Antiantinatalism

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Warning: mentions suicide, may trigger existential crisis. Straussian.

AGI: Scale Is All You Need

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Mostly rehash of Gwern’s commentary on recent AI progress.

Book Review: Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Hanania details how a public choice model (imported from public choice theory in economics) can explain the United State’s incoherent foreign policy much better than the unitary actor model (imported from rational choice theory in economics) that underlies the illusion of American grand strategy in international relations (IR), in particular the dominant school of realism. As the subtitle How Generals, Weapons Manufacturers, and Foreign Governments Shape American Foreign Policy suggests, American foreign policy is driven by special interest groups, which results in millions of deaths for no good reason.

Practical Ethics of Preimplantation Polygenic Screening

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll never understand what possessed my mother to put her faith in God’s hands, rather than her local geneticist.

- Vincent Freeman

Book Review: The End of History and the Last Man – Part I

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Parts II and III are coming soon.

Is The Lead-Crime Hypothesis Real?

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

For two decades now, lead has been very strongly suspected of causing crime.

Why You Should Use A Password Manager

Sun, 15 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I declare no conflict of interest. I’m just a happy user of Bitwarden and Authy (they’re free anyway).

Book Review: How Asia Works

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Why are Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and post-Mao China rich, while Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia are poor?

Why Zoom Sucks

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This was written in lockdown, before I had my 2 doses, so bear with me.

SCA Journal Club: Bitcoin Whitepaper

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Epistemic status: just trying to understand the Bitcoin whitepaper. The first 12 headings correspond to the parts in the whitepaper. My investment advice would be to invent a time machine to beat Satoshi. Eliezer Yudkowsky on Bitcoin as Pascal’s mugging: if you can’t manage to not regret having not bought Bitcoin even though you knew about it when it was $1, you shouldn’t ever buy anything except index funds because you are not psychologically suited to survive investing.