RSS

History

TagLast edit: 9 Feb 2021 9:35 UTC by Yoav Ravid

History: “Why should I remember the Wright Brothers’ first flight? I was not there. But as a rationalist, could I dare to not remember, when the event actually happened? Is there so much difference between seeing an event through your eyes—which is actually a causal chain involving reflected photons, not a direct connection—and seeing an event through a history book? Photons and history books both descend by causal chains from the event itself.”—Eliezer Yudkowsky, Making History Available.

Related Pages: History of Rationality, History of Less Wrong

Dis­con­tin­u­ous progress in his­tory: an update

KatjaGrace14 Apr 2020 0:00 UTC
190 points
25 comments31 min readLW link1 review
(aiimpacts.org)

A tale from Com­mu­nist China

Wei Dai18 Oct 2020 17:37 UTC
281 points
65 comments2 min readLW link1 review

An Ob­ser­va­tion of Vav­ilov Day

Elizabeth3 Jan 2022 21:10 UTC
236 points
42 comments3 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

Cortés, Pizarro, and Afonso as Prece­dents for Takeover

Daniel Kokotajlo1 Mar 2020 3:49 UTC
180 points
78 comments11 min readLW link1 review

Re­view: For­agers, Farm­ers, and Fos­sil Fuels

L Rudolf L2 Sep 2021 17:59 UTC
28 points
7 comments25 min readLW link
(strataoftheworld.blogspot.com)

Ra­tion­al­ism be­fore the Sequences

Eric Raymond30 Mar 2021 14:04 UTC
593 points
83 comments11 min readLW link2 reviews

The 300-year jour­ney to the covid vaccine

jasoncrawford9 Nov 2020 23:06 UTC
123 points
9 comments5 min readLW link2 reviews
(rootsofprogress.org)

The Coper­ni­can Revolu­tion from the Inside

jacobjacob1 Nov 2017 10:51 UTC
123 points
46 comments19 min readLW link

12 in­ter­est­ing things I learned study­ing the dis­cov­ery of na­ture’s laws

Ben Pace19 Feb 2022 23:39 UTC
267 points
40 comments9 min readLW link1 review

Why ev­ery­thing might have taken so long

KatjaGrace1 Jan 2018 1:00 UTC
113 points
16 comments3 min readLW link1 review
(meteuphoric.wordpress.com)

What is it good for? But ac­tu­ally?

KatjaGrace16 Dec 2020 9:20 UTC
44 points
17 comments2 min readLW link
(worldspiritsockpuppet.com)

[An­swer] Why wasn’t sci­ence in­vented in China?

Ruby23 Apr 2019 21:47 UTC
95 points
46 comments21 min readLW link1 review

On Build­ing The­o­ries of History

Samo Burja23 Feb 2018 23:40 UTC
30 points
20 comments5 min readLW link

Mak­ing His­tory Available

Eliezer Yudkowsky31 Aug 2007 19:52 UTC
192 points
87 comments3 min readLW link

Hu­man­ity is Win­ning the Fight Against In­fec­tious Disease

lsusr30 Aug 2021 1:31 UTC
60 points
8 comments2 min readLW link

High­lights from the mem­o­irs of Van­nevar Bush

jasoncrawford15 Jul 2022 18:08 UTC
11 points
0 comments13 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Why haven’t we cel­e­brated any ma­jor achieve­ments lately?

jasoncrawford17 Aug 2020 20:34 UTC
198 points
69 comments12 min readLW link2 reviews
(rootsofprogress.org)

Book Re­view: Ages Of Discord

Scott Alexander3 Sep 2019 6:30 UTC
36 points
1 comment21 min readLW link
(slatestarcodex.com)

Book Re­view: Albion’s Seed

Scott Alexander27 Apr 2016 8:40 UTC
34 points
1 comment32 min readLW link

Lives of the Cam­bridge poly­math geniuses

Owain_Evans25 Jan 2022 4:45 UTC
107 points
40 comments3 min readLW link

The Choice Transition

18 Nov 2024 12:30 UTC
44 points
4 comments15 min readLW link
(strangecities.substack.com)

Ret­ro­spec­tive forecasting

Ege Erdil30 Jan 2022 16:38 UTC
22 points
6 comments5 min readLW link

Jean Mon­net: The Guerilla Bureaucrat

Martin Sustrik20 Mar 2021 10:37 UTC
177 points
25 comments18 min readLW link1 review

Les­sons on AI Takeover from the conquistadors

17 Jul 2020 22:35 UTC
61 points
31 comments5 min readLW link

Book re­view: WEIRDest People

PeterMcCluskey30 Nov 2020 3:33 UTC
101 points
57 comments9 min readLW link
(www.bayesianinvestor.com)

Failing to Learn from History

Eliezer Yudkowsky30 Aug 2007 20:22 UTC
112 points
11 comments1 min readLW link

Moloch and the sand­pile catastrophe

Eric Raymond2 Apr 2022 15:35 UTC
120 points
25 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] What are the best prece­dents for in­dus­tries failing to in­vest in valuable AI re­search?

