Astral Codex Ten Podcast

Freddie deBoer has a post on what he calls "the temporal Copernican principle." He argues we shouldn't expect a singularity, apocalypse, or any other crazy event in our lifetimes. Discussing celebrity transhumanist Yuval Harari, he writes: What I want to say to people like Yuval Harari is this. The modern human species is about 250,000 years old, give or take 50,000 years depending on who you ask....

[ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] For the longest time, I avoided reading The Pale King . It wasn't the style—in places thick with...

[Original post here .] Aeon writes : The main complaint about this expression is that it's "not a real apology," and that's true, it isn't. The error is in thinking it is therefore a fake apology. But it isn't, because "I'm sorry" is not a statement of contrition, it's a statement of sorrow. Somehow everyone has gotten confused into thinking an apology is the only correct use for that phrase despi...

You look up from your massive mahogany desk. "Tom, right? Thank you for coming…hmm…I see you're applying for the role of Vice-President Of Sinister Plots. Your resume looks very impressive - I didn't even know any of the masterminds behind the Kennedy assassination were still alive." "That's what we want you to think," says Tom. "Of course. Then just one question for you. What's something you beli...

Finalist #11 in the Book Review Contest [ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] 1. The Supernatural is Dead April, 1861 was a cruel mont...

And its cousin, "I'm sorry if you're offended" People hate this phrase . They say it's a fake apology that only gets used to dismiss others' concerns. Well, I'm sorry they feel that way. People sometimes get sad or offended by appropriate/correct/reasonable actions: Maybe one of your family members makes an unreasonable demand ("Please lend me lots of money to subsidize my drug addiction"), you sa...

Finalist #10 in the Book Review Contest  [ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] I. Suppose you were a newcomer to English literature, a...

Now that we've gone over the pharmacology of the GLP-1 agonists , let's get back to the economics. Last time , we asked - how will the economy handle a $12,000/year drug that everyone wants? Now we have an answer: the compounding loophole. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-compounding-loophole  

In a recent post , I said that part of opposing cancel culture is to rigorously define it. Greg Lukianoff, president of FIRE, took up the challenge . His definition, first mentioned in his book Cancelling Of The American Mind , is: Cancel Culture is the uptick, beginning around 2014 and accelerating in 2017 and after, of campaigns to get people fired, disinvited, deplatformed, or otherwise punishe...

Finalist #9 in the Book Review Contest You are a serious person with serious interests. The last comic book you read was more likely by Bryan Caplan than Jonathan Hickman. You would prefer to be reading high quality book reviews on AstralCodexTen. You believe ACX book reviews are usually more insightful than the books themselves, and a far more efficient use of your time. But even book reviews tak...

Fine, the title is an exaggeration. But only a small one. GLP-1 receptor agonist medications like Ozempic are already FDA-approved to treat diabetes and obesity. But an increasing body of research finds they're also effective against  stroke, heart disease, kidney disease , Parkinson's , Alzheimer's , alcoholism , and drug addiction . There's a pattern in fake scammy alternative medicine. People g...

[ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] To a first approximation, there are a million books about World War II. Why should you care abou...

[original post here ] Table Of Contents I. Comments About Master And Slave Morality II. Comments By People Named In The Post III . Comments Making Specific Points About One Of The Thinkers In The Post IV. Other Comments https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-nietzsche  

Some commenters on the recent post accused me of misunderstanding the Nietzschean objection to altruism. We hate altruism, they said, not because we're "bad and cruel", but because we instead support vitalism . Vitalism is a moral system that maximizes life, glory and strength, instead of maximizing happiness. Altruism is bad because it throws resources into helping sick (maybe even dysgenic) peop...

[ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] Content warning: body horror, existential devastation, suicide. This book is an infohazard that...

I. Bentham's Bulldog Blogger "Bentham's Bulldog" recently wrote Shut Up About Slave Morality . Nietzsche's concept of "slave morality" (he writes) is just a dysphemism for the usual morality where you're not bad and cruel. Right-wing edgelords use "rejection of slave morality" as a justification for badness and cruelty: When people object to slave morality, they are just objecting to morality. The...

[ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-real-raw-news  

[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 post are wrong or misleading. I correct these as I see them, and will highlight important corrections later, but I can't guarantee I will have caught them all by the time you read this.] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/links-for-july-2024  

The "LibsOfTikTok" Twitter account found a random Home Depot employee who said she wished the Trump assassin hadn't missed. Her followers mass-called Home Depot and got the employee fired . Moral of the story: despite everything, there's apparently still a norm against assassinating politicians. But some on the right interpreted this as meaning something more. A sudden vibe shift, or impending Tru...

Finalist #5 in the Book Review Contest https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-how-language-began   [ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which one...

[ Original post here ] Table Of Contents 1: Responses To Broad Categories Of Objections 2: Responses To Specific Comments 3: Comments By People Who Have Relevant Experiences 4: Closing Thoughts https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/highlights-from-the-comments-on-mentally  

A guest post by Daniel Böttger [Editor's note: I accept guest posts from certain people, especially past Book Review Contest winners. Daniel Böttger, who wrote last year's review of On The Marble Cliffs , has finally taken me up on this and submitted this essay. I don't necessarily agree with or endorse all guest posts, and I'm still collecting my thoughts (ha!) on this one.] Nobody knows for sure...

[ This is one of the finalists in the 2024 book review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posting about one of these a week for several months. When you've read them all, I'll ask you to vote for a favorite, so remember which ones you liked ] "You wake up screaming, frightened by memories, You're plagued by nightmares, do we haunt all of...

Ten people are stuck on a lifeboat after their ship sank. It will be weeks before anyone finds them, and they're out of food. They've heard this story before, so they decide to turn to cannibalism sooner rather than later. They agree to draw lots to determine the victim. Just as the first person is reaching for the lots, Albert shouts out "WAIT LET'S ALL KILL AND EAT BOB!" They agree to do this in...

I. Suppose that you, an ordinary person, open your door and start choking on yellow smoke. You call up your representative and say "there should be less pollution". A technical expert might hear "there should be less pollution" and have dozens of questions. Do you just want to do common-sense things, like lower the detection threshold for hexamethyldecawhatever? Or do you want to ban tetraethylpen...