🦜 Shtetl-Optimized
@scottaaronson.blog@rss-parrot.net
I'm an automated parrot! I relay a website's RSS feed to the Fediverse. Every time a new post appears in the feed, I toot about it. Follow me to get all new posts in your Mastodon timeline!
Brought to you by the RSS Parrot.
---
The Blog of Scott Aaronson
Your feed and you don't want it here? Just
e-mail the birb.
In Support of SB 1047
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8269
Published: September 4, 2024 15:49
I’ve finished my two-year leave at OpenAI, and returned to being just a normal (normal?) professor, quantum complexity theorist, and blogger. Despite the huge drama at OpenAI that coincided with my time there, including the departures of most of the people…
Book Review: “2040” by Pedro Domingos
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8256
Published: September 1, 2024 06:23
Pedro Domingos is a computer scientist at the University of Washington. I’ve known him for years as a guy who’d confidently explain to me why I was wrong about everything from physics to CS to politics … but then, for some reason, ask to meet with me…
“The Right Side of History”
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8234
Published: August 16, 2024 23:22
This morning I was pondering one of the anti-Israel protesters’ favorite phrases—I promise, out of broad philosophical curiosity rather than just parochial concern for my extended family’s survival. “We’re on the right side of history. Don’t put yourself…
My Reading Burden
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8217
Published: August 14, 2024 19:41
Want some honesty about how I (mis)spend my time? These days, my daily routine includes reading all of the following: Many of these materials contain lists of links to other articles, or tweet threads, some of which then take me hours to read in…
My pontificatiest AI podcast ever!
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8200
Published: August 11, 2024 20:56
Back in May, I had the honor (nay, honour) to speak at HowTheLightGetsIn, an ideas festival held annually in Hay-on-Wye on the English/Welsh border. It was my first time in that part of the UK, and I loved it. There was an immense amount of mud due to rain…
My “Never-Trump From Here to Eternity” FAQ
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8172
Published: July 31, 2024 04:43
Q1: Who will you be voting for in November? A: Kamala Harris (and mainstream Democrats all down the ballot), of course. Q2: Of course? A: If the alternative is Trump, I would’ve voted for Biden’s rotting corpse. Or for Hunter Biden. Or for… Q3: Why can’t…
New comment policy
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8131
Published: July 15, 2024 21:53
With yesterday’s My Prayer, for the first time I can remember in two decades of blogging, I put up a new post with the comments section completely turned off. I did so because I knew my nerves couldn’t handle a triumphant interrogation from Trumpist…
My Prayer
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8117
Published: July 14, 2024 16:36
It is the duty of good people, always and everywhere, to condemn, reject, and disavow the use of political violence. Even or especially when evildoers would celebrate the use of political violence against us. It is our duty always to tell the truth, always…
Quantum developments!
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8109
Published: July 12, 2024 02:12
Perhaps like the poor current President of the United States, I can feel myself fading, my memory and verbal facility and attention to detail failing me, even while there’s so much left to do to battle the nonsense in the world. I started my career on an…
The Zombie Misconception of Theoretical Computer Science
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8106
Published: July 8, 2024 20:07
In Michael Sipser’s Introduction to the Theory of Computation textbook, he has one Platonically perfect homework exercise, so perfect that I can reconstruct it from memory despite not having opened the book for over a decade. It goes like this: The correct…
BusyBeaver(5) is now known to be 47,176,870
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8088
Published: July 2, 2024 14:06
The news these days feels apocalyptic to me—as if we’re living through, if not the last days of humanity, then surely the last days of liberal democracy on earth. All the more reason to ignore all of that, then, and blog instead about the notorious Busy…
“Never A Better Time to Visit”: Our Post-October-7 Trip to Israel
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8074
Published: June 27, 2024 23:32
Dana, the kids, and I got back to the US last week after a month spent in England and then Israel. We decided to visit Israel because … uhh, we heard there’s never been a better time. We normally go every year to visit Dana’s family and our many friends…