Daniel Kokotajlo14 Dec 2020 23:57 UTC
18 points
16 comments1 min readLW link

Les­sons from the Cold War on In­for­ma­tion Hazards: Why In­ter­nal Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is Critical

Gentzel24 Feb 2018 23:34 UTC
47 points
10 comments4 min readLW link

100 Years Of Ex­is­ten­tial Risk

jdp27 Sep 2021 0:31 UTC
81 points
12 comments33 min readLW link
(www.wrestlinggnon.com)

Re­view: The End Is Always Near

Elizabeth27 Sep 2021 7:40 UTC
37 points
10 comments3 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

[Book re­view] Who we are and how we got here

mukashi30 Sep 2021 4:26 UTC
14 points
0 comments8 min readLW link

What can we learn from tra­di­tional so­cieties?

mukashi5 Oct 2021 0:24 UTC
18 points
11 comments11 min readLW link

Cheap food causes co­op­er­a­tive ethics

lsusr7 Oct 2021 1:52 UTC
71 points
17 comments2 min readLW link

Noragami

lsusr8 Oct 2021 5:11 UTC
25 points
5 comments2 min readLW link

Book Re­view: Churchill and Orwell

Sammy Martin9 Oct 2021 19:01 UTC
47 points
5 comments11 min readLW link

Book Re­view: Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

TheRealSlimHippo13 Oct 2021 16:22 UTC
28 points
3 comments17 min readLW link

Where did the 5 micron num­ber come from? Nowhere good. [Wired.com]

Elizabeth9 Nov 2021 7:14 UTC
108 points
8 comments1 min readLW link1 review
(www.wired.com)

The bonds of fam­ily and com­mu­nity: Poverty and cru­elty among Rus­sian peas­ants in the late 19th century

jasoncrawford28 Nov 2021 17:22 UTC
151 points
36 comments15 min readLW link1 review
(rootsofprogress.org)

The end of Vic­to­rian cul­ture, part I: struc­tural forces

David Hugh-Jones9 Dec 2021 19:25 UTC
24 points
0 comments4 min readLW link
(wyclif.substack.com)

Cross­ing the His­tory-Les­sons Threshold

lionhearted (Sebastian Marshall)17 Oct 2014 0:17 UTC
50 points
65 comments6 min readLW link

The end of Vic­to­rian cul­ture, part II: peo­ple and history

David Hugh-Jones18 Dec 2021 18:55 UTC
9 points
0 comments7 min readLW link
(wyclif.substack.com)

[Book Re­view] “The Most Pow­er­ful Idea in the World” by William Rosen

lsusr23 Dec 2021 8:27 UTC
41 points
4 comments8 min readLW link

Why did Europe con­quer the world?

lsusr28 Dec 2021 12:00 UTC
1 point
48 comments6 min readLW link

Why do we need a NEW philos­o­phy of progress?

jasoncrawford25 Jan 2022 17:28 UTC
75 points
26 comments8 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Trans­porta­tion as a Constraint

johnswentworth6 Apr 2020 4:58 UTC
183 points
34 comments6 min readLW link1 review

Ob­served pat­terns around ma­jor tech­nolog­i­cal advancements

Richard Korzekwa 3 Feb 2022 0:30 UTC
44 points
15 comments11 min readLW link
(aiimpacts.org)

Defend­ing against hy­po­thet­i­cal moon life dur­ing Apollo 11

eukaryote7 Jan 2024 4:49 UTC
57 points
9 comments32 min readLW link
(eukaryotewritesblog.com)

Con­spir­acy-proof archeology

Malmesbury27 Feb 2022 22:59 UTC
65 points
10 comments6 min readLW link

[Question] How has the cost of cloth­ing in­su­la­tion changed since 1970 in the USA?

DanielFilan12 Jan 2020 23:31 UTC
14 points
10 comments1 min readLW link

The Dawn of Every­thing: a review

David Hugh-Jones21 Mar 2022 12:53 UTC
32 points
2 comments5 min readLW link
(wyclif.substack.com)

Albert Hirschman on liber­al­ism and nationalism

David Hugh-Jones23 Mar 2022 10:08 UTC
6 points
0 comments4 min readLW link
(wyclif.substack.com)

The lure of technocracy

jasoncrawford31 Mar 2022 19:58 UTC
27 points
13 comments4 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Clem’s Memo

abstractapplic16 Apr 2022 11:59 UTC
98 points
8 comments3 min readLW link

De­bate Rules In Ben­jamin Fran­klin’s Junto

namespace30 Oct 2018 23:42 UTC
77 points
8 comments1 min readLW link

Rein­vent­ing the wheel

jasoncrawford4 Jun 2022 22:39 UTC
78 points
13 comments2 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

my the­ory of the in­dus­trial revolution

bhauth28 Feb 2024 21:07 UTC
23 points
7 comments3 min readLW link
(www.bhauth.com)

