Slate Star Codex

The site was a primary venue of the rationalist community and also attracted wider audiences. The New Statesman characterizes it as "a nexus for the rationalist community and others who seek to apply reason to debates about situations, ideas, and moral quandaries."{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Jasper |date=25 June 2020 |title=Why is the New York Times threatening to reveal blogger Scott Alexander's true identity? |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2020/06/why-new-york-times-threatening-reveal-blogger-scott-alexander-s-true-identity |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627185403/https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2020/06/why-new-york-times-threatening-reveal-blogger-scott-alexander-s-true-identity |archive-date=27 June 2020 |access-date=28 June 2020 |website=New Statesman |language=en}} The New Yorker describes Alexander's fiction as "delightfully weird" and his arguments "often counterintuitive and brilliant". Economist Tyler Cowen calls Scott Alexander "a thinker who is influential among other writers".{{cite web|last=Cowen|first=Tyler|date=4 May 2018|title=Tyler Cowen: Holding up a mirror to intellectuals of the left|url=https://www.twincities.com/2018/05/04/tyler-cowen-holding-up-a-mirror-to-intellectuals-of-the-left/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621114822/https://www.twincities.com/2018/05/04/tyler-cowen-holding-up-a-mirror-to-intellectuals-of-the-left/|archive-date=21 June 2020|access-date=3 July 2019|website=Twin Cities Pioneer Press}}

The New Yorker states that the volume of content Alexander has written on Slate Star Codex makes the blog difficult to summarize, with an e-book of all posts running over nine thousand pages in PDF form.{{cite magazine|last=Lewis-Kraus|first=Gideon|date=9 July 2020|title=Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley's War Against the Media|magazine=The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/slate-star-codex-and-silicon-valleys-war-against-the-media|url-status=live|access-date=10 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710020419/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/slate-star-codex-and-silicon-valleys-war-against-the-media|archive-date=10 July 2020}} Many posts are book reviews (typically of books in the fields of social sciences or medicine) or reviews of a topic in the scientific literature. For example, the March 2020 blog post "Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know" analyzes available medical literature and comes to a conclusion that contrary to early guidance by the CDC, masks are likely an effective protection measure against COVID-19 for the general public under certain conditions.{{Cite web|last=Alexander|first=Scott|date=23 March 2020|title=Face Masks: Much More Than You Wanted To Know|url=https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/23/face-masks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820015532/https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/23/face-masks-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/|archive-date=20 August 2020|access-date=|website=Slate Star Codex}} Some posts are prefaced with a note on their "epistemic status", an assessment of Alexander's confidence in the material to follow.

In 2017, Slate Star Codex ranked fourth on a survey conducted by Rethink Charity of how effective altruists first heard about effective altruism, after "personal contact", "LessWrong", and "other books, articles and blog posts", and just above "80,000 Hours."{{Cite web|last1=Mulcahy|first1=Anna|last2=Barnett|first2=Tee|last3=Hurford|first3=Peter|date=17 November 2017|title=EA Survey 2017 Series Part 8: How do People Get Into EA?|url=https://rtcharity.org/ea-survey-2017-part-8/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429135314/https://rtcharity.org/ea-survey-2017-part-8/|archive-date=29 April 2019|access-date=9 September 2020|website=Rethink Charity}} The blog discusses moral questions and dilemmas relevant to effective altruism, such as moral offsets (the proposition that good acts can cancel out bad acts), ethical treatment of animals, and trade-offs of pursuing systemic change for charities.{{multiref2

| {{Cite book|last1=Chan|first1=Rebecca|url=|title=Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion|last2=Crummett|first2=Dustin|date=29 August 2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-188069-8|location=Oxford|pages=|chapter=Moral Indulgences: When Offsetting is Wrong|doi=10.1093/oso/9780198845492.003.0005|oclc=1126149885|chapter-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198845492.001.0001/oso-9780198845492-chapter-5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014312/https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198845492.001.0001/oso-9780198845492-chapter-5|archive-date=9 September 2020}}

| {{Cite journal|last=Syme|first=Timothy|date=7 February 2019|title=Charity vs. Revolution: Effective Altruism and the Systemic Change Objection|url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10677-019-09979-5|journal=Ethical Theory and Moral Practice|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=93–120|doi=10.1007/s10677-019-09979-5|s2cid=150872907|issn=1386-2820|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014311/https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10677-019-09979-5|archive-date=9 September 2020|via=|url-access=subscription}}

| {{Cite journal|last=Kissel|first=Joshua|date=2017|title=Effective Altruism and Anti-Capitalism: An Attempt at Reconciliation|url=https://www.pdcnet.org/eip/content/eip_2017_0018_0001_0068_0090|journal=Essays in Philosophy|volume=18|issue=1|pages=68–90|doi=10.7710/1526-0569.1573|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014310/https://www.pdcnet.org/eip/content/eip_2017_0018_0001_0068_0090|archive-date=9 September 2020|via=|doi-access=free|url-access=subscription}}

| {{Cite journal|last=Foerster|first=Thomas|date=15 January 2019|title=Moral Offsetting|url=https://academic.oup.com/pq/article/69/276/617/5289640|journal=The Philosophical Quarterly|language=en|volume=69|issue=276|pages=617–635|doi=10.1093/pq/pqy068|issn=0031-8094|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014319/https://academic.oup.com/pq/article-abstract/69/276/617/5289640?redirectedFrom=fulltext|archive-date=9 September 2020|via=|url-access=subscription}}}}

