LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

By: LessWrong
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  • Summary

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

    If you'd like more, subscribe to the “Lesswrong (30+ karma)” feed.
    © 2024 LessWrong (Curated & Popular)
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Episodes
  • “What TMS is like” by Sable

    “What TMS is like” by Sable
    Oct 31 2024
    There are two nuclear options for treating depression: Ketamine and TMS; This post is about the latter.

    TMS stands for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Basically, it fixes depression via magnets, which is about the second or third most magical things that magnets can do.

    I don’t know a whole lot about the neuroscience - this post isn’t about the how or the why. It's from the perspective of a patient, and it's about the what.

    What is it like to get TMS?

    TMS

    The Gatekeeping

    For Reasons™, doctors like to gatekeep access to treatments, and TMS is no different. To be eligible, you generally have to have tried multiple antidepressants for several years and had them not work or stop working. Keep in mind that, while safe, most antidepressants involve altering your brain chemistry and do have side effects.

    Since TMS is non-invasive, doesn’t involve any drugs, and has basically [...]

    ---

    Outline:

    (00:35) TMS

    (00:38) The Gatekeeping

    (01:49) Motor Threshold Test

    (04:08) The Treatment

    (04:15) The Schedule

    (05:20) The Experience

    (07:03) The Sensation

    (08:21) Results

    (09:06) Conclusion

    The original text contained 2 images which were described by AI.

    ---

    First published:
    October 31st, 2024

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/g3iKYS8wDapxS757x/what-tms-is-like

    ---

    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.
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    11 mins
  • “The hostile telepaths problem” by Valentine

    “The hostile telepaths problem” by Valentine
    Oct 28 2024
    Epistemic status: model-building based on observation, with a few successful unusual predictions. Anecdotal evidence has so far been consistent with the model. This puts it at risk of seeming more compelling than the evidence justifies just yet. Caveat emptor.

    Imagine you're a very young child. Around, say, three years old.

    You've just done something that really upsets your mother. Maybe you were playing and knocked her glasses off the table and they broke.

    Of course you find her reaction uncomfortable. Maybe scary. You're too young to have detailed metacognitive thoughts, but if you could reflect on why you're scared, you wouldn't be confused: you're scared of how she'll react.

    She tells you to say you're sorry.

    You utter the magic words, hoping that will placate her.

    And she narrows her eyes in suspicion.

    "You sure don't look sorry. Say it and mean it."

    Now you have a serious problem. [...]

    ---

    Outline:

    (02:16) Newcomblike self-deception

    (06:10) Sketch of a real-world version

    (08:43) Possible examples in real life

    (12:17) Other solutions to the problem

    (12:38) Having power

    (14:45) Occlumency

    (16:48) Solution space is maybe vast

    (17:40) Ending the need for self-deception

    (18:21) Welcome self-deception

    (19:52) Look away when directed to

    (22:59) Hypothesize without checking

    (25:50) Does this solve self-deception?

    (27:21) Summary

    The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

    ---

    First published:
    October 27th, 2024

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5FAnfAStc7birapMx/the-hostile-telepaths-problem

    ---

    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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    29 mins
  • “A bird’s eye view of ARC’s research” by Jacob_Hilton

    “A bird’s eye view of ARC’s research” by Jacob_Hilton
    Oct 27 2024
    This post includes a "flattened version" of an interactive diagram that cannot be displayed on this site. I recommend reading the original version of the post with the interactive diagram, which can be found here.

    Over the last few months, ARC has released a number of pieces of research. While some of these can be independently motivated, there is also a more unified research vision behind them. The purpose of this post is to try to convey some of that vision and how our individual pieces of research fit into it.

    Thanks to Ryan Greenblatt, Victor Lecomte, Eric Neyman, Jeff Wu and Mark Xu for helpful comments.

    A bird's eye view

    To begin, we will take a "bird's eye" view of ARC's research.[1] As we "zoom in", more nodes will become visible and we will explain the new nodes.

    An interactive version of the [...]

    ---

    Outline:

    (00:43) A birds eye view

    (01:00) Zoom level 1

    (02:18) Zoom level 2

    (03:44) Zoom level 3

    (04:56) Zoom level 4

    (07:14) How ARCs research fits into this picture

    (07:43) Further subproblems

    (10:23) Conclusion

    The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

    The original text contained 3 images which were described by AI.

    ---

    First published:
    October 23rd, 2024

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ztokaf9harKTmRcn4/a-bird-s-eye-view-of-arc-s-research

    ---

    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

    ---

    Images from the article:
    Show more Show less
    11 mins

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