Sequences
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.
The were written by with the goal of creating a book on rationality. MIRI has since collated and edited the sequences into . If you are new to Less Wrong, this book is the best place to start.
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 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: . An introduction to the Bayesian concept of rational belief.
- A. Predictably Wrong
- B. Fake Beliefs
- C. Noticing Confusion
- D. Mysterious Answers
__________________________________________________________________
- Book II: . A guide 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: . Essays on the general topic of minds, goals, and concepts.
- L. The Simple Math of Evolution
- M. Fragile Purposes
- N. A Human's Guide to Words
__________________________________________________________________
- Book IV: . Essays on science and the physical 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: . A discussion of ethics, and of things people value in general.
- U. Fake Preferences
- V. Value Theory
- W. Quantified Humanism
__________________________________________________________________
- Book VI: . 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 , an earlier version of much of the material from Rationality: From AI to Zombies:
- Ethical Injunctions: A discussion of prohibitions you may want to follow even when you've thought of a clever reason to think they don't apply.
- : A longer version of "Value Theory", discussing the apparent "arbitrariness" of human morality.
- : A discussion of the complexity of human value, and what the universe might look like if everything were much, much better. Fun theory is the optimistic, far-future-oriented part of value theory, asking: How much fun is there in the universe; will we ever run out of fun; are we having fun yet; could we be having more fun?
- : A much longer version of the "Quantum Physics and Many Worlds", delving more into the implications of physics for our concepts of personal identity and time.
Other collections from the same time period (2006-2009) include:
- : A blog conversation between Eliezer Yudkowsky and Robin Hanson on the topic of and how concerned we should be about superintelligent AI.
- : Yudkowsky's answer to a challenge he raises in Rationality: From AI to Zombies to come up with an explanation for the human feeling that we have free will.
Yudkowsky has also written a more recent sequence:
- . These essays include a discussion of truth, formal logic, causality, and metaethics, and are a good way for more ambitious readers to quickly get up to speed.
Sequences by others
Sequences of essays by Scott Alexander include:
- 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
Sequences by Luke Muehlhauser:
- . 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.
- . 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.
- . This sequence explains and defends a naturalistic approach to metaethics.
By Anna Salamon:
- Decision Theory of Newcomblike Problems. 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. , as used here, is self-awareness. A luminous mental state is one that you have and know that you have. It could be an , a or , a disposition, a , a memory - anything that might happen or be stored in your brain. What's going on in your head?
And by Kaj Sotala:
- . A sequence summarizing the content of Keith Stanovich's book What Intelligence Tests Miss.
- by Kaj_Sotala. An unfinished sequence summarizing the content of Robert Kurzban's book Why Everyone (Else) is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind.
Other resources
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 been mentioned as books that overlap significantly with the sequences. More about how the sequences fit in with work done by others.