How to explore Scott Alexander's work and his 1500+ blog posts? This unaffiliated fan website lets you sort and search through the whole codex. Enjoy!

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2 posts found
Jul 16, 2024
acx
53 min 7,338 words 489 comments 155 likes podcast (43 min)
Daniel Böttger proposes a new theory of consciousness as recursive reflections of neural oscillations, explaining qualia and suggesting experimental tests. Longer summary
This guest post by Daniel Böttger proposes a new theory of consciousness, describing it as recursive reflections of neural oscillations. The theory posits that qualia arise from the internal processing of information within oscillating neural patterns, which can reflect on themselves. The post explains how this theory accounts for various characteristics of qualia and consciousness, and suggests ways to test the theory using EEG source analysis. Shorter summary
Jan 13, 2023
acx
17 min 2,276 words 526 comments 266 likes podcast (14 min)
Scott Alexander examines two types of conspiracy theories, suggesting they stem from different cognitive processes: unusual evidence processing and emotional priors. Longer summary
Scott Alexander explores two types of conspiracy theories: those centered on anomalies in narratives (like Kennedy assassination theories) and those based more on emotional responses (like the Global Adrenochrome Pedophile Cabal). He suggests that the first type often stems from unusual evidence processing styles, while the second type may be rooted in strong emotions acting as priors for cognitive processing. Scott proposes that some conspiracy theories might be attempts to justify strong negative feelings towards certain groups or individuals, providing a clear and objectively bad reason to hate them when reality is often more complex and ambiguous. Shorter summary