Astral Codex Ten Podcast
Episodes
Book Review Legal Systems Very Different From Ours
14 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Medieval Icelandic crime victims would sell the right to pursue a perpetrator to the highest bidder. 18th century English justice replaced fines with ...
Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
09 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Alchemist asked if I wanted a drink. I did, but no amount of staring could make my eyes settle on the color of the liquid in the flask. And the go...
Does Age Bring Wisdom?
08 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
I turn 33 today. I can only hope that age brings wisdom. We've been talking recently about the high-level frames and heuristics that organize other co...
CONCEPT-SHAPED HOLES CAN BE IMPOSSIBLE TO NOTICE
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When I wrote about my experiences doing psychotherapy with people, one commenter wondered if I might be schizoid: There are a lot of schizoid peopl...
NON-EXPERT EXPLANATION
03 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
SSC's review of postmodernism got very mixed reviews. Some of them made a good point: why should I be trying this at all? I'm not a postmodernist, I...
POSTMODERNISM FOR RATIONALISTS (MY ATTEMPT)
02 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Some of the Seattleites put together a Postmodernism For Rationalists presentation that's been sparking a lot of discussion. It's not quite the way...
AGAINST RAT PARK
26 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Rat Park is a famous study in which lab rats were kept in a really nice habitat that satisfied their every need. Contrary to the usual results with la...
HOW DID NEW ATHEISM FAIL SO MISERABLY?
25 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Baffler publishes a long article against "idiot" New Atheists. It's interesting only in the context of so many similar articles, and an inabili...
KOLMOGOROV COMPLICITY AND THE PARABLE OF LIGHTNING
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A good scientist, in other words, does not merely ignore conventional wisdom, but makes a special effort to break it. Scientists go looking for troub...
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COMMENTS ON DARK AGES
17 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Thanks to everyone who made interesting comments on yesterday's post about Dark Ages. Several people challenged the matching of the economic/populatio...
WERE THERE DARK AGES?
16 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Cracked offers Five Ridiculous Myths You Probably Believe About The Dark Ages; number one is "The Dark Ages Were A Real Thing": The Dark Ages were n...
SSC JOURNAL CLUB SEROTONIN RECEPTORS
11 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Pop science likes to dub dopamine "the reward chemical" and serotonin "the happiness chemical". God only knows what norepinephrine is, but I'm sure it...
IN FAVOR OF FUTURISM BEING ABOUT THE FUTURE
11 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From Boston Review: Know Thy Futurist. It's an attempt to classify and analyze various types of futurism, in much the same way that a Jack Chick tra...
SSC SURVEY RESULTS ON TRUST
11 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Last post talked about individual differences in whether people found others basically friendly or hostile. The SSC survey included a sort of relat...
DIFFERENT WORLDS
11 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A few years ago I had lunch with another psychiatrist-in-training and realized we had totally different experiences with psychotherapy. We both got th...