A sequence is a series of multiple posts on Less Wrong on the same topic, to coherently and fully explore a particular thesis. See the Library page for a list of LessWrong sequences in their modern form.

  __TOC__  

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong, such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk.

Audio

Castify makes certain content of Less Wrong available as a podcast for a small fee (they're recorded by a professional voice actor). Currently they offer:

Promoted Posts:

• A podcast of the promoted posts from Less Wrong

Major Sequences:

• Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions (about 2h 30m)
• A Human's Guide to Words (3h 40m)
• How to Actually Change Your Mind (8h 20m)
• Reductionism (5h 20m)
• Metaethics (7h 30m)

Minor Sequences:

• Map and Territory (1h 30 min)
• Ethical Injunctions (1h 30m)

Essay:

• The Simple Truth Eliezer's introductory essay (40 minutes, also included in Map and Territory)

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. There is also an audiobook version of the book available from Castify. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections:

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong, such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk. The six books are:

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. There is also an audiobook version of the book available from Castify. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections:

Reading throughThe original sequences were written by Eliezer Yudkowsky with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences into Rationality: From AI to Zombies. If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is the most systematic waybest place to approachstart.

  __TOC__  

Rationality: From AI to Zombies

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong archives., such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk. The six books are:

Core Sequences

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections:

__________________________________________________________________

• Book I: Map and Territory contains some. An introduction to the Bayesian concept of the most important introductory posts and essays.

  If you don't read the sequences on rational belief.

  • A. Predictably Wrong
  • B. Fake Beliefs
  • C. Noticing Confusion
  • D. Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions and Reductionism, nothing else on Less Wrong will make much sense.

__________________________________________________________________

The most important method that Less Wrong can offer you is

• Book II: How Toto Actually Change Your Mind.

  Major Sequences

  Long sequences that have been completed A guide to noticing motivated reasoning and organized into a guide.overcoming confirmation bias.

  • E. Overly Convenient Excuses
  • F. Politics and Rationality
  • G. Against Rationalization
  • H. Against Doublethink
  • I. Seeing with Fresh Eyes
  • J. Death Spirals
  • K. Letting Go

__________________________________________________________________

• Book III: Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions

How to see throughThe Machine in the many disguisesGhost. Essays on the general topic of answers or beliefs or statements, that don't answer or say or mean anything.minds, goals, and concepts.

• L. The first (and probably most important) core sequence on Less Wrong.

  Simple Math of Evolution

• M. Fragile Purposes
• N. A Human's Guide to Words

__________________________________________________________________

• Book IV: Mere Reality

  A series. Essays on the use and abuse of words; why you often can't define a word any way you like; how human brains seem to process definitions. First introduces the Mind Projection Fallacyscience and the conceptphysical world.

  • O. Lawful Truth
  • P. Reductionism 101
  • Q. Joy in the Merely Real
  • R. Physicalism 201
  • S. Quantum Physics and Many Worlds
  • T. Science and Rationality

__________________________________________________________________

• Book V: Mere Goodness. A discussion of howethics, and of things people value in general.
  • U. Fake Preferences
  • V. Value Theory
  • W. Quantified Humanism

__________________________________________________________________

• Book VI: Becoming Stronger. Essays on self-improvement, group rationality, and rationality groups.
  • X. Yudkowsky's Coming of Age
  • Y. Challenging the Difficult
  • Z. The Craft and the Community

__________________________________________________________________

Other sequences by Eliezer Yudkowsky

The following collections of essays come from the original sequences, an algorithm feels from inside, which makes it a basic intro to key elementsearlier version of much of the LW zeitgeist.material from Rationality: From AI to Zombies:

• How To Actually Change Your MindEthical Injunctions

: A mega-sequence scattered...

The originalReading through sequences were written by Eliezer Yudkowsky with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences into Rationality: From AI to Zombies. If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is the best placemost systematic way to start.

