Further Comments on a Joke

29 April, 202117 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 4 Comments

I elaborate on and explain my satirical piece from the month before Read more (19 min, 4700 words).

Abolish Secret Ballots

1 April, 202117 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 11 Comments

An argument that secret ballots is an unacceptable exercise of power without accountability. Read more (6 min, 1400 words).

Platist Politics

24 February, 202117 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 11 Comments

I muse on whether there is a link between being easily stressed by having to keep many things in mind and having a rights-based, individualist political intuition. Read more (12 min, 3100 words).

I Hate the Plate

26 January, 202117 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 15 Comments

I discuss the difference between stress buckets and stress plates and conclude that my plate is making it hard for me to feel well. Read more (6 min, 1500 words).

Variations on the Tilted Political Compass

16 December, 202017 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 16 Comments

I make up ten variations of my version of the political compass from last year. Some small and fun, some large and serious, and it all comes together by the end. Read more (36 min, 8900 words).

To Die Happily Ever After

29 July, 202017 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 11 Comments

I'm apprehensive about transhumanism, and have no particular desire to live forever. A big part of the reason is that I believe happiness is precarious, and our chance at achieveing it in radically altered circumstances is not great.
Read more (13 min, 2800 words).

Review: The AI Does Not Hate You

20 March, 202017 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 6 Comments

I review Tom Chivers's book The AI Does Not Hate You, about AI risk, the rationalist community and his own process finding out whether he agrees with them. I note that I wanted to hear more about the last part, mostly because of how similar to the author I seem to be. Read more (16 min, 3900 words).

The Prince and the Figurehead

19 August, 201917 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 16 Comments

When we misrepresent other people, is it a mistake or do we do it on purpose? Neither explanation feels right to me. Rather, I think we should consider that we often perform "semitentional" actions, which is the result of our agency being more distributed than we think.
Read more (6 min, 2900 words).

The Tilted Political Compass, Part 1: Left and Right

1 March, 20192 April, 2020 ~ John Nerst ~ 38 Comments

I'm not a fan of the popular Political Compass. Here I explain why, list what makes a good 2-by-2 and rederive the meaning of the political left and right. Read more (10 min, 3300 words).

The Romeo And Juliet Fallacy

19 December, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 5 Comments

We have a tendency to feel that ideas are mutually exclusive even when they aren't. Sometimes this is because their indirect implications clash with each other, giving us the impression that they clash themselves. Read more (7 min, 2000 words).