Ad­vice for Ac­tivists from the His­tory of Environmentalism

Jeffrey Heninger16 May 2024 18:40 UTC
100 points
8 comments6 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

A brief his­tory of computers

Adam Zerner19 Jul 2023 2:59 UTC
72 points
18 comments33 min readLW link

Study­ing Early Stage Science: Re­search Pro­gram Introduction

habryka17 Jan 2020 22:12 UTC
32 points
1 comment15 min readLW link
(medium.com)

Indig­na­tion in re­sponse to the 1890 census

jasoncrawford8 Sep 2020 20:14 UTC
26 points
1 comment1 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Fiber arts, mys­te­ri­ous do­dec­a­he­drons, and wait­ing on “Eureka!”

eukaryote4 Aug 2022 20:37 UTC
124 points
15 comments9 min readLW link1 review
(eukaryotewritesblog.com)

Philos­o­phy of Therapy

DaystarEld10 Oct 2020 20:12 UTC
121 points
27 comments16 min readLW link
(daystareld.com)

Ten Thou­sand Years of Solitude

agp15 Aug 2023 17:45 UTC
136 points
19 comments4 min readLW link
(www.discovermagazine.com)

The Cold War di­vided Science

Douglas_Knight5 Apr 2014 23:10 UTC
35 points
53 comments1 min readLW link

A brief his­tory of eth­i­cally con­cerned scientists

Kaj_Sotala9 Feb 2013 5:50 UTC
103 points
143 comments14 min readLW link

The lost millennium

Ege Erdil24 Aug 2023 3:48 UTC
53 points
14 comments3 min readLW link

Amer­i­can in­ven­tion from the “heroic age” to the sys­tem-build­ing era

jasoncrawford6 Oct 2022 17:19 UTC
13 points
1 comment10 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

The Book of The Machines (Chap­ter 8)

Justin Bullock7 Oct 2022 19:07 UTC
2 points
0 comments40 min readLW link

From tech­noc­racy to the counterculture

jasoncrawford11 Oct 2022 19:37 UTC
28 points
1 comment26 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Book Re­view: The Se­crets of Alchemy

namespace21 Jan 2018 19:01 UTC
19 points
7 comments14 min readLW link

Black Death at the Golden Gate (book re­view)

PeterMcCluskey26 Jun 2020 16:09 UTC
17 points
0 comments4 min readLW link
(www.bayesianinvestor.com)

Beyond a bet­ter world

Davidmanheim14 Dec 2022 10:18 UTC
14 points
7 comments4 min readLW link
(progressforum.org)

How min­i­mal is our in­tel­li­gence?

Douglas_Reay25 Nov 2012 23:34 UTC
78 points
214 comments6 min readLW link

When Did EA Start?

jefftk25 Jan 2023 14:30 UTC
37 points
2 comments2 min readLW link
(www.jefftk.com)

Who in­vented knit­ting? The plot thick­ens

eukaryote5 Feb 2023 0:24 UTC
60 points
9 comments19 min readLW link
(eukaryotewritesblog.com)

A His­tory of Bayes’ Theorem

lukeprog29 Aug 2011 7:04 UTC
75 points
91 comments15 min readLW link

Book re­view: The Sleep­walk­ers by Arthur Koestler

Richard_Ngo23 Apr 2019 0:10 UTC
68 points
26 comments9 min readLW link
(thinkingcomplete.blogspot.com)

[Question] Has there been a “memetic col­lapse”?

Eli Tyre28 Dec 2019 5:36 UTC
32 points
7 comments1 min readLW link

A So­cial His­tory of Truth

Vaniver31 Jul 2023 22:49 UTC
64 points
2 comments14 min readLW link

Epistemic Spot Checks: The Fall of Rome

Elizabeth16 Oct 2019 18:40 UTC
38 points
2 comments8 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

The Flynn Effect Clarified

PeterMcCluskey12 Dec 2020 5:18 UTC
34 points
2 comments4 min readLW link
(www.bayesianinvestor.com)

Mini-re­view: ‘Prov­ing His­tory: Bayes’ The­o­rem and the Quest for the His­tor­i­cal Je­sus’

lukeprog1 Feb 2012 19:20 UTC
26 points
34 comments1 min readLW link

When life was liter­ally full of crap

jasoncrawford21 Dec 2020 21:16 UTC
60 points
4 comments5 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

Turn­ing air into bread

jasoncrawford21 Oct 2019 17:50 UTC
103 points
12 comments6 min readLW link1 review
(rootsofprogress.org)

Birds, Brains, Planes, and AI: Against Ap­peals to the Com­plex­ity/​Mys­te­ri­ous­ness/​Effi­ciency of the Brain