Alexander regularly writes about advances in artificial intelligence and emphasized the importance of AI safety research.{{cite book|last=Miller|first=James D.|chapter=Reflections on the Singularity Journey|date=2017|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-662-54033-6_13|title=The Technological Singularity|series=The Frontiers Collection|volume=|pages=223–228|editor-last=Callaghan|editor-first=Victor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014324/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-662-54033-6_13|place=Berlin, Heidelberg|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-662-54033-6_13|isbn=978-3-662-54031-2|archive-date=9 September 2020|editor2-last=Miller|editor2-first=James|editor3-last=Yampolskiy|editor3-first=Roman|editor4-last=Armstrong|editor4-first=Stuart}}

In the long essay "Meditations On Moloch", he analyzes game-theoretic scenarios of cooperation failure like the prisoner's dilemma and the tragedy of the commons that underlie many of humanity's problems and argues that AI risks should be considered in this context.{{multiref2

| {{Cite journal|last=Sotala|first=Kaj|date=2017|title=Superintelligence as a Cause or Cure for Risks of Astronomical Suffering|url=http://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/1877/1098|journal=Informatica|volume=41|pages=389–400|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220215810/http://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/1877/1098|archive-date=20 February 2020|via=}}

| {{Cite web|last=Foley|first=Walter|date=|title=ESSAY // Killing Moloch: Early Pandemic Reflections on Sobriety and Transcendence|url=https://www.rootquarterly.com/killing-moloch|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909014343/https://www.rootquarterly.com/killing-moloch|archive-date=9 September 2020|access-date=9 September 2020|website=RQ|language=en-US|quote=The rationality blog Slate Star Codex uses the brutal Canaanite god Moloch, depicted in Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl,' as a metaphor for humanity's repeated failure to coordinate toward a better future}}

| {{Cite book|last=Ord|first=Toby|url=|title=The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2020|isbn=978-1-5266-0022-6|location=London|pages=|oclc=1143365836|quote=A second kind of unrecoverable dystopia is a stable civilization that is desired by few (if any) people. It is easy to see how such an outcome could be dystopian, but not immediately obvious how we could arrive at it, or lock it in, if most (or all) people do not want it... Meditations on Moloch is a powerful exploration of such possibilities...}}}}

In "The Toxoplasma of Rage", Alexander discusses how controversies spread in media and social networks. According to Alexander, memes that generate a lot of disagreement spread further, in part because they present an opportunity to members of different groups to send a strong signal of commitment to their cause. For example, he argues that PETA, with its controversial campaigns, is better known than other animal rights organizations such as Vegan Outreach because of this dynamic.{{Cite book |author1=Brockman |first=John |title=This idea is brilliant: lost, overlooked, and underappreciated scientific concepts everyone should know |date=16 January 2018 |publisher=Harper Perennial |isbn=9780062698216 |edition=First |location=New York |chapter=Costly Signaling |oclc=1019711625}} Another example of this cited by Alexander is the Rolling Stone article "A Rape on Campus".{{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=Helen|date=26 November 2015|title=If activists want real change they must ditch the dying cat|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/26/activists-dying-cat-paris-beirut-whataboutery|access-date=|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108142522/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/26/activists-dying-cat-paris-beirut-whataboutery|url-status=live}}

In the short story "Sort By Controversial", Alexander introduces the term "Shiri's scissor" or "scissor statement" to describe a statement that has great destructive power because it generates wildly divergent interpretations that fuel conflict and tear people apart. The term has been used to describe controversial topics widely discussed in social media.{{multiref2

| {{Cite news|last=Lewis|first=Helen|date=19 August 2020|title=The Mythology of Karen|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/|url-status=live|access-date=9 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830034317/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/karen-meme-coronavirus/615355/|archive-date=30 August 2020|issn=1072-7825}}

| {{Cite news|last=Douthat|first=Ross|date=22 January 2019|title=The Covington Scissor|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opinion/covington-catholic-march-for-life.html|url-status=live|access-date=9 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817143905/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/opinion/covington-catholic-march-for-life.html|archive-date=17 August 2020|issn=0362-4331}}

| {{cite web | title=3 ways social media pulls us into dumb and dangerous debates | website=The Week | date=2021-08-19 | url=https://theweek.com/culture/1003863/three-ideas-you-need-to-know-to-make-sense-of-our-social-media-dysfunction | access-date=2021-08-24 | archive-date=August 24, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824191952/https://theweek.com/culture/1003863/three-ideas-you-need-to-know-to-make-sense-of-our-social-media-dysfunction | url-status=live }}}}

