Most Observers Are Alone: The Fermi Paradox as Default

Sandberg, Drexler, and Ord (2018) showed that the Fermi paradox dissolves once we take our uncertainty about the Drake equation's parameters seriously: the silence of the cosmos is unsurprising given what we actually know. This essay argues that their result is not a contingent fact about our particular universe but a generic prediction. Under a simple multiverse model, most sentient observers in most possible worlds should expect to find themselves alone.

Jeffrey Epstein Had Dyslexia

seriously, please don't be weird about this

On Respect

'Respect' means many things, not one or two or three. It is an infinitely flexible word.

Is Rationalism a Religion

Certain rationalists are prone to telling people, in great detail, that rationalism is not a religion. Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about how Every Cause Wants To Be A Cult and then wrote three separate essays either denying or mocking the idea that what he was in or leading a cult, which sends sort of a mixed message.

When To Vague

The Scott Alexander Email: An Explainer

So, Scott Alexander sent an email to someone in 2014. In 2021 the person who got that email thought that Scott was not being honest about his relationship to the neoreactionary movement, so they published it.

Robot Slur Discourse

Hopefully a permanent home for this one