Daniel Kokotajlo18 Jan 2021 12:08 UTC
194 points
86 comments13 min readLW link1 review

Eisen­hower’s Atoms for Peace Speech

Akash17 May 2023 16:10 UTC
18 points
3 comments11 min readLW link
(www.iaea.org)

Po­ten­tial fac­tors in Bell Labs’ in­tel­lec­tual progress, Pt. 1

Ruby12 Feb 2021 19:26 UTC
50 points
6 comments8 min readLW link

Tra­di­tion is Smarter Than You Are

Kaj_Sotala19 Sep 2018 17:54 UTC
64 points
10 comments1 min readLW link
(scholars-stage.blogspot.com)

Jan Bloch’s Im­pos­si­ble War

Slimepriestess17 Feb 2020 16:14 UTC
112 points
30 comments5 min readLW link
(hivewired.wordpress.com)

[Book Re­view] Destiny Disrupted

lsusr21 Mar 2021 7:09 UTC
58 points
4 comments9 min readLW link

Les­sons from “The Book of My Life”

bmgarfinkel6 Jan 2021 22:40 UTC
114 points
3 comments16 min readLW link
(benmgarfinkel.wordpress.com)

Book re­view: Cui­sine and Empire

eukaryote21 Jan 2024 6:15 UTC
40 points
2 comments12 min readLW link
(eukaryotewritesblog.com)

Book Re­view: Righ­teous Vic­tims—A His­tory of the Zion­ist-Arab Conflict

Yair Halberstadt24 Jun 2024 11:02 UTC
51 points
8 comments34 min readLW link

The Fall of Rome, III: Progress Did Not Exist

LukeOnline25 Apr 2021 5:54 UTC
29 points
18 comments5 min readLW link

[Linkpost] Teach­ing Para­dox, Europa Univer­alis IV, Part I: State of Play

adamShimi2 May 2021 9:02 UTC
17 points
5 comments1 min readLW link
(acoup.blog)

The Oil Cri­sis of 1973

Elizabeth22 May 2020 15:50 UTC
79 points
10 comments3 min readLW link1 review
(acesounderglass.com)

Tech­nol­ogy Changes Constraints

johnswentworth25 Jan 2020 23:13 UTC
116 points
6 comments4 min readLW link

Carl Sa­gan, nuk­ing the moon, and not nuk­ing the moon

eukaryote13 Apr 2024 4:08 UTC
103 points
8 comments6 min readLW link
(eukaryotewritesblog.com)

[Question] Have epistemic con­di­tions always been this bad?

Wei Dai25 Jan 2020 4:42 UTC
210 points
106 comments4 min readLW link1 review

We need a new philos­o­phy of progress

jasoncrawford23 Aug 2021 21:31 UTC
65 points
44 comments2 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

We Live in an Era of Un­prece­dented World Peace

lsusr30 Aug 2021 22:25 UTC
27 points
15 comments1 min readLW link

World War Zero

lsusr31 Aug 2021 7:22 UTC
45 points
1 comment5 min readLW link

How fac­to­ries were made safe

jasoncrawford12 Sep 2021 19:58 UTC
185 points
46 comments18 min readLW link1 review
(rootsofprogress.org)

Ver­nor Vinge, who coined the term “Tech­nolog­i­cal Sin­gu­lar­ity”, dies at 79

Kaj_Sotala21 Mar 2024 22:14 UTC
149 points
25 comments1 min readLW link
(arstechnica.com)

On State­less Societies

Martin Sustrik27 Dec 2021 7:28 UTC
54 points
24 comments3 min readLW link

Am­bi­guity causes conflict

Ege Erdil26 Feb 2022 16:53 UTC
24 points
9 comments8 min readLW link

Why Rome?

Erich_Grunewald12 Mar 2022 11:29 UTC
19 points
7 comments8 min readLW link
(www.erichgrunewald.com)

[Question] Is there a good dataset for the mo­ments of the in­come dis­tri­bu­tion through­out his­tory?

Ege Erdil12 Mar 2022 13:26 UTC
9 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

Are There Ex­am­ples of Over­hang for Other Tech­nolo­gies?

Jeffrey Heninger13 Dec 2023 21:48 UTC
59 points
50 comments11 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

The Cuban mis­sile crisis: the strate­gic context

NathanBarnard16 May 2022 12:12 UTC
18 points
2 comments10 min readLW link

The Fourth Arena: What’s Up in the world these days? We’re mov­ing to a new, a new what?

Bill Benzon4 Jun 2022 19:07 UTC
2 points
0 comments3 min readLW link

The Fourth Arena 2: New be­ings in time

Bill Benzon5 Jun 2022 13:30 UTC
1 point
0 comments2 min readLW link

Book Re­view: How the World Be­came Rich

Davis Kedrosky9 Jun 2022 16:55 UTC
14 points
0 comments10 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

Was the In­dus­trial Revolu­tion The In­dus­trial Revolu­tion?