The 2013 post "The Anti-Reactionary FAQ" critiques the work and worldview of the neoreactionary movement, arguing against the work of Curtis Yarvin (whose views include a belief in natural racial hierarchies and a desire to restore feudalism). Alexander allowed neo-reactionaries to comment on posts and in "culture war" threads on the forum because he wanted to promote an open marketplace of ideas; Alexander engaged in extended dialogues with these users, including his thirty-thousand-word FAQ. Alexander's essays on neoreaction have been cited by David Auerbach and Dylan Matthews as explanations of the movement.{{cite news |last1=Auerbach |first1=David |date=10 June 2015 |title=When All It Takes to Be Booted From a Tech Conference Is Being a "Distraction," We Have a Problem |url=https://slate.com/technology/2015/06/curtis-yarvin-booted-from-strange-loop-its-a-big-big-problem.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726211129/https://slate.com/technology/2015/06/curtis-yarvin-booted-from-strange-loop-its-a-big-big-problem.html |archive-date=26 July 2020 |access-date=4 August 2020 |work=Slate Magazine |language=en |quote=If you're curious, the tireless Scott Alexander of Slate Star Codex has written extensive rebuttals of neoreactionary theory, which go to prove Brandolini's Law}}

{{cite news |last1=Matthews |first1=Dylan |date=18 April 2016 |title=The alt-right is more than warmed-over white supremacy. It's that, but way way weirder. |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/4/18/11434098/alt-right-explained |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831155255/https://www.vox.com/2016/4/18/11434098/alt-right-explained |archive-date=31 August 2017 |access-date=4 August 2020 |work=Vox |language=en |quote=Note that these empirical claims are, well, not true. Scott Alexander explains well here; his devil's advocate account of reactionary beliefs is also well worth your time.}}

In the 2013 post "Lizardman's Constant is 4%", Alexander coined the term "Lizardman's Constant", referring to the approximate percentage of responses to a poll, survey, or quiz that are not sincere.{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Scott |date=12 April 2013 |title=Lizardman's Constant is 4% |url=https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-reptilian-muslim-climatologists-from-mars/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211012195310/https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-reptilian-muslim-climatologists-from-mars/ |archive-date=12 October 2021 |access-date= |website=Slate Star Codex}} The post was responding to a Public Policy Polling statement that "four percent of Americans believe lizardmen are running the Earth", which Alexander attributed to people giving a polling company an answer they did not really believe to be true, out of carelessness, politeness, anger, or amusement.

Alexander suggested that polls should include a question with an absurd answer as one of the options, so anyone choosing that option could be weeded out as a troll.{{cite web | last=Elledge | first=Jonn | title=More people think the world is run by lizards than that the PM negotiated a very good Brexit deal | website=New Statesman | date=2021-06-07 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2019/11/more-people-think-world-run-lizards-pm-negotiated-very-good-brexit-deal | access-date=2021-10-14 | archive-date=October 29, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029172546/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2019/11/more-people-think-world-run-lizards-pm-negotiated-very-good-brexit-deal | url-status=live }}{{cite journal | last=Hartman | first=Rachel | title=Did 4% of Americans Really Drink Bleach Last Year? | journal=Harvard Business Review | date=2021-04-20 | url=https://hbr.org/2021/04/did-4-of-americans-really-drink-bleach-last-year | access-date=2021-10-14 | archive-date=October 26, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026232045/https://hbr.org/2021/04/did-4-of-americans-really-drink-bleach-last-year | url-status=live }}

