Astral Codex Ten Podcast
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Astral Codex Ten Podcast
The official audio version of Astral Codex Ten, with an archive of posts from Slate Star Codex. It's just me reading Scott Alexander's blog posts.
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1166 episodes
Never Cross a River Four Feet Deep on Average
Guest post by Alexander "Sasha" Putilin
[This is a guest post by 2024 ACX grantee Sasha Putilin. I encourage any ACX grantees who are interested...
My AI Opinions
I recently had a minor spat over someone misinterpreting my AI beliefs (see section marked "Update" at the bottom here), so I thought I would list th...
Book Review: The Dialectical Imagination
The philosophers of the Frankfurt School practiced a technique called negative dialectics, where concepts are defined as much by what you can't say ab...
Use AI This Election
I'm not saying AI is superintelligent or can decide better than you can. I'm saying that if you - like me - spend an hour or so doing research before...
New Paradigms Won't Save You
One popular objection to AI concerns is to declare that LLMs can never be AGI. You need a "new paradigm". Therefore, AGI is so far in the future that...
The Types Of Candidate You Find In The California Gubernatorial Race
Sorry, I give up.
In past elections, I've covered every single candidate for governor of California, from the incumbents all the way down to the...
The Sigmoids Won't Save You
"All exponentials eventually become sigmoids" is an annoying AI talking point. If someone presents a graph like this…
….and points out that it s...
Nostalgebraist's Hydrogen Jukeboxes
In conclusion, the only good theory of taste is Nostalgebraist's.
He wrote a post called Hydrogen Jukeboxes, analyzing the literary output of...
Three Model Organisms For Taste
(a continuation of yesterday's post)
Vexillology is the c. elegans of aesthetics - the simplest model organism that lets us observe dynamics of...
Contra Everyone On Taste
Last year I wrote a piece on artistic taste, which got many good responses from (eg) Ozy, Frank Lantz, and Sympathetic Opposition. I tastelessly fo...
What Deontological Bars?
Constraint consequentialists believe that you should try to do good things that improve the world, unless those break hard-and-fast rules ("deontologi...
Your Attempt To Solve Debate Will Not Work
As a blogger, I hear about lots of projects to "solve debate", or "disagree better", or "map arguments". Often these are ACX grant applications. I alw...
Links For April 2026
[I haven't independently verified each link. On average, commenters will end up spotting evidence that around two or three of the links in each links...
Half A Month Of Consolation Writing Advice
This month, rationalist institution Lighthaven is running their second Inkhaven, a bootcamp for aspiring bloggers. Participants have to publish a post...
Orban Was Bad, Even Though We Don't Have A Perfect Word For His Badness
Viktor Orban, __________ of Hungary for sixteen years, lost his re-election bid earlier this week.
The simplest phrase to put in the blank is "p...
Against The Concept Of Telescopic Altruism
I.
"Telescopic altruism" is a supposed tendency for some people to ignore those close to them in favor of those further away. Like its cousin "v...
A Buddhist Sun Miracle?
In 1917, some Portuguese children started seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin told them she would enact a great miracle on a certain day in...
How Natural Tradeoff And Failure Components?
Michael Halassa: Did John Nash Really Have Schizophrenia? is a good article on the genetics of psychosis. Previous research found that schizophrenia...
Every Debate On Pausing AI
SUPPORTER: America needs to start talking to China to come up with a bilateral agreement to pause AI. The agreement would need to be transparent, mutu...
Being John Rawls
I.
John Rawls was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 21, 1921. Not John Rawls the famous liberal philosopher (or, rather, John Rawls the f...
Support Your Local Collaborator
Every few weeks, a Trump administration official comes up with an insane plan that would devastate some American industry, region, or demographic. May...
Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
I hate the term "hallucinations" for when AIs say false things. It's perfectly calculated to mislead the reader - to make them think AIs are crazy, or...
Last Rights
Everyone hates Congress. That poll showing that cockroaches are more popular than Congress is now thirteen years old, and things haven't improved in...
SEIU Delenda Est
California lets interest groups propose measures for the state ballot. Anyone who gathers enough signatures (currently 874,641) can put their hare-bra...
Mantic Monday: Groundhog Day
On Friday, the Pentagon declared AI company Anthropic a "supply chain risk", a designation never before given to an American company. This unprecedent...
"All Lawful Use": Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Last Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared AI company Anthropic a "supply chain risk", the first time this designation has ever been applied...
Next-Token Predictor Is An AI's Job, Not Its Species
I.
In The Argument, Kelsey Piper gives a good description of the ways that AIs are more than just "next-token predictors" or "stochastic parrot...
The Pentagon Threatens Anthropic
Here's my understanding of the situation:
Anthropic signed a contract with the Pentagon last summer. It originally said the Pentagon had to foll...
Malicious Streetlight Effects Vs. "Directional Correctness" - A Semi-Non-Apology
Malicious streetlights are an evil trick from Dark Data Journalism. Some annoying enemy has a valid complaint. So you use FACTS and LOGIC to prove tha...
Book Review Contest Rules 2026
It's that time again. Even numbered years are book reviews, odd-numbered years are non-book reviews, so you're limited to books for now.
Write a...
Crime As Proxy For Disorder
The problem: people hate crime and think it's going up. But actually, crime barely affects most people and is historically low. So what's going on?
Record Low Crime Rates Are Real, Not Just Reporting Bias Or Improved Medical Care
Last year, the US may have recorded the lowest murder rate in its 250 year history. Other crimes have poorer historical data, but are at least at ~50...
What Happened With Bio Anchors?
[Original post: Biological Anchors: A Trick That Might Or Might Not Work]
I.
Ajeya Cotra's Biological Anchors report was the landmark AI...
Political Backflow From Europe
The European discourse can be - for lack of a better term - America-brained. We hear stories of Black Lives Matter marches in countries without signif...
Links For February 2026
[I haven't independently verified each link. On average, commenters will end up spotting evidence that around two or three of the links in each links...
Moltbook: After The First Weekend
[previous post: Best Of Moltbook]
From the human side of the discussion:
As the AIs would say, "You've cut right to the heart of this issu...
Best Of Moltbook
Moltbook is "a social network for AI agents", although "humans [are] welcome to observe".
The backstory: a few months ago, Anthropic released Cl...
Slightly Against The "Other People's Money" Argument Against Aid
In the comments to last year's USAID post, Fabian said:
While i am happy for the existence of charity organisations, i don't get why people ins...
Highlights From The Comments On Scott Adams
[original post: The Dilbert Afterlife]
Table of Contents:
1: Should I Have Written This At All?
2: Was I Unfair To Adams?
3:...
The Dilbert Afterlife
Thanks to everyone who sent in condolences on my recent death from prostate cancer at age 68, but that was Scott Adams. I (Scott Alexander) am still a...