Astral Codex Ten Podcast
ລາຍລະອຽດຊ່ອງທາງ
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.
ຕອນລ່າສຸດ
1114 ຕອນ
Why AI Safety Won't Make America Lose The Race With China
If we worry too much about AI safety, will this make us "lose the race with China"1?
(here "AI safety" means long-term concerns about alignment...
The New AI Consciousness Paper
Most discourse on AI is low-quality. Most discourse on consciousness is super-abysmal-double-low quality. Multiply these - or maybe raise one to the e...
Suggest Questions For Metaculus/ACX Forecasting Contest
ACX has been co-running a forecasting contest with Metaculus for the past few years. Lately the "co-running" has drifted towards them doing all the wo...
What Happened To SF Homelessness?
Last year, I wrote that it would be very hard to decrease the number of mentally ill homeless people in San Francisco. Commenters argued that no, it...
In What Sense Is Life Suffering?
"Life is suffering" may be a Noble Truth, but it feels like a deepity. Yes, obviously life includes suffering. But it also includes happiness. Many p...
The Bloomer's Paradox
In Jason Pargin's I'm Starting To Worry About This Black Box Of Doom, a manic pixie dream girl cajoles a shut-in incel loser to drive her and her mys...
Writing For The AIs
"Writing for AI" means different things to different people, but seems to center around:
Going through these in order:
https://www.astralc...
Links For October 2025
[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...
Model City Monday 10/27/25
The Bahamas is an archipelago-nation of 400,000 people scattered across 3,000 small islands.
The Bahamas' most populous island is the one with i...
Highlights From The Comments On Fatima
[original post here]
In the original post, I cited ambiguous later examples of sun miracles which didn't seem to affect everyone equally and in...
Tech PACs Are Closing In On The Almonds
I.
In my 2019 post Too Much Dark Money In Almonds, I asked: why is there so little money in politics?
During the 2018 election, Americans...
Non-Book Review Contest 2025 Winners
Thanks to everyone who entered or voted in the Non-Book Review Contest. The winners are:
The other Finalists were:
https://www.astralcode...
ACX Grants Results 2025
We received 654 applications this year, and were able to fund 42. To the other 612: sorry! Many of you had great ideas that we couldn't fund for conti...
Fascism Can't Mean Both A Specific Ideology And A Legitimate Target
I thought about this while following the Twitter spat between Democratic hopeful Gavin Newsom and Trump advisor Stephen Miller. Newsom called Miller...
The Fatima Sun Miracle: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-fatima-sun-miracle-much-more
In 1917, three Portuguese children reported a vision of the Virgin Mary. She p...
Your Review: The Russo-Ukrainian War
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...
Sources Say Bay Area House Party
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/sources-say-bay-area-house-party
[previously in series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Something is off abou...
Your Review: Project Xanadu - The Internet That Might Have Been
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...
Defining Defending Democracy: Contra The Election Winner Argument
Someone argues that Donald Trump threatens democracy, maybe because he's asserting authority against the judiciary or the media or the NGOs. Someone e...
Your Review: The Synaptic Plasticity and Memory Hypothesis
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...
Book Review: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
I.
Eliezer Yudkowsky's Machine Intelligence Research Institute is the original AI safety org. But the original isn't always the best - how is Me...
Your Review: Participation in Phase I Clinical Pharmaceutical Research
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...
Links For September 2025
[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...
What Is Man, That Thou Art Mindful Of Him?
"You made him lower than the angels for a short time..."
God: …and the math results we're seeing are nothing short of incredible. This Terry Tao...
Open Letter To The NIH
You can sign the letter here.
The Trump administration has been retaliating against its critics, and people and groups with business before the...
In Search Of AI Psychosis
AI psychosis (NYT, PsychologyToday) is an apparent phenomenon where people go crazy after talking to chatbots too much. There are some high-profile a...
Your Review: Ollantay
Finalist #9 in the Review Contest
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous u...
My Responses To Three Concerns From The Embryo Selection Post
[original post here]
#1: Isn't it possible that embryos are alive, or have personhood, or are moral patients? Most IVF involves getting many em...
Your Review: Dating Men In The Bay Area
Finalist #8 in the Review Contest
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous u...
In Defense Of The Amyloid Hypothesis
A guest post by David Schneider-Joseph
The "amyloid hypothesis" says that Alzheimer's is caused by accumulation of the peptide amyloid-β. It's t...
Highlights From The Comments On Liberalism And Communities
[Original post: Should Strong Gods Bet On GDP?]
1: Comments About The Theory 2: Comments About Specific Communities
3: Other Comments
Your Review: My Father’s Instant Mashed Potatoes
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...
Should Strong Gods Bet On GDP?
Slightly contra Fukuyama on liberal communities
Francis Fukuyama is on Substack; last month he wrote Liberalism Needs Community. As always, read...
Your Review: Joan of Arc
Finalist #6 in the Review Contest
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous u...
Suddenly, Trait-Based Embryo Selection
[see footnote 4 for conflicts of interest]
In 2021, Genomic Prediction announced the first polygenically selected baby.
When a couple use...
My Heart Of Hearts
Since 2/3 of these are about Gaza, we'll start there. And since there's so much virtue-signaling and luxury-believing going around these days, I assur...
Your Review: The Astral Codex Ten Commentariat (“Why Do We Suck?”)
Jul 26, 2025
Finalist #5 in the Review Contest
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will...
Apply For An ACX Grant (2025)
We're running another ACX Grants round!
If you already know what this is and just want to apply for a grant, use the form here (should take 15 -...
Press Any Key For Bay Area House Party
[previously in series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
It is eerily silent in San Francisco tonight. Since Mayor Lurie's crackdown, the usual drug hawke...
Your Review: Islamic Geometric Patterns In The Metropolitan Museum Of Art
[This is one of the finalists in the 2025 review contest, written by an ACX reader who will remain anonymous until after voting is done. I'll be posti...