Davis Kedrosky14 Jun 2022 14:48 UTC
29 points
0 comments12 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

1689: Un­cov­er­ing the World New In­sti­tu­tion­al­ism Created

Davis Kedrosky17 Jun 2022 19:32 UTC
7 points
0 comments9 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

The Malthu­sian Trap: An Ex­tremely Short Introduction

Davis Kedrosky19 Jun 2022 15:25 UTC
5 points
0 comments6 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

Im­pe­rial Rus­sia was do­ing fine with­out the Soviets

Davis Kedrosky5 Jul 2022 22:24 UTC
6 points
3 comments14 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

Pro­tec­tion­ism in One Coun­try: How In­dus­trial Policy Worked in Canada

Davis Kedrosky25 Jul 2022 22:08 UTC
5 points
0 comments16 min readLW link
(daviskedrosky.substack.com)

An ex­tended rocket al­ign­ment analogy

remember13 Aug 2022 18:22 UTC
28 points
3 comments4 min readLW link

Free­dom is slavery

KatjaGrace4 Sep 2009 9:00 UTC
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link

Toni Kurz and the In­san­ity of Climb­ing Mountains

GeneSmith3 Jul 2022 20:51 UTC
270 points
67 comments11 min readLW link2 reviews

His­tory of the the­ory of well-being

David Hartsough30 Sep 2022 10:08 UTC
5 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

Why Weren’t Hot Air Bal­loons In­vented Sooner?

Lost Futures18 Oct 2022 0:41 UTC
115 points
52 comments6 min readLW link
(lostfutures.substack.com)

Ab­bots Brom­ley Horn Dance History

jefftk12 Oct 2022 2:10 UTC
11 points
0 comments2 min readLW link
(www.jefftk.com)

[Question] His­tor­i­cal ex­am­ples of peo­ple gain­ing un­usual cog­ni­tive abil­ities?

Nicholas / Heather Kross24 Nov 2022 19:01 UTC
8 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] Book recom­men­da­tions for the his­tory of ML?

Eleni Angelou28 Dec 2022 23:50 UTC
2 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

Call for Cruxes by Rhyme, a Longter­mist His­tory Consultancy

Lara1 Mar 2023 18:39 UTC
1 point
0 comments3 min readLW link
(forum.effectivealtruism.org)

The Debtors’ Revolt

Benquo6 Apr 2022 19:40 UTC
42 points
4 comments41 min readLW link
(benjaminrosshoffman.com)

times­tamp­ing through the Singularity

throwaway91811912728 Feb 2024 19:09 UTC
−2 points
4 comments8 min readLW link

The vir­tu­ous cir­cle: twelve con­jec­tures about fe­male re­pro­duc­tive agency and cul­tural self-determination

Miles Saltiel27 Dec 2023 18:25 UTC
0 points
2 comments14 min readLW link

The Per­cep­tron Controversy

Yuxi_Liu10 Jan 2024 23:07 UTC
65 points
18 comments1 min readLW link
(yuxi-liu-wired.github.io)

Was a Sub­way in New York City Inevitable?

Jeffrey Heninger30 Mar 2024 0:53 UTC
25 points
4 comments8 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

Ori­gins of the Lab Mouse

Niko_McCarty2 Jun 2024 15:40 UTC
16 points
0 comments20 min readLW link
(press.asimov.com)

What can we learn about childrea­r­ing from J. S. Mill?

Adam Scherlis2 Apr 2024 6:06 UTC
9 points
1 comment1 min readLW link

En­vi­ron­men­tal­ism in the United States Is Unusu­ally Partisan

Jeffrey Heninger13 May 2024 21:23 UTC
85 points
26 comments4 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

A Nar­ra­tive His­tory of En­vi­ron­men­tal­ism’s Partisanship

Jeffrey Heninger14 May 2024 16:51 UTC
31 points
3 comments10 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

Was Par­ti­san­ship Good for the En­vi­ron­men­tal Move­ment?

Jeffrey Heninger15 May 2024 17:30 UTC
24 points
0 comments5 min readLW link
(blog.aiimpacts.org)

The Wis­dom of Liv­ing for 200 Years

Martin Sustrik28 Jun 2024 4:44 UTC
25 points
3 comments4 min readLW link

WTF is with the In­fancy Gospel of Thomas?!? A deep dive into satire, philos­o­phy, and more

kromem9 Jul 2024 9:29 UTC
13 points
1 comment11 min readLW link

Agency in Politics

Martin Sustrik17 Jul 2024 5:30 UTC
35 points
2 comments3 min readLW link
(250bpm.substack.com)

Ro­mae Industriae

Maxwell Tabarrok19 Jul 2024 13:03 UTC
34 points
2 comments7 min readLW link
(www.maximum-progress.com)

