LessWrong 2.0 Reader

Ok, then sounds like they enjoy a mix of hard science and absurd humor. If they're anything like I was, then one way to get someone like that to pay attention to stories and people involves  choosing ones that have a good amount of worldbuilding with well-designed, comprehensible systems and technologies you can think about as you read, and that reward paying close attention with details that turn out to matter way later.

Ian Stewart's fiction has a similar vibe as Randall Munroe's books, but using the math and humor to tell stories instead of teach science. 

The Robert and Ellen Kaplan books are not fiction, but they're half trying to teach math through creative play with concepts (they were also the founders of The Math Circle) half history of math. If you want them to start applying what they're learning in real life, this is a good bit of nonfiction to suggest.

And I'd definitely try Asimov, especially the Foundation books as others have mentioned, for a hard sci-fi story that's really about the people and civilization and the forces that move and shape them.  

The stuff I put in #4 pushes more towards being story-forward, but again with a mix of hard sci-fi and playful absurdity.

#10 has that too, but really appreciating those relies a lot on being at least familiar with the general tropes and plots of classic literature and famous authors. Then again, it's a great book for someone who likes to randomly stop reading and look things up when there's a reference they don't know. Lots of potential for pointing towards other interests and gaining cultural literacy.

I'd recommend Terry Pratchett to anyone. You don't have to read Discworld in order, you can focus on the arcs that you like. The witch-focused books are really centered on individual responsibility and critical thinking. The wizard-focused books have a recurring theme of the limitations of academic research and high technology. The Death-focused books have a theme of unpacking myth and culture. And the Moist von Lipwig books are about how new technologies reshape society. They're the kind of books you can just read for fun and then, months and years later, you think back on and have a-ha! moments.

I'd hold off on Godel Escher Bach for a couple of years, but when they're ready for it, it basically alternates between math and comp sci, philosophy of math and comp sci, and absurdist humor.

Doesn't sound like Ra would be a good fit. Maybe in another 5-7 years.

And if you don't mind pushing a video game, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is basically a fictional encyclopedia of the future. I haven't tried that remake, but if it's far enough along to run well, someone like you described would probably really enjoy it and learn a lot from it. Take a look at this list of quotes from the game and you'll see what I mean. The Civ games have nations as the factions, but in SMAC each faction has a core philosophy, and you have freedom to create your own units by mixing and matching technologies.

Very good! Hoping to see - weakly intending to commit - a post list of his latest boom (fertility decline, which lead him to culture). I attended one of Robin's Zoom meetings on culture, and I'm confident it is on par with his other great fixations thus far (prediction markets, signaling, ems and aliens) if not even bigger. Robin seems absolutely possessed by the phenomenon.

For those who do not follow him: Robin has begun seeing culture as broken/maladaptive, and he seems to think this is perhaps the key issue of our time, on par or bigger than climate change and AI. He thinks that cultural change is driven into directions which will eventually lead to population decline and nasty places, even though he remains optimistic on our species' future in the long run.

Is this related to the bounty [LW · GW], or a separate project?

The US government is large. Just because one part of the US government is not willing to fund the work does not mean that you might not get another part to fund it.

NLP (as in Neuro-linguistic programming) has the problem of the academic research community in psychology being very prejudged towards NLP and thus it was hard to get any mainstream outlet to get research funding to research the effects of the Fast Phobia Cure in NLP.

The solution was to go to the military and present the Fast Phobia Cure as a solution to PTSD of war veterans. The military funded studies of it under the name RTM Protocol and it's now one of the interventions for PTSD in war veterans with the most support from academic studies. 

I would expect that it's pretty bad when your soldiers are in a war zone and get incapacitated with the flu. Being able to have an effective military even during pandemic scenarios whether those are of natural origin or artificial induced for military purposes, is likely important to military planners.

The US military did publish some research into the effectiveness of masks in preventing COVID.

Have you tried asking the kid? Perhaps they already have perspective matching the real world on some topic.

Wow. Worm? That's pretty dark. Also a million words or so. Does your kid enjoy it?

That brings back memories. We used to have an english Encyclopaedia as well. Similar story. I still recall how gloomy an impression it made on me. It felt like the world might be a weird, dark and dangerous place, at least compared to the rosy picture that the local communist propaganda was trying to paint.

The Way Things Work was formative for me, and they just came out with a new edition. It's just simple, enjoyably-illustrated explanations of mechanics, simple machines, complex machines, electronics, etc.

I've just started my 11yr old tech minded son reading the Worm web serial by John Macrae (free and online, longer than Harry potter series).  It's a bit grim/dark and violent, but an amazing and compelling sci-fi meditation on superheroes and personal struggles.  A more brutal and sophisticated world build along lines of popular 'my hero academia' anime that my boys watched compulsively.  1000's of fanfics too.

Stories from Larry Niven's "known space" universe.  Lots of fun overcoming-challenges short stories and novellas that revolve around interesting physics or problems or ideas.  And the follow up Man-Kzin War series by various invited authors have some really great stories too with a strong martial bent that will likely appeal to most boys.

At that age I read and loved Dune, The stars my destination (aka Tiger Tiger, a sci fi riff on Comte de Monte Christo), Enders Game.  I think Terry Pratchett humor needs a more sophisticated adult knowledge base, with culture references that are dating badly.

My 11yr old loved the Expanse TV series, though I haven't given them the books to read yet and I can't recommend the transhumanism anime Pantheon on Amazon highly enough - its one of best sci fi series of all time.

All good to introduce more adult problems and thinking to kids in an exciting context.

Have you tried other techniques to deal with nightmares?