LessWrong (30+ Karma)

LessWrong

Audio narrations of LessWrong posts.

  1. 1H AGO

    “You Aren’t in Charge of the Overton Window; Politics Is Not Interior Design” by Davidmanheim

    Sometimes, people don't say what they actually think, not because saying it would be rude or costly, but because they believe saying it now would be counterproductive. They see that the true claim is outside the Overton window. And they conclude that the strategic play is to say something weaker, something adjacent. That will let you normalize the frame without triggering the immune response. You will redesign the house a bit now so that you can slide the window later. Then, when the ground has shifted, you imagine, the real claim becomes sayable. Strategic discourse chess? The above is an attempt at high-dimensional discourse chess. In politics and the world of ideas, it seems that people play it constantly. But building on a recent comment by Rob Bensinger, I want to argue that the conceit behind playing, that we can model how public acceptability shifts and cleverly intervene to steer those shifts, is usually wrong - not in the sense that discourse has no structure, or to argue that framing never matters. Most people vastly overestimate their ability to predict second- and third-order effects of anything, including strategic speech. And this is a more damaging error than you might [...] --- Outline: (00:45) Strategic discourse chess? (02:21) Yes, Overton windows exist, but... (04:00) ...can they be reliably manipulated? (05:57) Why would you think this could work? (07:16) The case of AI Safety (11:14) Pushing back is also manipulation. (15:03) Another real-world example: Defund the Police (17:43) Strategic discourse chess usually underperforms just saying what is true. (19:58) The obvious conclusion The original text contained 3 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: April 16th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/a9CxzxKbqHkQBdcqY/you-aren-t-in-charge-of-the-overton-window-politics-is-not --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    22 min

  2. 6H AGO

    “Carpathia Day” by Drake Morrison

    (The better telling is here. Seriously you should go read it. I've heard this story told in rationalist circles, but there wasn't a post on LessWrong, so I made one) Today is April 15th, Carpathia Day. Take a moment to put forth an unreasonable effort to save a little piece of your world, when no one would fault you for doing less. In the early morning of April 15, the RMS Titanic began to sink with more than two thousand souls on board. Over 58 nautical miles away — too far to make it in time — sailed the RMS Carpathia, a small, slow, passenger steamer. The wireless operator, Harold Cottam, was listening to the transmitter late at night before he went to bed when he got a message from Cape Cod intended for the Titanic. When he contacted the Titanic to relay the messages, he got back a distress signal saying they hit an iceberg and were in need of immediate assistance. Cottam ran the message straight to the captain's cabin, waking him. Captain Arthur Rostron's first reaction upon being awoken was anger, but that anger dissolved as he came to understand the situation. Before he'd [...] The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/SARCiTFJfXJJhpej7/carpathia-day --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    4 min

  3. 9H AGO

    “Claude Code, Codex and Agentic Coding #7: Auto Mode” by Zvi

    As we all try to figure out what Mythos means for us down the line, the world of practical agentic coding continues, with the latest array of upgrades. The biggest change, which I’m finally covering, is Auto Mode. Auto Mode is the famously requested kinda-dangerously-skip-some-permissions, where the system keeps an eye on all the commands to ensure human approval for anything too dangerous. It is not entirely safe, but it is a lot safer than —dangerously-skip-permissions, and previously a lot of people were just clicking yes to requests mostly without thinking, which isn’t safe either. Table of Contents Huh, Upgrades. On Your Marks. Lazy Cheaters. It's All Routine. Declawing. Free Claw. Take It To The Limit. Turn On Auto The Pilot. I’ll Allow It. Threat Model. The Classifier Is The Hard Part. Acceptable Risks. Manage The Agents. Introducing. Skilling Up. What Happened To My Tokens? Coding Agents Offer Mundane Utility. Huh, Upgrades Claude Code Desktop gets a redesign for parallel agents, with a new sidebar for managing multiple sessions, a drag-and-drop layout for arranging your [...] --- Outline: (00:48) Huh, Upgrades (02:46) On Your Marks (04:21) Lazy Cheaters (06:11) Its All Routine (06:52) Declawing (09:03) Free Claw (09:31) Take It To The Limit (13:54) Turn On Auto The Pilot (15:55) Ill Allow It (16:26) Threat Model (17:10) The Classifier Is The Hard Part (18:34) Acceptable Risks (19:54) Manage The Agents (22:34) Introducing (22:44) Skilling Up (25:27) What Happened To My Tokens? (25:43) Coding Agents Offer Mundane Utility --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/w8misLX7KCmLxJM2K/claude-code-codex-and-agentic-coding-7-auto-mode --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    26 min