  __TOC__  

Rationality: From AI to Zombies

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays onapproach the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong, such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk. The six books are: archives.

Core Sequences

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections:

__________________________________________________________________

• Book I: Map and Territory. An introduction contains some of the most important introductory posts and essays.

  If you don't read the sequences on Mysterious Answers to the Bayesian concept of rational belief.

  • A. PredictablyMysterious Questions and Reductionism, nothing else on Less Wrong
  • B. Fake Beliefs
  • C. Noticing Confusion
  • D. Mysterious Answers

__________________________________________________________________

• Book II: The most important method that Less Wrong can offer you is How toTo Actually Change Your Mind. A guide

  Major Sequences

  Long sequences that have been completed and organized into a guide.

  Mysterious Answers to noticing motivated reasoning and overcoming confirmation bias.

  • E. Overly Convenient Excuses
  • F. Politics and Rationality
  • G. Against Rationalization
  • H. Against Doublethink
  • I. Seeing with Fresh Eyes
  • J. Death Spirals
  • K. Letting Go

__________________________________________________________________

• Book III: How to see through the many disguises of answers or beliefs or statements, that don't answer or say or mean anything. The Machine in the Ghost. Essaysfirst (and probably most important) core sequence on the general topic of minds, goals, and concepts.
  • L. The Simple Math of Evolution
  • M. Fragile Purposes
  • N. Less Wrong.

    A Human's Guide to Words

__________________________________________________________________

• Book IV: Mere Reality. EssaysA series on sciencethe use and abuse of words; why you often can't define a word any way you like; how human brains seem to process definitions. First introduces the Mind Projection Fallacy and the physical world.
  • O. Lawful Truth
  • P.concept of how an algorithm feels from inside, which makes it a basic intro to key elements of the LW zeitgeist.

    How To Actually Change Your Mind

    A mega-sequence scattered over almost all of Less Wrong on the ultra-high-level penultimate technique of rationality: actually updating on the evidence.

    Organized into eight subsequences.

    Reductionism 101

  • Q. Joy

    The second core sequence of Less Wrong. How to take reality apart into pieces... and live in that universe, where we have always lived, without feeling disappointed about the Merely Real

  • R. Physicalism 201
  • S.fact that complicated things are made of simpler things.

    The Quantum Physics Sequence

    A non-mysterious introduction to quantum mechanics, intended to be accessible to anyone who can grok algebra and

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong, such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk. The six books are:

The original sequences were written by Eliezer Yudkowsky with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences into Rationality: From AI to Zombies. If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is the best place to starstart.

• Positivism, Self Deception, and Neuroscience
• Priming and Implicit Association:. Priming may be described as the capability of any random stimulus to commandeer your thinking and judgement for the next several minutes. Scared? Don't be. There exist ways to defend yourself against these kinds of intrusions, and there are even methods to harness them into useful testing mechanisms.
• The Blue-Minimizing Robot
• Introduction to Game Theory

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections: __________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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Sequences by Others

Later sequences that were written people other than Eliezer Yudkowsky.Sequences of essays by Scott Alexander include:

• Positivism, Self Deception, and Neuroscience by Yvain

Priming and Implicit Association by Yvain

: Priming may be described as the capability of any random stimulus to commandeer your thinking and judgement for the next several minutes. Scared? Don't be. There exist ways to defend yourself against these kinds of intrusions, and there are even methods to harness them into useful testing mechanisms.

The Blue-Minimizing Robot by Yvain

Introduction to Game Theory

Sequences by YvainLuke Muehlhauser

:

• The Science of Winning at Life. This sequence summarizes scientifically-backed advice for "winning" at everyday life: in one's productivity, in one's relationships, in one's emotions, etc. Each post concludes with footnotes and a long list of references from the academic literature.
• Rationality and Philosophy. This sequence explains how intuitions are used in mainstream philosophy and what the science of intuitions suggests about how intuitions should be used in philosophy.
• No-Nonsense Metaethics. This sequence explains and defends a naturalistic approach to metaethics.

