August 2015 Media Thread

Politics/religion:

• "The Really Big One: An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when."
• "Of Malevolent Democracies and Benevolent Autocracies: A Very Short Quantitative History of Political Regimes, Part 1.9325"
• "Utopian for Beginners: An amateur linguist loses control of the language he invented" (where are those Ukrainians now, I wonder?)

Statistics/AI/meta-science:

• Ch6: "Deep Learning" (latest in Nielsen's Neural Networks and Deep Learning)
• "How One Man Poisoned a City's Water Supply (and Saved Millions of Children's Lives in the Process)"(on John L. Leal & water chlorination)
• "Reanalyses of Randomized Clinical Trial Data", Ebrahim et al 2014
• "The Aging of Science"
• "List of 19 Natural Experiments" (commentary)
• "The Null Ritual: What You Always Wanted to Know About Significance Testing but Were Afraid to Ask", Gigerenzer et al 2004

Psychology/biology:

• "Physics of Wound Healing I: Energy Considerations", Apell 2012
• "The Biodeterminist's Guide to Parenting"
• "A Year of Spaced Repetition Software in the Classroom"
• "Whole-personality emulation", Bainbridge 2012
• "Does it pay to know your MBTI type?"
• "Burn-in, bias, and the rationality of anchoring", Lieder et al 2012

Technology:

• "The Market for Silver Bullets", Grigg 2008
• "Invisibility theory"

Economics:

• "Economic Gains Resulting from the Reduction in Children's Exposure to Lead in the United States", Grosse et al 2002
• "When the Doctor Is Not Needed"
• "How The Talmud Became A Best Seller in South Korea" (no one tell them about signaling or genetics)
• "The Patent Troll You Don't Read About In Bar-Code Inventor's Obituaries"

Philosophy:

• "The Copenhagen Interpretation of Ethics"

Fiction:

• "Quantitative patterns of stylistic influence in the evolution of literature", Hughes et al 2012
• "I Name Thee Annihilator!"

I found this awesome, brilliant analysis of the works of Neal Stephenson from a political and sociological angle.

Ok, it was me, I wrote this.

This made me laugh: http://www.clickhole.com/article/5-absolutely-stunning-examples-mathematics-nature-2081

the way you think about habits is wrong

extinction bursts

Extinction burst

Supp 1

Supp 2

I have to recommend Phyl-Undhu from Nick Land (yes the guy from XenoSystems), yes is a little short, but if you like (or think you would like) Lovecraft then you should read it. I thought it was wonderfully written, and it get the cosmic horror/lovecraftian atmosphere very well.

• Still Alice (our obituaries)
• The Martian (Weir)
• Asimov's Puzzles of the Black Widowers (review)

'Mental traveler', a poem by William Blake.

I just found out that some comic books I read in Finnish in the 80s were originally published in English in 1976 in a magazine called Starstream. I re-read the comics, which are an anthology of comic adaptations of various golden age SF short stories. They also mostly stick to the source material, such as John Campbell's Who Goes There, which was also the basis for John Carpenter's The Thing. Generally it's quite a bit better than what you'd expect from "newsstand comic book from 1976", and a lot of the stories are quite weird, from the mix of outdated science and narrative conventions, source material from authors who sometimes were actually very good and the general mismatch with what you'd expect from the dated comic book format. Robert Silverberg, Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, Poul Anderson and Theodore Sturgeon are some of the more notable authors who get an adaption.

Read The Martian - not bad I guess, but a sort of celebration of terrible ethics.

Watched a lot of robot anime last month.

Rewatched RahXephon. I'd tie it with NGE at 9/10. I especially liked the first two episodes. I thought the romance in it was quite good, too. The animation goes off-model from time to time, but it's serviceable. The music is wonderful, especially the closing theme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aTUy44JA8w

I also watched Eureka Seven and found it vastly inferior to RahXephon - maybe 5/10 and that's pushing it.

I've been enjoying Knights of Sidonia [slight spoilers] - a half-and-half mix of neat science fiction and annoying fan service. There was an interesting romance in the first season (and one wonderful scene of a couple stranded in space) but it's pretty ridiculous how every female (including the eldritch monstrosity) loves the oblivious protagonist. Also, Izana has the potential to be super interesting but zer potential is mostly wasted.

As for the animation, I know it is controversial, but I think it's quite good. It's also obviously the future of the medium - people will get used to it. I'll give it 7/10.

• Expelled from Paradise (review)

peckishowl.deviantart.com/gallery/41509876/OAKENTOONS

a collection of collages from the Hobbit trilogy. Kind of like comics.

Things that we haven't dropped yet from the current season - there's a bumper crop:

• Classroom Crisis - does for corporate politics what Shirobako did for anime production. I have had those conversations with management...

• Game of Laplace - trappings of a detective/mystery series, but more psychological thriller than particularly rational so far; still, has potential and the thriller is well done.

• GATE - still not sure, but still watching. Fantasyland attempts to invade Japan, Japan retaliates, SDF starts a softly-softly invasion of fantasyland (after basically a massacre of their entire combined armed forces, medieval knights vs modern weapons isn't really a contest). It raises interesting issues, and could get very good if it actually follows them up - though it has not so far, and will be quite banal if it never does; will report back here either way.

