The Bayesian Conspiracy

We discuss schooling and education with Audrey. Robin Hanson argues that schooling is to domesticate humans . The Zvi is much more emotionally compelling in his Case Against Education and it’s follow-up (with more coming) Scott Alexander examines why DC’s graduation rates are projected to plummet Richard Feynman’s anecdote about students who knew all the details of light polarizi...

This one got off to an odd start since we were on a time crunch and Joshua as delayed in arriving. As a result, this one is way more disorganized than usual. We hope it’s fun nonetheless. Big thanks to David for our intro music! I’ll add a link here for his stuff when I track it down. We’d like to thank creators of our new outro music from the Sumerki Project! Check out their stu...

Join Steven and David Youssef as they talk about the rationality community, how to win, and explore some possible reasons that Rationalists aren’t all total rock stars! Links: Tim Ferris’s The Four Hour Work Week The works of Naseem Taleb, and specifically Anti-Fragile  

This episode got off to an interesting start. We usually test the mics with small talk and whatnot, but wound up just getting into interesting things and never quite got around to breaking to do an intro. I guess today we talk about culture war stuff. cw: cw We mentioned Scott Alexander and his views on feminism and social justice . Those links are just some of his views. If you’ve ever read...

In this episode, we discuss 3 or 4 popular things currently (or recently) circulating Rationalist circles online. Yudkowsky on no fire alarms for AI. Zvi on the concept of Slack. Ben Hoffman “ Sabbath Hard and Go Home “.  A Lesswrong Crypto Autopsy on Lesserwrong by Scott Alexander: Gwern discussing bitcoin on Lesswrong back in the day.  A commenter on the subreddit posted this on this...

Robin Hanson returns to talk about his new book: The Elephant In The Brain Robin’s classic “X is not about Y” post . 2008! Man, time flies. Eneasz mentioned The North Pond Hermit . Relevant quote: “Solitude did increase my perception. But here’s the tricky thing—when I applied my increased perception to myself, I lost my identity. With no audience, no one to perform for, I...

Brian Dunning of the Skeptoid podcast and Skeptoid Media Inc. returns to talk with us about his newest documentary, The Principles of Curiosity! ( Website Link , Video Link ) It presents a general introduction to the foundations of scientific skepticism and critical thinking, focusing on a simple process they call the three Cs: Challenge, Consider, and Conclude. It’s the spiritual successor...

A discussions as to whether marriage is outdated and net-harmful. In large part based on Eneasz’s blog post . Naveen recommends this discussion between 3Blue1Brown and Ben Eater on Net Neutrality See also Naveen’s current project – Standard Meta Next episode:  The Principles of Curiosity

Robert McIntyre talks about the future of aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation I’m sure you’re all stoked about the sound on this one. All we can say is that we took steps to correct it (like we all recorded our audio independently, including having Robert send his own recording to us) and somehow the heavens conspired to make this sound harsher than the first. Sorry for the ear damage...

Happy Holidays! Nothing this new this week, but here’s some Star Wars The Methods of Rationality main page

In this episode we have our sound engineer Kyle Moore on the show. I thought it would be fun to talk with someone who sort of has to listen to the show and get their take on it. The conversation was, in my opinion, very fun and engaging. I also edited this episode since Kyle has been busy with his day job. – Steven Discussed in this episode: Straw Man vs Steel Man arguments Eneasz’s pa...

Make me one with everything. We went a little off-format for this one. Peter Singer – All Animals Are Equal (pdf) Scott Alexander tries to do a study , but it’s unethical… Eliezer Yudkowsky on Joy In The Merely Real Richard Dawkins – The Greatest Show on Earth William The Conqueror (Sexyback parody) Rick Strassman – DMT: The Spirit Molecule

We speak with Robert McIntyre, winner of the Small Animal Brain Preservation Prize , about recent advances in brain preservation. A pretty good introduction to  connectomics  is this TED Talk by Sebastian Seung Robert recommends some papers on recent advances in scanning and simulation of brain tissue — 1 , 2 , 3 , 4  — and also the  Whole Brain Emulation Roadmap Robert’s paper o...