By Anna Salamon:

• Decision Theory of Newcomblike Problems by AnnaSalamon

. Decisions need to be modeled with some structure in order to be scrutinized and systematically improved; simply "intuiting" the answers to decision problems by ad-hoc methods is not conducive to thorough analysis. For this, we formulate decision theories. This sequence, themed with an analysis of Newcomb's problem, is a consolidated summary and context for the many decision theory discussions found on LessWrong at the time of writing.

By Alicorn:

• Living Luminously by Alicorn

. Luminosity, as used here, is self-awareness. A luminous mental state is one that you have and know that you have. It could be an emotion, a belief or alief, a disposition, a quale, a memory - anything that might happen or be stored in your brain. What's going on in your head?

The Science of Winning at Life

And by lukeprogKaj Sotala

This sequence summarizes scientifically-backed advice for "winning" at everyday life: in one's productivity, in one's relationships, in one's emotions, etc. Each post concludes with footnotes and a long list of references from the academic literature.:

Rationality and Philosophy by lukeprog

This sequence explains how intuitions are used in mainstream philosophy and what the science of intuitions suggests about how intuitions should be used in philosophy.

No-Nonsense Metaethics by lukeprog

This sequence explains and defends a naturalistic approach to metaethics.

• What Intelligence Tests Miss by Kaj_Sotala

. A sequence summarizing the content of Keith Stanovich's book What Intelligence Tests Miss.

A. An unfinished sequence summarizing the content of Robert Kurzban's book Why Everyone (Else) is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind (this sequence hasn't been finished).

Two abridged indexes of Eliezer's sequences are XiXiDu's guide, or Academian's guide targeted at people who already have a science background.

eReader Formats

The Sequences have been converted to eReader compatible formats by several projects.

• Print ready versions by jb55 (GitHub). Has versions in Markdown, PDF, and ePub. ePubs can be converted to nearly any other format with calibre.
• lw2ebook by OneWhoFrogs (GitHub). Includes all sequences in ePub and mobi formats.
• Sequences in EPub and MOBI formats by ciphergoth
• PDF version of most sequences in a single file. Has cross-reference support for internal links (PDF links or footnotes), and page size is appropriate for tablets.
• Print ready versions by Jordan. Contains all posts of each sequence in one HTML file. [Dead link.]
• Github ePub, mobi, rst, and html formats available here.
• Living Luminously in ePub, mobi and html.

The original sequences were written by Eliezer Yudkowsky with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences into Rationality: From AI to Zombies. If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is the best place to start.star

Core Sequences

  __TOC__  

Rationality: From AI to Zombies

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is an ebook collecting six books worth of essays on the science and philosophy of human rationality. It's one of the best places to start for people who want to better understand topics that crop up on Less Wrong, such as cognitive bias, the map-territory distinction, meta-ethics, and existential risk. The six books are:

The ebook can be downloaded on a "pay-what-you-want" basis from intelligence.org. Its six books in turn break down into twenty-six sections:

• Book I: Map and Territory contains some. An introduction to the Bayesian concept of the most important introductory posts and essays.

  Read rational belief.

  • A. Predictably Wrong
  • B. Fake Beliefs
  • C. Noticing Confusion
  • D. Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions and Reductionism in order to ensure you're not making any basic rationality errors.

    The most important technique that Less Wrong can offer you is

• Book II: How Toto Actually Change Your Mind.

  Major Sequences

  Long sequences that have been completed A guide to noticing motivated reasoning and organized into a guide.

  overcoming confirmation bias.

  • E. Overly Convenient Excuses
  • F. Politics and Rationality
  • G. Against Rationalization
  • H. Against Doublethink
  • I. Seeing with Fresh Eyes
  • J. Death Spirals
  • K. Letting Go

• Book III: Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions

  How to see throughThe Machine in the many disguisesGhost. Essays on the general topic of answers or beliefs or statements that remove curiosity without alleviating confusion.

  minds, goals, and concepts.

