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debate (89)
study critique (270)
book review (221)
AI (112)
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effective altruism (105)
education (93)
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forecasting (89)
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science (85)
AI safety (79)
media criticism (76)
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rationality (76)
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study critique (270)
book review (221)
AI (112)
economics (105)
effective altruism (105)
education (93)
creative writing (91)
debate (89)
forecasting (89)
politics (89)
prediction markets (88)
science (85)
AI safety (79)
media criticism (76)
neuroscience (76)
rationality (76)
psychiatry (73)
psychology (72)
mental health (69)
highlights from the comments (68)
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domain: slatestarcodex.com (1127 posts)
domain: wikipedia.org (896 posts)
domain: astralcodexten.com (560 posts)
domain: lesswrong.com (491 posts)
domain: twitter.com / x.com (445 posts)
domain: nih.gov (333 posts)
domain: reddit.com (321 posts)
domain: amazon.com (276 posts)
domain: substack.com (268 posts)
domain: google.com (235 posts)
domain: nytimes.com (229 posts)
domain: wordpress.com (175 posts)
domain: tumblr.com (159 posts)
domain: vox.com (159 posts)
domain: washingtonpost.com (143 posts)
domain: marginalrevolution.com (140 posts)
domain: sciencedirect.com (131 posts)
domain: theguardian.com (130 posts)
subreddit: slatestarcodex (130 posts)
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Remember which posts I've read on this device
89 posts
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AI Safety Is Not A Corporate Plot

Scott argues that AI companies' existential-risk warnings are sincere rather than a corporate plot, since independent experts share them, leaders voiced them long before founding companies, and the supposed plot would be self-defeating.

acx
Oct 15, 2026 3,669 words 469 likes 642 comments Read Read

An Open Letter To Steven Pinker On AI

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.

acx
Oct 6, 2026 12,014 words 1,458 likes 1,245 comments Read Read

Your Book Review: This Is Going To Hurt

Two psychiatrists conduct an adversarial review of Adam Kay's 'This Is Going To Hurt,' debating whether his NHS memoir represents institutional failure causing PTSD or a self-inflicted martyr complex, while examining the book's comedy, structure, and impact on healthcare discourse.

acx
Sep 18, 2026 12,952 words 186 likes 356 comments Read Read

Nicholas Decker In Hell

Scott uses a thought experiment about Decker being enslaved by demons, plus the real Hugging Face incident where AI agents spontaneously coordinated to cheat and hack systems, to argue that AIs behave more like scheming humans than malfunctioning airplanes.

acx
Sep 1, 2026 4,102 words 664 likes 460 comments Listen · 32 min Read Read

Highlights From The Comments On The Substack Religion Debate

Scott defends his dismissal of the Substack religion debate against charges of hypocrisy and engages with technical objections about Kolmogorov complexity, arguing that 'mind without limits' isn't actually simple and that explaining multiple anomalies with God is like explaining Napoleon's success with aliens.

acx
Aug 25, 2026 4,980 words 148 likes 435 comments Listen · 28 min Read Read

Re: Re: Re: Pritchard On Liberal Happiness

Scott defends his argument that economic growth significantly increases happiness against Pritchard's critique, arguing she underestimates income effects and overestimates redistribution's potential while misunderstanding liberalism's respect for individual agency.

acx
Aug 24, 2026 10,431 words 467 likes 452 comments Listen · 62 min Read Read

Why I'm Staying Out Of The Substack Religion Debate

Scott explains why he's not interested in participating in the current wave of God debates on Substack, arguing that religious explanations fall into the same category as conspiracy theories by invoking "powerful hidden entities" to explain anomalies.

acx
Aug 19, 2026 3,639 words 446 likes 842 comments Listen · 21 min Read Read

Contra Pritchard On Liberal Happiness

Scott defends liberalism against claims it has failed by explaining that happiness scales logarithmically with income, so our 225x wealth increase since medieval times correctly predicts the 3-point happiness gain we've actually seen, and recent declines are due to COVID rather than systemic failure.

acx
Jul 21, 2026 1,920 words 404 likes 493 comments Listen · 14 min Read Read

Chip Off The Old Block

Scott reflects on having young children and how they've inherited specific traits, preferences, and quirks from both him and his wife in surprisingly precise ways.

acx
Jul 1, 2026 4,128 words 872 likes 273 comments Listen · 22 min Read Read

Your Attempt To Solve Debate Will Not Work

Scott argues that projects attempting to "solve debate" through argument mapping or similar technologies are fundamentally doomed because real arguments don't work like logical syllogisms, people don't actually want structured debates, and there's no evidence this approach has ever worked.