Model­ing AI-driven oc­cu­pa­tional change over the next 10 years and beyond

2120eth12 Nov 2024 4:58 UTC
1 point
0 comments2 min readLW link

Pas­sages I High­lighted in The Let­ters of J.R.R.Tolkien

Ivan Vendrov25 Nov 2024 1:47 UTC
116 points
10 comments31 min readLW link

Paradigm Shifts—change ev­ery­thing… ex­cept al­most everything

James Stephen Brown23 Nov 2024 18:34 UTC
1 point
0 comments3 min readLW link
(nonzerosum.games)

I, Token

Ivan Vendrov25 Nov 2024 2:20 UTC
14 points
2 comments3 min readLW link
(nothinghuman.substack.com)

The Ra­tion­al­ist Guide to Hinduism

Harsha G.29 Mar 2023 17:03 UTC
24 points
12 comments9 min readLW link
(somestrangeloops.substack.com)

Napoleon stole the Ro­man In­qui­si­tion archives and in­ves­ti­gated the Gal­ileo case

Meow P27 Nov 2023 9:41 UTC
−3 points
0 comments1 min readLW link
(www.cricetuscricetus.co.uk)

Ja­pan’s Ninja Masters of Mys­tic Chaos

John Heinz27 Nov 2023 23:37 UTC
1 point
0 comments1 min readLW link

The abrupt­ness of nu­clear weapons

paulfchristiano25 Feb 2018 17:40 UTC
47 points
35 comments2 min readLW link

Re­search: Res­cuers dur­ing the Holocaust

Martin Sustrik30 Apr 2018 6:15 UTC
97 points
14 comments9 min readLW link1 review

Can the Chain Still Hold You?

lukeprog13 Jan 2012 1:28 UTC
210 points
361 comments4 min readLW link

Drain­ing the swamp

jasoncrawford28 Jan 2020 21:37 UTC
99 points
1 comment11 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

[Question] How did academia en­sure pa­pers were cor­rect in the early 20th Cen­tury?

Ben Pace29 Dec 2018 23:37 UTC
99 points
17 comments2 min readLW link1 review

Rule Thinkers In, Not Out

Scott Alexander27 Feb 2019 2:40 UTC
227 points
67 comments4 min readLW link4 reviews
(slatestarcodex.com)

And the AI would have got away with it too, if...

Stuart_Armstrong22 May 2019 21:35 UTC
75 points
7 comments1 min readLW link

Farewell Aaron Swartz (1986-2013)

Kawoomba12 Jan 2013 10:09 UTC
120 points
117 comments1 min readLW link

The Skep­tic’s Trilemma

Scott Alexander15 Mar 2009 0:12 UTC
84 points
15 comments5 min readLW link

Stranger Than History

Eliezer Yudkowsky1 Sep 2007 18:57 UTC
134 points
335 comments1 min readLW link

Guardians of Ayn Rand

Eliezer Yudkowsky18 Dec 2007 6:24 UTC
118 points
122 comments5 min readLW link

When None Dare Urge Restraint

Eliezer Yudkowsky8 Dec 2007 23:09 UTC
119 points
123 comments2 min readLW link

Eight Books To Read

Samo Burja14 May 2019 17:40 UTC
69 points
11 comments6 min readLW link
(medium.com)

Why I am not a Quaker (even though it of­ten seems as though I should be)

Benquo26 Sep 2017 7:00 UTC
48 points
18 comments16 min readLW link

Ein­stein’s Arrogance

Eliezer Yudkowsky25 Sep 2007 1:29 UTC
168 points
90 comments3 min readLW link

USA v Pro­gres­sive 1979 excerpt

RyanCarey27 Nov 2017 17:32 UTC
22 points
2 comments2 min readLW link

The Zom­bie Preacher of Somerset

Scott Alexander28 Mar 2009 22:29 UTC
62 points
34 comments5 min readLW link

The Era Of Un­limited Every­thing: Un­limited Ma­te­ri­als & Un­limited Money

jdcampolargo1 Aug 2020 3:01 UTC
4 points
11 comments10 min readLW link

A map of Bay Area memespace

Julia_Galef23 Sep 2013 17:34 UTC
76 points
31 comments7 min readLW link

Fight the Power

Jacob Falkovich22 Jun 2020 2:19 UTC
23 points
3 comments7 min readLW link

Life as metaphor for ev­ery­thing else.

Charlie Steiner5 Apr 2020 7:21 UTC
29 points
11 comments4 min readLW link

Sapiens

Vaniver8 Apr 2015 2:56 UTC
70 points
12 comments13 min readLW link

Epistemic Spot Check: The Dorito Effect (Mark Schatzker)

Elizabeth3 Oct 2018 17:10 UTC
43 points
8 comments1 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

What Botswana Can Teach Us About Poli­ti­cal Stability

Samo Burja9 May 2019 18:30 UTC
40 points
4 comments1 min readLW link
(medium.com)

Epistemic Spot Check: The Fate of Rome (Kyle Harper)

Elizabeth24 Aug 2019 21:40 UTC
39 points
3 comments5 min readLW link
(acesounderglass.com)

A sim­ple sketch of how re­al­ism be­came unpopular

Rob Bensinger11 Oct 2019 22:25 UTC
63 points
55 comments4 min readLW link

[Question] How Old is Smal­lpox?