Honourable mention: Shimoneta. I was expecting a series with this premise to fail the ten second fanservice test, but we ended up watching the entire first episode and it is surprisingly worth seeing an episode (no idea if it remains worthwhile, we have not been brave enough to try a second!). Laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly high production quality. Think Fahrenheit 451 crossed with Gurren Lagann crossed with a whole lot of WRONG and WTF and NSFW.

EDIT: have read ahead in the GATE manga. It doesn't quite ascend to the epic "The Irregular at Magic High School" Kim-Jong-Il-propaganda levels of Gary Stu, but that's sadly the direction it's firmly headed in and unless they've rewritten the script for the anime it looks like it's going to avoid any redeeming features it's raised the possibility of. Pity. Dropping.

Tandu Psychedelic trance-- very energetic and playful.

The act of killing by Joshua Oppenheimer. I just saw him in an ABC inteview, incredibly well-spoken.

Also, James Altucher on London Real.

I started listening to Dragonforce this past month. Their lyrics are fall-over-laughing funny.

Artists I've been listening to recently:

• Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1"
• Blue Sky Black Death - "And Stars, Ringed"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Torture Me"
• Tool - "Wings for Marie Pt. 2 (10,000 Days)"
• Bjork - "Innocence"

Touhou:

• the latest TLMC has been released: "Touhou lossless music collection: TLMC v.18 (2015.06.30)" (lossy)
• "Fires of Hokkai" (くみちょ; Knights of Round 3 {C77}) [post-rock]
• "マンドラゴラの庭" (siva; Gensokyo St. Patrick's Day {K10}) [Celtic]
• "Rince Oiche" (Escarmew; Gensokyo St. Patrick's Day {K10}) [Celtic]
• "Sleepy Maiden" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "Septette for a Sleepy Princess" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "籠居漏水" (PIROPARU; Kyouon no Ooi Ryouriten {Reitaisai SP}) [instrumental]
• "Lotus World" (PIROPARU; Kyouon no Ooi Ryouriten {Reitaisai SP}) [instrumental]
• "Going back to Sleeping Night" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]
• "Drowsy Eyes" (Marasy; 幻想遊戲<眠>2 {C86}) [classical]

The Power of Having Nothing to Lose. I'd like to add that I don't enjoy these kinds of videos when I'm in a good mood and free from dysfunctional anxiety. But when they are a factor, it's really... soothing. I identify with the narrator's complex of narcissism, wishful thinking, avoidance coping, fear of failure, perfectionism and learned helplessness. I'm impressed that he's a preeminent executive coach now and I'm a socially anxious LW geek. Throughout my life I've had a fear of criticism that has kept me, like many others, from getting shit done. Now I fear all the criticism I haven't got received and all the mistakes I haven't made. Oh god I hope I'm not turning into one of those people on psychology forums or support groups that just self-victimise and moan, groan and complain all day like hypochondriacs.

Breathe into your balls. This is my favourite video. It's explicitly antirational and paradoxically rational.

New cryonics book coming out later this month:

http://www.amazon.com/Frozen-Life-Personal-Mortality-Experiment/dp/0993334407

Frozen to Life: A Personal Mortality Experiment

by D.J. MacLennan (Author)

Paperback – August 31, 2015

How far would you go to avoid death? Frozen to Life is the true account of the author's extraordinary answer to this question: If he cannot escape the constraints of a 'natural' lifespan, he will, upon his death, have his severed head cryonically preserved in a vat of liquid nitrogen in the Arizona desert. This book illuminates the astonishing science behind his decision, and the transformative power of the patternist thinking that carried him to it. From the initial confusion and isolation of his upbringing on the Scottish islands of Benbecula and Skye comes a curious inkling that collides with dominant religious dogmas and alters relationships: What am I? What is a 'self'? Must selves die? Neuroscience - including the latest theories about the way mind emerges from the architecture of the brain - interweaves with philosophy, Buddhism, and personal testimony to create a fascinating and emotionally-charged insight into the psyche of a 'cryonaut' in waiting. Written with empathy, searing insight, and dark humour, Frozen to Life is both cutting edge and bleeding heart: a postmodern experiment in falling in love with life while preparing for death, in ways we can change ourselves radically without losing our treasured humanity, and in coming to understand that neither life nor death is what we think it is.

This book might serve as an updated introduction to the cryonics idea. Cryonics organizations badly need some new expository literature any way. They can't depend on books written a generation or two back because these writings don't incorporate the experience base of the real, existing practice of cryonics over the past 50 years. This literature doesn't explain the bearing of current neuroscience, cryobiology and biotechnology on what cryonicists want to do. And it doesn't address the criticisms directed towards the project, even ones I consider a bit foolish, like "But in the future you won't know anyone!"

Hello Internet is a fun "two guys talking" podcast made by two popular youtubers including CGPGray, the guy who made this great video about the future of automation and employment. Low (almost no) informational content, but really enjoyable, and CGPGray will often say things that make it sound as if he's read at least some of LessWrong/Overcoming Bias. At the very least he's a transhumanist.

I've been looking for a good Anime/Manga podcast? The one's I've found have been ok but not exactly what I'm hoping for. Anyone know of one?

Tools

Clearerthinking.org

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