Rationality: From AI to Zombies – Machine Intelligence Research Institute

Weighing in at more than 1,800 pages, it is quite possibly the most complete tome available on how to improve your mind, make better decisions, and understand why people, including yourself, do what they do. I cannot recommend it more strongly. Pay-what-you-want version includes DRM-free epub, mobi, and PDF versions. Also available on Amazon for … Read more

The nice thing about the “Rule of Law” framing for an argument …

… is that it’s a really easy way to get people to ignore thinking about the ramifications and consequences of the particular situation, focusing their attention instead on the general opprobrium for the principle of order. The mind gets caught thinking about whether laws, in theory, are good on the whole, and forget to think … Read more

Are There Emotional No-Go Areas Where Logic Dare Not Show Its Face?

“Nothing should be off limits to discussion. No, let me amend that. If you think some things should be off limits, let’s sit down together and discuss that proposition itself. Let’s not just insult each other and cut off all discussion because we rationalists have somehow wandered into a land where emotion is king.” http://ift.tt/1n32d5L … Read more

Probabilistic Models of Cognition

Excellent web-based e-book discussing modelling cognition probabilistically and generatively. With live code samples to mess around with to illustrate what they’re talking about. Extremely interesting stuff, and not too dense. If you’re interested in making or learning about intelligent software, this should keep you busy for a little while. In this book, we explore the … Read more