  4. 10H AGO

    “Do not conquer what you cannot defend” by habryka

    Epistemic status: All of the western canon must eventually be re-invented in a LessWrong post. So today we are re-inventing federalism. Once upon a time there was a great king. He ruled his kingdom with wisdom and economically literate policies, and prosperity followed. Seeing this, the citizens of nearby kingdoms revolted against their leaders, and organized to join the kingdom of this great king. While the kingdom's ability to defend itself against external threats grew with each person who joined the land, the kingdom's ability to defend itself against internal threats did not. One fateful evening, the king bit into a bologna sandwich poisoned by a rival noble. That noble quickly proceeded to behead his political enemies in the name of the dead king. The flag bearing the wise king's portrait known as "the great unifier" still flies in the fortified cities where his successor rules with an iron fist. Once upon a time there was a great scientific mind. She developed a new theoretical framework that made large advances on the hardest scientific questions of the day. Seeing the promise of her work, new graduate students, professors, and corporate R&D teams flocked into the field, hungry to [...] --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/jinzzbPHshif8nmnw/do-not-conquer-what-you-cannot-defend --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    11 min

  5. 14H AGO

    “What is the Iliad Intensive?” by Leon Lang, Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel, David Udell

    Almost two months ago, Iliad announced the Iliad Intensive and Iliad Fellowship. Fellowships are a well-understood unit, but what is an intensive? This post explains this in more detail! Comparison. The Iliad Intensive has similarities to ARENA, but focuses more on foundational AI alignment research instead of alignment research engineering. Expect more math and less coding. Rhythm. It's currently four weeks long. Five days a week. 10am till 6pm every day, with lunch and an afternoon break. This makes for around 6.5 hours of learning a day, which is at the upper end of how long most people can concentrate deeply within a day. This is why we call it “Intensive”. Content. The Iliad Intensive is broken into five clusters, with 20 total modules, one for each day. The clusters and modules in the April iteration are below. We expect to add substantially more topics and material over the coming months. There is much more material than can be covered in a single month, so different Intensives will vary in content. Alignment Cluster AI Alignment: an IntroductionAlignment in PracticeAI Alignment: The FieldLearning Cluster Deep Learning 1Deep Learning 2Singular Learning [...] --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/moG6k8mJiGvH4zc8j/what-is-the-iliad-intensive --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    5 min

  6. 19H AGO

    “The Mirror Test Is Complicated” by J Bostock

    The Mirror Test is kind of like Hitler. In any discussion of animal cognition, somebody is going to bring it up. The conversation usually goes like this: A: So, most animals can’t recognize themselves in the mirror B: Which animals specifically? A: Oh, dogs, cats, betta fish, monkeys, that sort of thing. Anyway as I was saying, those animals can’t. But some smart animals can recognize themselves in the mirror. B: Such as? A: Well, chimpanzees and orangutans for a start. B: Makes sense A: Not gorillas though, at least not always. But dolphins and elephants can! B: Yeah, those animals are smart as well A: Magpies can, though crows cant. B: Sure, ok A: And cleaner wrasse can as well. B: The uhh, finger-sized fish? You sure? A: Yeah. And also ants. B: What. What? Frans de Waal drew this picture of an orangutan putting lettuce on her head and then actually got it published in a real journal. Based. What do we actually mean by the “Mirror Test” “The mirror test” elides a bit of a distinction between different kinds of test. There's lots of things you can do which look like “put an animal in front [...] --- Outline: (01:48) What do we actually mean by the Mirror Test (03:07) The Complicated Ones (03:54) The Unbelievable Ones (05:17) Making Sense Of It All --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5eLoZQshfre8DGaxd/the-mirror-test-is-complicated --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    8 min

