Scott imagines a future where population growth leads to more historians than historical subjects, resulting in extreme academic specialization and scrutiny of ordinary individuals from our era. Longer summary

Scott Alexander humorously extrapolates current trends in population growth and academic specialization to imagine a future where there are more classicists than ancient Greeks, and eventually more historians studying each person from our era than we might expect. He starts by calculating the current ratio of classicists to ancient Greeks, then projects this forward, considering factors like space colonization and technological advances. The post ends with a fictional scenario where thousands of future scholars are studying the life and tweets of a single, unremarkable person from our time, ironically analyzing a tweet where this person claimed no one noticed or cared about them. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander criticizes the humorous adaptations of Lovecraft's work in geek culture, arguing they miss the author's intent to create a sense of the strange and transcendent. Longer summary

Scott Alexander critiques the transformation of Lovecraft's work in geek culture, arguing that the humorous adaptations of Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian elements miss the author's original intent. He emphasizes that Lovecraft's aim was to create a sense of the strange, intense, and unearthly, divorced from everyday mundanity. Scott argues that Lovecraft opposed ironic humor that diminishes the transcendent nature of his creations. He urges readers who are interested in Lovecraft to explore his serious works, particularly recommending 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath' and shorter stories in the Dream Cycle. Shorter summary