For this month’s discussion we will foray (back) into the hard problem of consciousness and read Thomas Nagel’s classic “What is it like to be a bat?” and a critical follow up from Keith Frankish. Intuitions tend to differ sharply here, so we should have a pretty good discussion! Please

For this month’s discussion, we’re going to be talking about bad ideas; specifically, a section of the book When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves. We’ll also throw in a little bit of topical fun since it turns out that Tulsi Gabbard, the

The next monthly discussion meetup is next Saturday, June 6 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). We’ll be discussing the following question: What kinds of cognitive effort are productive struggle, and what kinds are just waste that AI should remove?. We suggest some readings below that offer background

The next meetup is part of Astral Codex Ten’s Meetups Everywhere Spring 2026, this Saturday, May 2 from 5:30 PM to 10 PM. Ours will just be social/hanging out, with location details below. Feel free to bring board games or card games if you want, too. Hope to see you

The next monthly discussion meetup is next Saturday, April 4 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). We’ll be discussing the effects and costs of metrics in various contexts, including what we value in life and in varios institutions, as well as how we can use metrics more effectively.

The next monthly discussion meetup is next Saturday, March 7 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). We’ll be discussing gentrification. We suggest some readings/videos below that offer background and a few perspectives. As usual, you are welcome to come regardless of how much of the reading you do

For this month’s discussion meetup, which so happens to fall on Valentine’s Day, we will discuss a very romantic topic: transaction costs! The main reading will be Ronald Coase’s classic article “The Nature of the Firm” which asks why people organize into firms and hire employees rather than just hiring

For this month’s discussion meetup, we will be continuing in the moral philosophy vein. We will discuss equity and equality, particularly through the lens of Rawls’s “Theory of Justice.” As always, feel free to come if you haven’t done the reading. READINGS & MEDIA DATE & LOCATION

For this month’s discussion meetup, we will be discussing Sam Harris’s moral landscape. Broadly, Sam attempts to give clear definitions of right and wrong in terms of well-being of conscious creatures and to do away with moral relativism. The primary reading / listening will be a recent episode of the

For this month’s discussion meetup, we will be discussing “Notes on the Inexact Sciences” from the pseudonymous Suspended Reason. Here’s the abstract: Popular wisdom warns us against premature optimization. And yet, in a quest for public legitimacy and tidy problem domains, many fields discourage vitally necessary descriptive and conceptual work