  • L. The Simple Math of Evolution
  • M. Fragile Purposes
  • N. A Human's Guide to Words

• Book IV: Mere Reality

  Sequence guide: 37 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong
  List of posts: A Human's Guide to Words

  A series. Essays on the use and abuse of words; why you can't define a word any way you like; how human brains seem to process definitions. First introduces the Mind projection fallacyscience and the conceptphysical world.

  • O. Lawful Truth
  • P. Reductionism 101
  • Q. Joy in the Merely Real
  • R. Physicalism 201
  • S. Quantum Physics and Many Worlds
  • T. Science and Rationality

A bottom-up guide to epistemology, beginning Eliezer's first sequence of posts after a three year gap. The sequence includes practical applicationsa discussion of truth, formal logic, causality, and puzzling meditations. The whole series of posts is not online yet, although it has finished being written.re-explains Eliezer's metaethics.

ReadingThe original sequences were written by Eliezer Yudkowsky with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences is the most systematic way to approach the Less Wrong archives.

If you'd like an abridged index of the sequences, try XiXiDu's guide, or Academian's guide targeted at people who already have a science background.

Benito's Guide aims to systematically fill the reader in on the most important ideas discussed on LessWrong (not just in the sequences). It also begins with a series of videos, which are a friendly introduction, and useful if you enjoy talks and interviews.

If you prefer books over blog posts, Thinking and Deciding by Jonathan Baron and Good and Real by Gary Drescher have been mentioned as books that overlap significantly with the sequences. (Read more about how the sequences fit in with work done by others.)

Additionally, since 13 March 2015, the bookinto Rationality: From AI to Zombies. If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is available (for pay-as-much-as-you-want price). This book contains sequences and triesthe best place to organize them in a suitable order.start.

Alternative formats

eReader Formats

The Sequences have been converted to eReader compatible formats by several projects.

• Print ready versions by jb55 (GitHub). Has versions in Markdown, PDF, and ePub. ePubs can be converted to nearly any other format with calibre.
• lw2ebook by OneWhoFrogs (GitHub). Includes all sequences in ePub and mobi formats.
• Sequences in EPub and MOBI formats by ciphergoth
• PDF version of most sequences in a single file. Has cross-reference support for internal links (PDF links or footnotes), and page size is appropriate for tablets.
• Print ready versions by Jordan. Contains all posts of each sequence in one HTML file. [Dead link.]
• Github ePub, mobi, rst, and html formats available here.
• Living Luminously in ePub, mobi and html.

Audio

Castify makes certain content of Less Wrong available as a podcast for a small fee (they're recorded by a professional voice actor). Currently they offer:

Promoted Posts:

• A podcast of the promoted posts from Less Wrong

Major Sequences:

• Mysterious Answers to Mysterious Questions (about 2h 30m)
• A Human's Guide to Words (3h 40m)
• How to Actually Change Your Mind (8h 20m)
• Reductionism (5h 20m)
• Metaethics (7h 30m)

Minor Sequences:

• Map and Territory (1h 30 min)
• Ethical Injunctions (1h 30m)

Essay:

• The Simple Truth Eliezer's introductory essay (40 minutes, also included in Map and Territory)

Translations

• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Russian
• Bahasa Indonesia
• Slovak

Other resources

Two abridged indexes of Eliezer's sequences are XiXiDu's guide, or Academian's guide targeted at people who already have a science background.

Benito's Guide aims to systematically fill the reader in on the most important ideas discussed on LessWrong (not just in the sequences). It also begins with a series of videos, which are a friendly introduction, and useful if you enjoy talks and interviews.

Thinking and Deciding by Jonathan Baron and Good and Real by Gary Drescher have...