The Real Alignment Problem
If you’d be willing to die for anything, you should die for this — and you probably will. [Note: I’ve been working on something longer & more rigorous, but here
Category: Blog
Brezhnev syndrome and why we’re bad at understanding others
People unlike us Understanding others is hard. It’s so hard that we default to very simple heuristics when doing so. The easiest one is empathy. We have pretty good access
The meaning of science
I used to be a science communicator. When I did a PhD, my research drew mainly on the philosophy of science and science studies. My postdoctoral research was getting more
Nuclear policy is evil not irrational
Hey we’re all gonna die one day but did you know the US government has a plan for how we can all die together? Literally everyone should read Daniel Ellsberg’s
Human exceptionalism with a human face
This is me on human exceptionalism for Areo, a rather good up and coming digital magazine. I point out the irony of using super-advanced scientific tools to do studies on crows to
# 66 On scientific customs
Dear Jamie, As agreed on the phone this letter will be the last for a while because we’ve agreed to start a new letter series on a friend’s new platform.
#65 On the orthodoxy
Dear Mat, I think skyhook is a good name for a particular kind of bad explanation. Namely, one that doesn’t attempt to ground the phenomena it describes in things that we already think
#64 On the degrees of skyhookery
Dear Jamie, Your letter reminded me of one of the most mind-boggling experiences I had. I watched Derren Brown’s show Miracle. In Miracle, before the segment started, he told the