How to avoid getting lost reading Scott Alexander and his 1500+ blog posts? This unaffiliated fan website lets you sort and search through the whole codex. Enjoy!

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Jul 01, 2023
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Your Book Review: Safe Enough?

42 min • 5,435 words • 263 comments • 106 likes • podcast
A review of 'Safe Enough?' by Thomas Wellock, exploring the history and limitations of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in nuclear safety. Longer summary
This book review examines 'Safe Enough? A History of Nuclear Power and Accident Risk' by Thomas Wellock, which chronicles the development of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) in nuclear safety. The review discusses how PRA became the dominant method for analyzing nuclear risk, its successes in reducing accidents, and its limitations in predicting extreme events like Fukushima. The author argues that while PRA greatly improved nuclear safety, it cannot fully account for rare but catastrophic 'dragon king' events, leaving the question of whether nuclear power is 'safe enough' ultimately unanswered. Shorter summary
Dec 20, 2021
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Mantic Monday: Let Me Google That For You

20 min • 2,525 words • 125 comments • 41 likes • podcast
Scott Alexander reviews recent developments in prediction markets, including Google's internal market and Metaculus' 'fortified essays', while discussing challenges and applications in various fields. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses recent developments in prediction markets, including Google's internal prediction market Gleangen, challenges in long-term predictions, conditional markets for policy decisions, and new weight loss drugs. He also covers Metaculus' 'fortified essays' concept, which combines expert analysis with crowd forecasts, and shares recent predictions on topics like COVID-19 hospitalizations and SAT requirements in college admissions. Shorter summary
Jun 04, 2021
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Your Book Review: Where's My Flying Car?

25 min • 3,124 words • 547 comments • 66 likes • podcast
A review of 'Where's My Flying Car?' by J. Storrs Hall, exploring the causes of technological stagnation and the potential for future progress in flying cars, nuclear energy, and nanotechnology. Longer summary
This book review discusses J. Storrs Hall's 'Where's My Flying Car?', which explores the causes of the Great Stagnation since the 1970s. Hall argues that the stagnation was caused by flatlining energy usage, stemming from a failure to adopt nuclear energy due to excessive regulation driven by 'green fundamentalism'. The review covers Hall's analysis of flying cars, nuclear power, and nanotechnology, detailing how regulation and public funding have hindered progress in these areas. It also touches on Hall's critique of government-funded science and his vision for future technological advancements. Shorter summary