Ra­tion­al­ity: From AI To Zombies

Rationality: From AI to Zombies is a 2015 ebook by Eliezer Yudkowsky on human rationality and irrationality in cognitive science. The ebook can be downloaded on a “pay-what-you-want” basis from intelligence.org or viewed on the website readthesequences.com It is an edited and reorganized version of the Sequences, a series of blog posts published to Less Wrong and Overcoming Bias between 2006 and 2009. Rationality: From AI to Zombies serves as a long-form introduction to formative ideas behind Less Wrong, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, the Center for Applied Rationality, and substantial parts of the effective altruism community.

Contents

The ebook’s contents are organized into six books, containing a total of 333 essays from the Sequences. The 333 essays are further divided into twenty-six sequences, lettered A through Z:

• Book I: Map and Territory

  • A. Predictably Wrong

  • B. Fake Beliefs

  • C. Noticing Confusion

  • D. Mysterious Answers

• Book II: How to Actually Change Your Mind

  • E. Overly Convenient Excuses

  • F. Politics and Rationality

  • G. Against Rationalization

  • H. Against Doublethink

  • I. Seeing with Fresh Eyes

  • J. Death Spirals

  • K. Letting Go

• Book III: The Machine in the Ghost

  • L. The Simple Math of Evolution

  • M. Fragile Purposes

  • N. A Human’s Guide to Words

• Book IV: Mere Reality

  • O. Lawful Truth

  • P. Reductionism 101

  • Q. Joy in the Merely Real

  • R. Physicalism 201

  • S. Quantum Physics and Many Worlds

  • T. Science and Rationality

• Book V: Mere Goodness

  • U. Fake Preferences

  • V. Value Theory

  • W. Quantified Humanism

• Book VI: Becoming Stronger

  • X. Yudkowsky’s Coming of Age

  • Y. Challenging the Difficult

  • Z. The Craft and the Community

Each book also comes with an introduction by Rob Bensinger, and a supplemental essay by Yudkowsky. There are plans to release the six books as separate print volumes at some unknown future date.

Links

• Download page.

• RAZ Glossary

• RAZ Errata