15 - On learning Latin

18 - 2025 Seattle vacation

Travelogue of my trip to Seattle in September of 2025. Photo albums: Discovery Park walk 2025-09-09: https://photos.app.goo.gl/oEFHbZqW4fjZN8wB6 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/oEFHbZqW4fjZN8wB6] Washington Park Arboretum 2025-09-10: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nACZ3WpThEUqXdvX7 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/nACZ3WpThEUqXdvX7] Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop 2025-09-10: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cWdDgT5xgcX1cKJX8 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/cWdDgT5xgcX1cKJX8] Cougar Mountain hike 2025-09-11: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ru8LezQGR3Bvbr5w7 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ru8LezQGR3Bvbr5w7] Poo Poo Point Trail 2025-09-13: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6nDqcPzTM5xxWzgX7 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/6nDqcPzTM5xxWzgX7] Twice Sold Tales cats (and tempting books) 2025-09-14: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zqh6SisHnmmrAiDX8 [https://photos.app.goo.gl/zqh6SisHnmmrAiDX8] Books I mention reading: Fabulae Syrae: https://www.amazon.com/Fabulae-Syrae-Lingua-Latina-Latin/dp/1585104280/ [https://www.amazon.com/Fabulae-Syrae-Lingua-Latina-Latin/dp/1585104280/] Cambridge Latin Course, book 2 (4th edition): https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Latin-Course-American-English/dp/0521782295/ [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Latin-Course-American-English/dp/0521782295/] Sermones Romani: https://www.amazon.com/Sermones-Romani-discipulorum-Lingua-Latina/dp/1585101958/ [https://www.amazon.com/Sermones-Romani-discipulorum-Lingua-Latina/dp/1585101958/] Tusculan Disputations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusculanae_Disputationes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusculanae_Disputationes] Inventing Temperature: https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Temperature-Measurement-Scientific-Philosophy/dp/0195337387/ [https://www.amazon.com/Inventing-Temperature-Measurement-Scientific-Philosophy/dp/0195337387/] The Lover's Curse: A Tiered Reader of Aeneid 4: https://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Curse-Tiered-Reader-Aeneid/dp/B0CJ4KMF8V/ [https://www.amazon.com/Lovers-Curse-Tiered-Reader-Aeneid/dp/B0CJ4KMF8V/] The Aeneid, translated by Sarah Ruden: https://www.amazon.com/Aeneid-Vergil/dp/0300240104 [https://www.amazon.com/Aeneid-Vergil/dp/0300240104] The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0197754023 [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0197754023] Amphitryo Comoedia (Lingua Latina): https://www.amazon.com/Amphitryo-Comoedia-Lingua-Latina-Latin/dp/158510194X/ [https://www.amazon.com/Amphitryo-Comoedia-Lingua-Latina-Latin/dp/158510194X/] Restaurants in Seattle: Seattle resaturant recommendations: https://scyy.fi/recs/seattle [https://scyy.fi/recs/seattle] Rojo's mexican food: https://www.rojosmexicanfood.com/ [https://www.rojosmexicanfood.com/] Pi Vegan Pizzeria: https://www.pizzapivegan.com/ [https://www.pizzapivegan.com/] Due' Cucina: https://duecucina.com/ [https://duecucina.com/] Kati Vegan Thai: https://www.kativeganthai.com/ [https://www.kativeganthai.com/] Frankie & Jo's: https://frankieandjos.com/ [https://frankieandjos.com/] Ramen Danbo Seattle: https://ramendanbo.com/ [https://ramendanbo.com/]

17 - Caspar Oesterheld on evidential cooperation in large worlds (ECL)

