Psychiatrist and writer behind Astral Codex Ten (formerly Slate Star Codex). One of the most widely read bloggers in the rationalist community, known for deeply-researched essays on science, psychiatry, philosophy, politics, and AI safety.
Influences & Inspirations
Based on primary sources — interviews, essays, and posts where Scott directly cited these thinkers as influences.
Eliezer Yudkowsky
"Half of what I know, I know from the Less Wrong Sequences." Called himself "an embarrassing fanboy."
Source ↗Robin Hanson
Described Hanson as "destined to become an adjective," comparing his distinctive intellectual style to Hume and Tolkien.
Source ↗Nick Bostrom
Listed alongside Yudkowsky and Hanson as thinkers "who had their own backlog of stuff which the wider world had yet to appreciate."
Source ↗Bryan Caplan
Extended intellectual engagement on psychiatry and other topics over many years of blogging.
Source ↗Recommends
Who Scott thinks you should be reading.
Recommended By
Writers who vouch for Scott.
NoahpinionDon't Worry About the VaseMoontowerMistakes Were Made ↗The Everest Era ↗AI Futures Project ↗As Our Days ↗Theories of Intelligence ↗Bentham's Newsletter ↗Benjamin Todd ↗Asterisk Magazine ↗The Best of Journalism ↗Eukaryote Writes Blog ↗Vectors of Mind ↗Hormeze ↗scuttleblurb ↗Gwern.net Newsletter ↗Blocked and Reported ↗Fake Noûs ↗The Optimist's Barn ↗The Threats Within ↗Splitting Infinity ↗Holodoxa ↗Eat Shit and Prosper ↗Zeroth Principles of AI ↗David Didau: The Learning Spy ↗Handwaving Freakoutery ↗The Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche Newsletter ↗Rarely Certain ↗The Archimedean Point ↗Maarten Boudry’s Substack ↗Imperfect Information ↗Rational Psychiatry ↗The Science Fictions Podcast ↗All The Mysteries That Remain ↗Human OS for AI ↗Beyond The Price ↗Fluidity Forum Newsletter ↗Pontifex Minimus ↗Fin’s Newsletter ↗Legally Speaking... ↗Infinite Curiosity ↗Peter’s Substack ↗The Second-Happiest People ↗Janna Levin's Higher Dimensions ↗Nemets ↗