  7. 20H AGO

    “Contra Leicht on AI Pauses” by David Scott Krueger (formerly: capybaralet)

    This is going to be a nerdier article than usual. It's a response to Anton Leicht's blog post “Press Play To Continue”. I disagree with much of it and think it's not very well argued. Going section-by-section, Leicht's claims are: AI is going pretty damn well all things considered. The argument has two parts: It implicitly models pausing AI as resampling from a fixed distribution of possible AI development timelines. It argues the current situation is better than average, so resampling is a bad idea. Specifically the arguments that things are going well are: Minimal compute overhang Multipolarity Liberal democracies control the supply chain Pausing AI isn’t and won’t be popular among centrist politicians, only among the more radical wings of both parties, and this makes it unlikely to get passed. A “second best” pause is more likely, and would be worse than nothing. It would be unilateral. It would not cater to x-risk concerns, and thus will lack critical pieces like e.g. export controls or limits on internal deployment. Proposals to pause AI don’t expand the Overton window in a helpful way [...] --- Outline: (03:29) Response to the arguments (08:31) General reflections --- First published: April 14th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/HofdmpSHbthzZDFZH/contra-leicht-on-ai-pauses --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    10 min

  8. 20H AGO

    “Nectome: All That I Know” by Raelifin

    TLDR: I flew to Oregon to investigate Nectome, a brain preservation startup, and talk to their entire team. They’re an ambitious company, looking to grow in a way that no cryonics organization has before. Their procedure is probably much better at saving people than other orgs, and is being offered for as little as $20k until the end of April — a (theoretical) 92% discount. (I bought two.) This early-bird pricing is low, in part, due to some severe uncertainties, in both the broader world and in Nectome's ability to succeed as a business. Meta: I'm Max Harms, an AI alignment researcher at MIRI and author.This deep-dive only assumes functionalism and a passing familiarity with cryonics, but no particular knowledge of Nectome.I have been a cryonics enthusiast for my whole adult life, and that is probably biasing my views, at least a little. I want Nectome to succeed.That said, I am also a rationalist, and I have worked very hard to set aside my wishful thinking and see things with cold objectivity.Throughout the essay, I've attached explicit probabilities for my claims in parentheticals. You can click these probabilities to access Manifold markets so we [...] --- Outline: (02:04) 1. The Problem (05:43) How to Fix Cryo (10:50) 2. The History (10:53) The Brain Preservation Foundation (15:51) Media Missteps (18:51) The Long, Slow Science of Getting the Details Right (20:49) 3. The Team (24:19) Nectome Needs More Businesspeople (27:14) 4. The Plan (30:04) MAiD Services (32:26) Sendoff (34:44) Storage (42:15) Messy MAiD (44:41) 5. The Money (49:37) Runway and Investment (52:04) This Months Sale (55:41) Life Insurance and Donation/Volunteering (58:43) 6. The Future (01:02:22) Competition (01:06:48) The Premium Niche (01:08:47) The Singularity is... Here?? (01:11:56) 7. The Bottom Line (01:17:10) The World Needs Heroes (01:17:52) Additional Reading (01:18:11) Prediction Market Roundup The original text contained 49 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: April 15th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3i5GMhpGbDwef9Rns/nectome-all-that-i-know --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

    1h 20m
See All (250)

About

Audio narrations of LessWrong posts.

Information

  • Creator
    LessWrong
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    250
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    LessWrong (30+ Karma)

You Might Also Like