Raemon10 Dec 2018 10:50 UTC
44 points
5 comments2 min readLW link

The Gal­ileo af­fair: who was on the side of ra­tio­nal­ity?

Val15 Feb 2015 20:52 UTC
48 points
71 comments7 min readLW link

Con­cepts Don’t Work That Way

lukeprog28 Sep 2011 2:01 UTC
88 points
92 comments8 min readLW link

For progress to be by ac­cu­mu­la­tion and not by ran­dom walk, read great books

MichaelVassar2 Mar 2010 8:11 UTC
83 points
117 comments3 min readLW link

We Agree: Speeches All Around!

JohnBuridan14 Jun 2018 17:53 UTC
37 points
19 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Which sci­en­tific dis­cov­ery was most ahead of its time?

Richard_Ngo16 May 2019 12:58 UTC
38 points
14 comments1 min readLW link

Be­hav­iorism: Be­ware An­thro­po­mor­phiz­ing Humans

Scott Alexander4 Jul 2011 20:40 UTC
89 points
24 comments3 min readLW link

How would you take over Rome?

Scott Alexander14 Mar 2012 16:24 UTC
48 points
202 comments1 min readLW link

Are You a So­lar De­ity?

Scott Alexander15 Mar 2009 19:30 UTC
52 points
24 comments4 min readLW link

[Question] His­tor­i­cal fore­cast­ing: Are there ways I can get lots of data, but only up to a cer­tain date?

Eli Tyre21 Nov 2019 17:16 UTC
38 points
10 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] What is a rea­son­able out­side view for the fate of so­cial move­ments?

jacobjacob4 Jan 2019 0:21 UTC
33 points
27 comments1 min readLW link

On first look­ing into Rus­sell’s History

Richard_Ngo8 Nov 2018 11:20 UTC
23 points
6 comments5 min readLW link
(thinkingcomplete.blogspot.com)

[Question] Books on the zeit­geist of sci­ence dur­ing Lord Kelvin’s time.

Hazard9 Dec 2019 0:17 UTC
30 points
8 comments1 min readLW link

Guardians of the Gene Pool

Eliezer Yudkowsky16 Dec 2007 20:08 UTC
41 points
73 comments1 min readLW link

Hiroshima Day

Eliezer Yudkowsky6 Aug 2008 23:15 UTC
4 points
63 comments1 min readLW link

Con­cep­tual is­sues in AI safety: the paradig­matic gap

vedevazz24 Jun 2018 15:09 UTC
33 points
0 comments1 min readLW link
(www.foldl.me)

[Link] The Greek He­lio­cen­tric Theory

[deleted]12 Jun 2012 17:18 UTC
52 points
11 comments3 min readLW link

LA-602 vs. RHIC Review

Eliezer Yudkowsky19 Jun 2008 10:00 UTC
62 points
62 comments6 min readLW link

A Med­i­cal Mys­tery: Thy­roid Hor­mones, Chronic Fa­tigue and Fibromyalgia

johnlawrenceaspden14 Feb 2016 13:14 UTC
43 points
166 comments23 min readLW link

Mach’s Prin­ci­ple: Anti-Epiphe­nom­e­nal Physics

Eliezer Yudkowsky24 May 2008 5:01 UTC
42 points
26 comments10 min readLW link

A Dou­ble-Fea­ture on The Extropians

Maxwell Tabarrok3 Jun 2023 18:27 UTC
59 points
4 comments1 min readLW link

Liv­ing By Your Own Strength

Eliezer Yudkowsky22 Dec 2008 0:37 UTC
45 points
32 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] Has gov­ern­ment or in­dus­try had greater past suc­cess in main­tain­ing re­ally pow­er­ful tech­nolog­i­cal se­crets?

habryka1 May 2019 2:24 UTC
27 points
15 comments1 min readLW link

The In­sti­tute For Pro­pa­ganda Anal­y­sis, A Pre­cur­sor and a Warning

[deleted]29 Mar 2012 18:23 UTC
37 points
10 comments4 min readLW link

A Brief His­tory of LessWrong

Ruby1 Jun 2019 0:43 UTC
38 points
2 comments1 min readLW link

AI Risk and Op­por­tu­nity: Hu­man­ity’s Efforts So Far

lukeprog21 Mar 2012 2:49 UTC
56 points
49 comments23 min readLW link

Poets are in­tel­li­gence assets

Benquo25 Oct 2017 3:30 UTC
10 points
1 comment8 min readLW link
(benjaminrosshoffman.com)

Diver­gence on Ev­i­dence Due to Differ­ing Pri­ors—A Poli­ti­cal Case Study

Davidmanheim16 Sep 2019 11:01 UTC
27 points
3 comments3 min readLW link

What I Think About When I Think About History

Jacob G-W4 Jul 2023 14:02 UTC
2 points
4 comments3 min readLW link
(g-w1.github.io)

Log­i­cal or Con­nec­tion­ist AI?