Alexander used his first and middle name alone for safety and privacy reasons, although he had previously published Slate Star Codex content academically under his real name. In June 2020, he deleted all entries on Slate Star Codex, stating that a technology reporter from The New York Times (NYT) intended to publish an article about the blog using his full name. Alexander said that the reporter told him that it was newspaper policy to use real names,{{cite news |last1=Hoonhout |first1=Tobias |date=23 June 2020 |title=What an NYT Reporter's Doxing Threat Says about the Paper's 'Standards' |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/news/what-a-nyt-reporters-doxxing-threat-says-about-the-papers-standards/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623232307/https://www.nationalreview.com/news/what-a-nyt-reporters-doxxing-threat-says-about-the-papers-standards/ |archive-date=23 June 2020 |access-date=23 June 2020 |work=National Review}} and he referred to it as doxing. The New York Times responded: "We do not comment on what we may or may not publish in the future. But when we report on newsworthy or influential figures, our goal is always to give readers all the accurate and relevant information we can."{{cite news |last1=Athey |first1=Amber |date=23 June 2020 |title=The death of the private citizen |url=https://spectator.us/new-york-times-private-slate-star-codex-blog/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200623214217/https://spectator.us/new-york-times-private-slate-star-codex-blog/ |archive-date=23 June 2020 |access-date=23 June 2020 |work=Spectator USA}} The Verge cited a source saying that at the time when Alexander deleted the blog, "not a word" of a story about SSC had been written.{{Cite web |last=Schiffer |first=Zoe |date=16 July 2020 |title=How Clubhouse brought the culture war to Silicon Valley's venture capital community |url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/16/21325678/venture-capitalists-vc-media-silicon-valley-clubhouse-tech-journalists |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716145045/https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/16/21325678/venture-capitalists-vc-media-silicon-valley-clubhouse-tech-journalists |archive-date=16 July 2020 |access-date=16 July 2020 |website=The Verge |language=en}} The Poynter Institute's David Cohn interpreted this event as part of an ongoing clash between the tech and media industries, reflecting a shift from primarily economic conflicts to fundamental disagreements over values, ethics, and cultural norms.{{cite web |last1=Cohn |first1=David |title=When journalism and Silicon Valley collide |url=https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/when-journalism-and-silicon-valley-collide/ |publisher=Poynter Institute |date=1 September 2020 |access-date=8 September 2020 |archive-date=1 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901213818/https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2020/when-journalism-and-silicon-valley-collide/ |url-status=live }}

Prior to the article's publication, several commentators argued that The New York Times should not publish Alexander's name without good reason. Writing in National Review, Tobias Hoonhout said that the newspaper had applied its anonymity policy inconsistently. The New Statesman's Jasper Jackson wrote that it was "difficult to see how Scott Alexander's full name is so integral to the NYT{{'s}} story that it justifies the damage it might do to him", but cautioned that such criticism was based solely on Alexander's own statements and that "before we make that call, it might be a good idea to have more than his word to go on." As reported by The Daily Beast, the criticism by Alexander and his supporters that the paper was doxing him caused internal debate among The New York Times{{'}} staff.{{Cite news |last=Tani |first=Maxwell |date=24 June 2020 |title=The Latest Squabble Inside The New York Times |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-slate-star-codex-doxxing-is-the-latest-squabble-inside-new-york-times |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626022626/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-slate-star-codex-doxxing-is-the-latest-squabble-inside-new-york-times |archive-date=26 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020 |work=The Daily Beast |language=en}}

Supporters of the site organized a petition against release of the author's name. The petition collected over six thousand signatures in its first few days, including psychologist Steven Pinker, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, economist Scott Sumner, computer scientist and blogger Scott Aaronson, and philosopher Peter Singer.

According to New Statesman columnist Louise Perry, Scott Alexander wrote that he quit his job and took measures that made him comfortable with revealing his real name,{{Cite news |last=Perry |first=Louise |date=24 February 2021 |title=The Slate Star Codex saga proves a new blasphemy code is emerging among liberals |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/02/slate-star-codex-saga-proves-new-blasphemy-code-emerging-among-liberals |access-date= |work=New Statesman |archive-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224170839/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/02/slate-star-codex-saga-proves-new-blasphemy-code-emerging-among-liberals |url-status=live }} which he published on Astral Codex Ten.{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=Kim |date=13 February 2021 |title=Go read this New York Times report on SlateStarCodex and Silicon Valley tech leaders |url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/13/22281796/go-read-this-slate-star-codex-silicon-valley-nytimes-blog |access-date=4 March 2021 |work=The Verge |language=en |archive-date=February 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221181104/https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/13/22281796/go-read-this-slate-star-codex-silicon-valley-nytimes-blog |url-status=live }}

The New York Times published an article about the blog in February 2021, three weeks after Alexander had publicly revealed his name.{{Cite news |last=Metz |first=Cade |date=13 February 2021 |title=Silicon Valley's Safe Space |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/13/technology/slate-star-codex-rationalists.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213101345/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/13/technology/slate-star-codex-rationalists.html |archive-date=13 February 2021 |access-date=13 February 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://slatestarcodex.com/ slatestarcodex.com], the original, now discontinued blog
• [https://astralcodexten.substack.com/ Astral Codex Ten], the successor blog.
• [https://www.lesswrong.com/users/Yvain Scott Alexander's writings] on LessWrong

{{Existential risk from artificial intelligence}}

{{LessWrong}}

Category:Internet properties established in 2013

Category:Works about effective altruism

Category:Rationalism

Category:Philosophy blogs

Category:Science blogs