In this episode, I chat with Caspar Oesterheld about a relatively simple application of weird decision theory: evidential cooperation in large worlds, or ECL for short. The tl;dr is you think there's at least some small probability of a very large multiverse, so you try to follow something closer to the average of all the values of civilizations in that multiverse that think like you, and therefore 'make it more likely' (in an evidential way) that those other civilizations do things that you like. Links for various things that Caspar has provided: ECL overview page: https://longtermrisk.org/ecl [https://longtermrisk.org/ecl] A while after the recording, Caspar and others started this ECL-related fundraiser: https://manifund.org/projects/acausal-safety-fund-a-team-to-do-research-and-interventions [https://manifund.org/projects/acausal-safety-fund-a-team-to-do-research-and-interventions] Yudkowsky: Timeless Decision Theory. https://intelligence.org/files/TDT.pdf [https://intelligence.org/files/TDT.pdf] Functional Decision Theory is introduced in the following two papers. Both also introduce XOR blackmail. * Yudkowsky and Soares (2018): Functional Decision Theory: A New Theory of Instrumental Rationality. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.05060 [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.05060] * Levinstein and Soares (2020): Cheating Death in Damascus. Journal of Philosophy 117 (5), pages 237–266. https://intelligence.org/files/DeathInDamascus.pdf [https://intelligence.org/files/DeathInDamascus.pdf] Oesterheld et al. (2025): A dataset of questions on decision-theoretic reasoning in Newcomb-like problems. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10588 [https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.10588] MacAskill et al. (2021): The Evidentialist's Wager. The Journal of Philosophy 118 (6), pages 320–342. https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/MacAskill_et_al_Evidentialist_Wager.pdf [https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/MacAskill_et_al_Evidentialist_Wager.pdf] Treutlein (2018): Three wagers for multiverse-wide superrationality. https://casparoesterheld.com/2018/03/31/three-wagers-for-multiverse-wide-superrationality/ [https://casparoesterheld.com/2018/03/31/three-wagers-for-multiverse-wide-superrationality/] A survey of polls on Newcomb's problem https://casparoesterheld.com/2017/06/27/a-survey-of-polls-on-newcombs-problem/ [https://casparoesterheld.com/2017/06/27/a-survey-of-polls-on-newcombs-problem/] Ahmed (2014): Evidence, Decision and Causality. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/evidence-decision-and-causality/7077949D2CD42E99C08D4FBFE5321148#fndtn-information [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/evidence-decision-and-causality/7077949D2CD42E99C08D4FBFE5321148#fndtn-information] Regarding the Smoking Lesion and Tickle Defense: * This is discussed in Chapter 4 of the aforementioned "Evidence, Decision and Causality". * I also wrote the following introduction: https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/coesterh/TickleDefenseIntro.pdf [https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/coesterh/TickleDefenseIntro.pdf] One way EDT can escape XOR blackmail: Treutlein: Anthropic uncertainty in the Evidential Blackmail. https://casparoesterheld.com/2017/05/12/anthropic-uncertainty-in-the-evidential-blackmail [https://casparoesterheld.com/2017/05/12/anthropic-uncertainty-in-the-evidential-blackmail/] A more updateless approach to ECL: Treutlein: UDT is 'updateless' about its utility function. https://casparoesterheld.com/2018/03/28/udt-is-updateless-about-its-utility-function/ [https://casparoesterheld.com/2018/03/28/udt-is-updateless-about-its-utility-function/] Finnveden: ECL with AI. https://lukasfinnveden.substack.com/p/ecl-with-ai [https://lukasfinnveden.substack.com/p/ecl-with-ai] Christiano: When is unaligned AI morally valuable? https://ai-alignment.com/sympathizing-with-ai-e11a4bf5ef6e [https://ai-alignment.com/sympathizing-with-ai-e11a4bf5ef6e] Bell et al. (2021): Reinforcement Learning in Newcomblike Environments. NeurIPS. https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/file/b9ed18a301c9f3d183938c451fa183df-Paper.pdf [https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2021/file/b9ed18a301c9f3d183938c451fa183df-Paper.pdf]

16 - Alessandro on learning Latin and Greek

In this episode, I chat with Alessandro (@polisisti [https://x.com/polisisti/] on X/Twitter) about our respective experiences learning Latin (and in his case ancient Greek). The Ranieri-Roberts approach to learning ancient Greek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vwb1wVzPec [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vwb1wVzPec] We need to talk about Latinitas: https://foundinantiquity.com/2024/04/15/we-need-to-talk-about-latinitas/ [https://foundinantiquity.com/2024/04/15/we-need-to-talk-about-latinitas/] Legentibus: https://legentibus.com/ [https://legentibus.com/] Intermediate-level Greek texts: There is a good series called "Reading Greek" published by the Joint Association of Classics Teachers. An example volume is "The Intellectual Revolution: Selections from Euripides, Thucydides and Plato". Intermediate-level Latin texts: The reader Alessandro used in his second-year course was the "Oxford Latin Reader", edited by Maurice Balme and James Morwood. However, Alessandro prefers "Wheelock's Latin Reader: Selections from Latin Literature", edited by Richard A. LaFleur. Carmina Burana is a collection of poems that is fairly easy and very fun to read. An anthology of medieval Latin texts that Alessandro greatly enjoys is "Reading Medieval Latin" by Keith Sidwell. Many of these selections are of intermediate difficulty (a few are very hard). The prose works of Seneca bridge the gap between intermediate and advanced. Dictionaries and grammars: Alessandro's favourite Latin dictionary: The "Oxford Latin Dictionary" For medieval Latin: "Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources" * the DMLBS is freely searchable at https://logeion.uchicago.edu [https://logeion.uchicago.edu] For advanced Latin grammar: "A New Latin Syntax" by E.C. Woodcock Alessandro's favourite Greek dictionary: The "Cambridge Greek Lexicon" "The Greek Particles" by John Dewar Denniston is the book that's very helpful for reading Plato.

15 - On learning Latin

In which I monologue about my experience learning Latin. Links: My friend's podcast episode: https://mutualunderstanding.substack.com/p/election-and-other-stuff-on-my-mind [https://mutualunderstanding.substack.com/p/election-and-other-stuff-on-my-mind] r/latin: https://www.reddit.com/r/latin/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/latin/] Lingua Latina: https://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illustrata-Pars-Familia/dp/1585104205 [https://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illustrata-Pars-Familia/dp/1585104205] Playlist of someone reading out loud the chapters (plus some related material): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU1WuLg45SiyrXahjvFahDuA060P487pV [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU1WuLg45SiyrXahjvFahDuA060P487pV] We need to talk about Latinitas [re: criticizing Latin novellas]: https://foundinantiquity.com/2024/04/15/we-need-to-talk-about-latinitas/ [https://foundinantiquity.com/2024/04/15/we-need-to-talk-about-latinitas/] Legentibus: https://latinitium.com/legentibus/ [https://latinitium.com/legentibus/]

14 - The 2024 Eclipse

In this episode, I give you updates from my trip with friends to see the 2024 total solar eclipse. Questions answered include: - Why are we bothering to go see it? - How many of us will fail to make it to the eclipse? - Does it actually get darker during a total solar eclipse, or is that just an optical illusion? - What moral dilemma will we face, and what will we do? - Whose lav mic will mysteriously fail to work during their interview?