning concepts in the Deep CANAL model.

Scott Alexander explores whether people can be honestly mistaken about their own experiences, presenting counterexamples and attempting to reconcile them with the idea that we can't be wrong about our immediate subjective experiences.

Scott Alexander examines a review of a paper on serotonin receptors, discussing prediction error, suffering, and the effects of different serotonin receptor activations on problem-solving approaches and psychedelic experiences.

Scott Alexander explores the concept of 'trapped priors' as a fundamental problem in rationality, explaining how it leads to persistent biases and suggesting potential solutions.

Scott Alexander reviews his intellectual progress in the 2010s across various fields, crediting his blog for accelerating learning.

The post explores how emotional learning creates hard-to-update mental models, drawing parallels between psychotherapy, psychedelics, and rationality techniques in overcoming these 'mental mountains'.

Scott Alexander investigates the prevalence of Hallucinogen Persisting Perceptual Disorder (HPPD) and explores potential connections between perception, cognition, and belief in supernatural phenomena.

Scott reviews a paper proposing that psychedelics work by relaxing priors in the brain, potentially treating mental illness but also risking side effects.

Scott Alexander explores Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD) and other conditions where drugs cause permanent effects, discussing potential mechanisms and their implications.

Scott reviews a theory about serotonin receptors that explains how they help cope with stress, and discusses its implications and limitations.

The post explores how Bayesian processes in the brain might explain perception and various mental disorders, linking neurotransmitters to different aspects of Bayesian reasoning.

Scott Alexander reviews PiHKAL by Alexander and Ann Shulgin, exploring the book's blend of autobiography, chemistry, and psychedelic experiences.

Scott Alexander examines why early psychedelic researchers often became eccentric, proposing that psychedelics might permanently increase openness to unusual ideas.

Scott Alexander hypothesizes that mystical experiences, hallucinations, and paranoia might be linked to an overactive pattern-matching faculty in the brain.

On a beach made of rye beside a sea of strontium, a well-read psychonaut has one very reasonable request for the superhuman beings he's met, and he is not leaving without an answer.