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Is Science Slowing Down?
[This post was up a few weeks ago before getting taken down for complicated reasons. They have been sorted out and I’m trying again.] Is scientific progress slowing down? I recently got a chance to...
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Book Review: The Mind Illuminated
I. The Mind Illuminated is a guide to Buddhist meditation by Culadasa, aka John Yates, a Buddhist meditation teacher who is also a neuroscience PhD. At this point I would be more impressed to meet a...
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OT116: Opensées Thread
1. I screwed up the WordPress that runs this blog pretty badly. The main effect on your side is that the mailing list disappeared and so no one’s getting email notifications. Don’t bother signing up...
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Book Review: Evolutionary Psychopathology
I. Evolutionary psychology is famous for having lots of stories that make sense but are hard to test. Psychiatry is famous for having mountains of experimental data but no idea what’s going on. Maybe...
View ArticleDel Giudice On The Self-Starvation Cycle
[Content note: eating disorders] Anorexia has a cultural component. I’m usually reluctant to assume anything is cultural – every mediocre social scientist’s first instinct is always to come up with a...
View ArticleDiametrical Model Of Autism And Schizophrenia
One interesting thing I took from Evolutionary Psychopathology was a better understanding of the diametrical theory of the social brain. There’s been a lot of discussion over whether schizophrenia is...
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Trump: A Setback For Trumpism
Donald Trump has been called a setback for many things. America. The global community. The environment. Civil service. Civil society. Civility. Civilization. The list goes on. One might think he has at...
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OT117: Ho Ho Hopen Thread
This is the bi-weekly visible open thread (there are also hidden open threads twice a week you can reach through the Open Thread tab on the top of the page). Post about anything you want, but please...
View ArticleFallacies Of Reversed Moderation
A recent discussion: somebody asked why people in Silicon Valley thought that only high-tech solutions to climate change (like carbon capture or geoengineering) mattered, and why they dismissed more...
View ArticleRefactoring: Culture As Branch Of Government
Ribbonfarm likes to talk about refactoring, a conceptual change in how you see the world. I’m not totally sure I understand it, but I think it means things like memetics – where you go from the usual...
View ArticleSeattle Meetup This Sunday
Why: Because I’m in Seattle this weekend Where: 5238 11th Ave NE, Seattle WA (private residence). If there are too many people we’ll figure something out. When: 4 PM on Sunday 12/23 Who: Anyone who...
View ArticleLinks 12/18: Boughs Of Hollink
A Swedish news team went to Gotland to film a segment on the problem of amateur treasure-hunters disturbing archaeological sites. To collect footage, one of them borrowed a metal detector and went...
View ArticlePlease Take The 2019 SSC Survey
Please take the 2019 Slate Star Codex Survey. The survey helps me learn more about SSC readers and plan community events. But it also provides me with useful informal research data for questions I’m...
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OT118: Threadgorian Calendar
This is the bi-weekly visible open thread (there are also hidden open threads twice a week you can reach through the Open Thread tab on the top of the page). Post about anything you want, but please...
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What Happened To 90s Environmentalism?
0. Introduction I grew up in the 90s, which meant watching movies about plucky children fighting Pollution Demons. Sometimes teachers would show them to us in class. None of us found that strange. We...
View ArticleBay Area SSC Meetup 1/6
Join me at 3:30 PM on Sunday, 1/6 for the traditional once-every-three-months big SSC Bay Area meetup. Meet on the Berkeley campus at the open space beside the intersection of West Circle and Free...
View ArticlePreregistration Of Investigations For The 2019 SSC Survey
[Unrelated update: It looks like the SSC meetup on Sunday may be rained out. I will post something Friday or Saturday about whether it’s cancelled or whether we can find an alternate indoor venue....
View ArticleBay Meetup 1/6 Update
Due to rain, we’re switching to holding the meetup indoors at 3045 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, 94705. There will be several floors of space available for overflow, so hopefully it won’t be too crowded....
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Book Review: The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions
When I hear scientists talk about Thomas Kuhn, he sounds very reasonable. Scientists have theories that guide their work. Sometimes they run into things their theories can’t explain. Then some genius...
View ArticleParadigms All The Way Down
Related to: Book Review: The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions Every good conspiracy theorist needs their own Grand Unified Chart; I’m a particular fan of this one. So far, my own Grand Unified Chart...
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