https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
With a little high-status prodding, the typical person is ready and willing – though not eager – to do great evil.
Simply Psychology
Milgram Experiment | Summary | Results | Ethics
The Milgram Shock Experiment, conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, tested obedience to authority. Participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to another person, who was actually an actor, as they answered questions…
“These questions are all really the same question and the central anxiety of our time: Have I actually chosen who I am, or is my identity being shaped by sinister forces I can barely understand?”
source: https://open.substack.com/pub/theargument/p/obsession-and-the-horror-of-losing
My notes:
in fact, there is evidence to suggest that AI may help to reduce social polarization on political issues because it tends to adopt balanced views and present arguments from both sides
On external influence: i suspect that there are lots of things I’m concerned about that do not really bother me and more importantly I do not get any pleasure from thinking about them. Yet for some reason I read and think about them every day.
source: https://open.substack.com/pub/theargument/p/obsession-and-the-horror-of-losing
My notes:
in fact, there is evidence to suggest that AI may help to reduce social polarization on political issues because it tends to adopt balanced views and present arguments from both sides
On external influence: i suspect that there are lots of things I’m concerned about that do not really bother me and more importantly I do not get any pleasure from thinking about them. Yet for some reason I read and think about them every day.
Who is John Galt?
s: https://open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/p/tyler-cowen-how-socialism-hurts-the-young-healthcare
support a lot of capitalism, and much less socialism, in your healthcare institutions. More than ever before, especially if you are young, your life may depend on it
s: https://open.substack.com/pub/bariweiss/p/tyler-cowen-how-socialism-hurts-the-young-healthcare
/ cybersecurity
/ superintelligence
/ implications
/ interesting
source: https://stratechery.com/2026/openai-hacks-hugging-face-what-happened-alignment-and-paper-clips/
/ superintelligence
/ implications
/ interesting
source: https://stratechery.com/2026/openai-hacks-hugging-face-what-happened-alignment-and-paper-clips/
https://open.substack.com/pub/michaelinzlicht/p/my-p-hacking-felt-like-truth
An excellent article written by a real scientist.
It reminded me just how gameble and untrustworthy social science research can be.
As Scott Alexander puts it in his “Beware the man of one study” (which is basically one of the best essays I’ve ever read)
An excellent article written by a real scientist.
It reminded me just how gameble and untrustworthy social science research can be.
As Scott Alexander puts it in his “Beware the man of one study” (which is basically one of the best essays I’ve ever read)
At some point in their education, most smart people usually learn not to credit arguments from authority. If someone says “Believe me about the minimum wage because I seem like a trustworthy guy,” most of them will have at least one neuron in their head that says “I should ask for some evidence”. If they’re really smart, they’ll use the magic words “peer-reviewed experimental studies.”
But I worry that most smart people have not learned that a list of dozens of studies, several meta-analyses, hundreds of experts, and expert surveys showing almost all academics support your thesis – can still be bullshit.
Which is too bad, because that’s exactly what people who want to bamboozle an educated audience are going to use.
Populism isn’t really about doing stuff that’s popular; it’s about putting factional and tribal conflict above the national interest or the general public good. The goal is always to “own” the other side, and economic and social outcomes become subordinate to that goal.