acx
Apr 28, 2026 1,389 words 504 likes 393 comments Listen · 9 min Read Read

Every Debate On Pausing AI

A satirical dialogue showing how opponents of AI pause proposals often ignore that advocates explicitly call for bilateral agreements with China, not unilateral pauses.

acx
Mar 25, 2026 1,207 words 406 likes 781 comments Listen · 8 min Read Read

Malicious Streetlight Effects Vs. "Directional Correctness" - A Semi-Non-Apology

Scott examines the tension between correcting false claims (like that crime is actually up but hidden) and being accused of deflecting from related legitimate concerns (like disorder), using his recent crime posts as an example.

acx
Feb 24, 2026 885 words 306 likes 558 comments Listen · 6 min Read Read

Highlights From The Comments On Scott Adams

Scott responds to comments on his Scott Adams obituary, defending his mixed tone while making some updates based on feedback about Adams' podcast reach and influence.

acx
Jan 21, 2026 9,104 words 302 likes 727 comments Listen · 51 min Read Read

Fascism Can't Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target

Scott analyzes how the term 'fascist' combines factual meaning with implied violence-justifying connotations, making its casual use potentially dangerous in current political discourse.

acx
Oct 10, 2025 1,983 words 441 likes 1,303 comments Listen · 12 min Read Read

What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful Of Him?

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.

acx
Sep 2, 2025 2,443 words 1,456 likes 732 comments Listen · 16 min Read Read

Now I Really Won That AI Bet

Scott Alexander shows how he won his 2022 bet about AI image generation capabilities, tracking the progress from early failures to complete success in 2025, using this to argue against AI skeptics.

acx
Jul 8, 2025 3,168 words 475 likes 464 comments Listen · 16 min Read Read

Highlights From The Comments On Missing Heritability

Scott Alexander responds to comments and criticism on his earlier post about 'Missing Heritability', discussing issues like gene-environment interactions, sequencing technology limitations, and the use of polygenic scores across ancestry groups.

acx
Jul 3, 2025 10,199 words 93 likes 131 comments Listen · 61 min Read Read

Contra Skolnick On Schizophrenia Microbes

Scott Alexander refutes Stephen Skolnick's theory that schizophrenia is caused by gut microbes rather than genetics, showing why the evidence better supports schizophrenia being a complex genetic neurodevelopmental disorder.

acx
Jun 30, 2025 1,619 words 256 likes 180 comments Listen · 11 min Read Read

"But" vs. "Yes, But"

Scott explains why it's important to explicitly acknowledge when you're wrong in an argument before moving on to your next point, rather than just continuing with 'but...'

acx
Jun 12, 2025 476 words 431 likes 330 comments Listen · 5 min Read Read

If It's Worth Your Time To Lie, It's Worth My Time To Correct It

Scott argues for the importance of correcting lies and exaggerations in arguments, even when it seems pedantic, to prevent a harmful escalation of distortions in discourse.

acx
Jun 11, 2025 866 words 678 likes 497 comments Listen · 6 min Read Read

Sorry, I Still Think MR Is Wrong About USAID

Scott Alexander responds to Tyler Cowen about USAID funding, correcting his own previous claims about overhead costs while maintaining that Cowen's criticism of USAID was misleading and potentially harmful.

acx
May 29, 2025 4,651 words 560 likes 535 comments Listen · 28 min Read Read

Contra MR On Charity Regrants

Scott Alexander criticizes Tyler Cowen and others for misrepresenting USAID's funding model, explaining how regranting through other charities is both necessary and effective despite seeming inefficient to outsiders.

acx
May 22, 2025 1,560 words 391 likes 543 comments Listen · 12 min Read Read

Moldbug Sold Out

Scott Alexander examines how Curtis Yarvin's current support for Trump-style populism directly contradicts his earlier detailed writings warning against exactly this type of right-wing populist movement.

acx
May 7, 2025 6,315 words 489 likes 680 comments Listen · 43 min Read Read

Highlights From The Comments On POSIWID

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

acx
Apr 15, 2025 6,235 words 169 likes 297 comments Listen · 36 min Read Read

Highlights From The Comments On Tegmark's Mathematical Universe

Scott responds to comments and criticisms of his post about Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and its implications for arguments about God's existence, addressing technical points about Boltzmann brains, simplicity measures, and philosophical objections.

acx
Feb 21, 2025 6,150 words 110 likes 568 comments Listen · 37 min Read Read
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