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LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

By: LessWrong
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Audio narrations of LessWrong posts. Includes all curated posts and all posts with 125+ karma.

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© 2025 LessWrong (Curated & Popular) Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • “Which side of the AI safety community are you in?” by Max Tegmark

    “Which side of the AI safety community are you in?” by Max Tegmark
    Oct 23 2025
    In recent years, I’ve found that people who self-identify as members of the AI safety community have increasingly split into two camps:

    Camp A) "Race to superintelligence safely”: People in this group typically argue that "superintelligence is inevitable because of X”, and it's therefore better that their in-group (their company or country) build it first. X is typically some combination of “Capitalism”, “Molloch”, “lack of regulation” and “China”.

    Camp B) “Don’t race to superintelligence”: People in this group typically argue that “racing to superintelligence is bad because of Y”. Here Y is typically some combination of “uncontrollable”, “1984”, “disempowerment” and “extinction”.

    Whereas the 2023 extinction statement was widely signed by both Camp B and Camp A (including Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis and Sam Altman), the 2025 superintelligence statement conveniently separates the two groups – for example, I personally offered all US Frontier AI CEO's to sign, and none chose [...]

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    First published:
    October 22nd, 2025

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zmtqmwetKH4nrxXcE/which-side-of-the-ai-safety-community-are-you-in

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    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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    4 mins
  • “Doomers were right” by Algon

    “Doomers were right” by Algon
    Oct 23 2025
    There's an argument I sometimes hear against existential risks, or any other putative change that some are worried about, that goes something like this:

    'We've seen time after time that some people will be afraid of any change. They'll say things like "TV will destroy people's ability to read", "coffee shops will destroy the social order","machines will put textile workers out of work". Heck, Socrates argued that books would harm people's ability to memorize things. So many prophets of doom, and yet the world has not only survived, it has thrived. Innovation is a boon. So we should be extremely wary when someone cries out "halt" in response to a new technology, as that path is lined with skulls of would be doomsayers."

    Lest you think this is a straw man, Yann Le Cun compared fears about AI doom to fears about coffee. Now, I don't want to criticize [...]

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    First published:
    October 22nd, 2025

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cAmBfjQDj6eaic95M/doomers-were-right

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    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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    5 mins
  • “Do One New Thing A Day To Solve Your Problems” by Algon

    “Do One New Thing A Day To Solve Your Problems” by Algon
    Oct 22 2025
    People don't explore enough. They rely on cached thoughts and actions to get through their day. Unfortunately, this doesn't lead to them making progress on their problems. The solution is simple. Just do one new thing a day to solve one of your problems.

    Intellectually, I've always known that annoying, persistent problems often require just 5 seconds of actual thought. But seeing a number of annoying problems that made my life worse, some even major ones, just yield to the repeated application of a brief burst of thought each day still surprised me.

    For example, I had a wobbly chair. It was wobbling more as time went on, and I worried it would break. Eventually, I decided to try actually solving the issue. 1 minute and 10 turns of an allen key later, it was fixed.

    Another example: I have a shot attention span. I kept [...]

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    First published:
    October 3rd, 2025

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gtk2KqEtedMi7ehxN/do-one-new-thing-a-day-to-solve-your-problems

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    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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    3 mins
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