Eliezer Yudkowsky17 Nov 2008 8:03 UTC
46 points
26 comments9 min readLW link

A Parable of Elites and Takeoffs

gwern30 Jun 2014 23:04 UTC
39 points
98 comments5 min readLW link

Sleep­walk­ing Toward Armageddon

Slimepriestess9 Mar 2020 7:28 UTC
14 points
3 comments1 min readLW link
(hivewired.wordpress.com)

Land war in Asia

Apprentice7 Dec 2016 19:31 UTC
26 points
19 comments1 min readLW link

Were vac­cines rele­vant to 20th cen­tury US mor­tal­ity im­prove­ments?

jasoncrawford10 Dec 2019 0:13 UTC
12 points
7 comments3 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)

We are the Athe­ni­ans, not the Spartans

wubbles11 Jun 2017 5:53 UTC
29 points
42 comments2 min readLW link

WMDs in Iraq and Syria

ChristianKl10 May 2017 21:03 UTC
15 points
10 comments1 min readLW link

[Link] The Hy­bo­rian Age

GLaDOS21 Jan 2012 19:00 UTC
34 points
6 comments2 min readLW link

In the be­gin­ning, Dart­mouth cre­ated the AI and the hype

Stuart_Armstrong24 Jan 2013 16:49 UTC
33 points
19 comments1 min readLW link

Re­play­ing History

Gordon Seidoh Worley8 May 2009 5:35 UTC
7 points
19 comments2 min readLW link

[Question] Why did the Ming trea­sure voy­ages end in 1433?

ChristianKl30 Nov 2020 13:30 UTC
15 points
0 comments1 min readLW link

An­cient So­cial Pat­terns: Comitatus

ryan_b5 Mar 2018 18:28 UTC
8 points
0 comments2 min readLW link

Mud­dling Along Is More Likely Than Dystopia

Jeffrey Heninger20 Oct 2023 21:25 UTC
83 points
10 comments8 min readLW link

The Pu­ri­tans would one-box: ev­i­den­tial de­ci­sion the­ory in the 17th century

Jacob G-W14 Oct 2023 20:23 UTC
86 points
5 comments3 min readLW link
(jacobgw.com)

The Story of the Reichstag

Martin Sustrik5 Feb 2021 5:51 UTC
95 points
21 comments2 min readLW link

He­lio­cen­trism in the an­cient era

ForensicOceanography16 Feb 2021 8:34 UTC
17 points
6 comments6 min readLW link
(forensicoceanography.wordpress.com)

Oliver Sipple

KatjaGrace19 Feb 2021 7:00 UTC
109 points
13 comments2 min readLW link1 review
(worldspiritsockpuppet.com)

Book Re­view: Sec­u­lar Cycles

Scott Alexander13 Aug 2019 4:10 UTC
62 points
10 comments16 min readLW link1 review
(slatestarcodex.com)

High­lights from The Au­to­bi­og­ra­phy of An­drew Carnegie

jasoncrawford8 Apr 2021 22:03 UTC
92 points
9 comments19 min readLW link1 review
(rootsofprogress.org)

Cur­ing in­san­ity with malaria

Swimmer963 (Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg) 4 Aug 2021 2:28 UTC
159 points
8 comments4 min readLW link1 review

Book Re­view: Who We Are and How We Got Here

Yair Halberstadt24 Sep 2021 5:05 UTC
16 points
4 comments15 min readLW link

Nu­clear Es­pi­onage and AI Governance

Guive4 Oct 2021 23:04 UTC
32 points
5 comments24 min readLW link

Books Re­view: “Sapi­ens”, “Homo Deus” and “21 Les­sons For The 21st Cen­tury”, by Yu­val Noah Harari

Luca Parodi13 Oct 2021 16:21 UTC
14 points
2 comments16 min readLW link

The Ra­tion­al­ists of the 1950s (and be­fore) also called them­selves “Ra­tion­al­ists”

Owain_Evans28 Nov 2021 20:17 UTC
188 points
32 comments3 min readLW link1 review

Biol­ogy-In­spired AGI Timelines: The Trick That Never Works

Eliezer Yudkowsky1 Dec 2021 22:35 UTC
173 points
142 comments65 min readLW link1 review

More power to you

jasoncrawford15 Dec 2021 23:50 UTC
16 points
14 comments1 min readLW link
(rootsofprogress.org)
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