Reading List
Scott Alexander
Psychiatrist & Writer
Scott Alexander is the pen name of Scott Alexander Siskind, a psychiatrist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He writes Astral Codex Ten, the successor to his blog Slate Star Codex, covering psychiatry, philosophy, statistics, artificial intelligence and forecasting. He has published dozens of long-form book reviews, many running to thousands of words, that work through a book’s argument in detail rather than summarising it. Readers follow him for that willingness to take an idea apart before deciding whether it holds.
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Human Compatible
Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
by Stuart Russell · 2019 · Science
“I recommend this book both for the general public and for SSC readers. The general public will learn what AI safety is. SSC readers will learn what AI safety sounds like when it’s someone other than me talking about it. Both lessons are valuable.” — via Book Review, January 2020
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Antifragile
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“I continue to enjoy Taleb's books and recommend them to anyone who wants an introduction to these subjects. If you've already read the various authors I compare him to, you might still enjoy it as an augmentation, or to hear it in a very different style.” — via Book Review, March 2021