If this episode sounds a little sub-par, it’s because Steven edited it since Kyle was on vacation. Let his reputation remain intact! Check out Naveen Mishra on twitter! @urstrulymishra   Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark Stanford’s Legal Design Lab Legalese: an open-source project to  draft legal documents the way programmers develop software! Quantifying Decentralization  

The Only Way to Win is Not to Play Major source used by Eneasz – Our Mind Can Be Hijacked Meditations on Moloch A recent Molochian short story Eneasz likes – Three Bodies at Mitanni The Two Income Trap Age of Em Superstitious Mice The Capt America/National Anthem Meme – spread by Russians? Tristan Harris on Sam Harris’s podcast , and his article Steven referenced Facebook P...

A quick primer, and what do they have to do with EA? Bitcoin mining takes off in Venezuela due to hyperinflation of the local currency and nearly-free electricity. China is starting to shut down legal BitCoin use . What makes Ethereum special ? Ethereum already using as much electricity as a small country . Rhys Lindmark on Twitter and Patreon Harry Potter – is it super pro-capitalist/consum...

Eneasz talks about his first Burning Man experience Sorry this is late. Please accept a 167 minute episode as apology? And 9/26 is Petrov Day ! The 10 Principles of Burning Man , at the official Burning Man Organization site Eneasz’s series of posts on Burning Man – ( 0 )  1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  (some repetition from what’s in the podcast) There’s a couple minutes of extra talk...

We speak with aspiring rationalists with children. Our previous episode pondering children – Kids, These Days Louis C.K. has a bunch of stuff on parenting I Wonder  by Annaka Harris, a book on emotional intelligence for children Article on treating kids like people The Rider and the Elephant (and the Path!) Pet Semetary Nonviolent Communication Republican Baby vs Christian Baby Bryan Caplan...

Julia Galef’s ‘ Update Project ‘. Check out some of the other links on her website too. Steven: “There’s a ton of content and techniques in this area that I wanted to cover and didn’t get a chance to. I’m including a couple of further reading suggestions below.” Brienne Yudkowsky’s blog “Agenty Duck” is the best source of introspect...

More ritual than spirituality, honestly. We were aiming for both, but caught up in ritual. Perhaps we’ll revisit the spirituality aspect in a future episode! Melting Asphalt on Religion, Politics, and Self-Suppression Welcome to Night Vale , and my All Hail summary The type of poetry Eneasz likes is called “villanelles.” Here are four great examples . From Less Wrong: An Alien Go...

You can’t control (well) what you can’t count Samzdat’s posts that served as the basis of much of this episode: Man as a Rationalist Animal , and The Meridian of Her Greatness . Also: The Use and Abuse of Witchdoctors for Life (not Witchdoctors Without Borders, as Eneasz misremembered) Matt Freeman’s podcast –  We’ve Got Worm Also from Matt – The Daly Planet Sco...

Under the Aegis of Transhuman Spiderman + Other Considerations (and Listener Feedback Catch-up) Fiction The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect , by Roger Williams The Golden Age , by John C Wright Utopia, LOL? , by Jamie Wahls ( +audio version ) Red Legacy and Other Stories, by Eneasz Brodski Non-Fiction Making Beliefs Pay Rent The Psychological Unity of Humankind , by Eliezer Yudkowsky  – cou...

Going beyond our meat-suits Transhumanism as Simplified Humanism  text. Also available in audio here, starting at 6:52 Eneasz with PZ Meyers, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and David Brin: The Immortality Debate The Fun Theory Sequence  (also – here’s a quick summary , but the summaries  really never do the sequences full justice) Chinese scientists genetically modify human embryos China accused o...

AlphaGo is back. Patrick talks about its latest accomplishments, its future, and other topics in game advances. Our first AlphaGo episode (a very early one, sorry about the audio quality) News of the most recent AlphaGo adventures Steph Curry’s training is on a new level Eneasz’s favorite type of tool-assist challenges – Item Abuse . DOTA Sam Harris speaks with Tristan Harris abo...

All the cool kids are doing podcasts about drugs, so… The DARE program’s lack of efficacy (see also: Wikipedia page on DARE studies ) How to get addicted to heroin without really trying . Eneasz thought he read this in The New Yorker, but it was actually Cracked, which is like the New Yorker except more prestigious. Sam Harris’s podcast episode “ Drugs And The Meaning of Li...