This is the weekly visible open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. ACX has an unofficial subreddit, Discord, and bulletin board, and in-person meetups around the world. Most content is free, some is subscriber only; you can subscribe here. Also:
1: Meetups this week include Leipzig, Newark, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Toronto - see the meetup post for more information.
2: All nonbook review prizes should be taken care of - people who earned subscriptions should have them, people who earned money should have gotten emails asking how I should send it to them. If this isn’t true, email or otherwise contact me.
3: I’m still working with Manifund on getting money to grantees, expect an email about this soon.
4: I’m now using my Substack recommendations tab to highlight contest winners’ Substacks. That means I’ve removed all previous recommendations. If that was you, sorry - I still like your Substacks and will link to them when you make posts I like; I just want to make room to promote up-and-coming bloggers.
5: Advertisement: Free in-person AI futures conference in London on November 2 (the organizers told me to call it an “unconference”, but I have never been able to figure out a difference, and refuse to cooperate in the use of this word). See here for more info and RSVP instructions.
6: Advertisement: 2024 ACX grantee Alexander Putilin working on the EEG entrainment study replication is looking for study volunteers in London. He says:
The study “Learning at your brain’s rhythm: individualized entrainment boosts learning for perceptual decisions” claims that entrainment (flashing a bright white light) at a person’s individual peak alpha frequency helps them learn to distinguish between two types of patterns faster.
I’m replicating this study & I’ve collected data from 5 participants. I’m looking for 5 more volunteers in London to dedicate four hours of their time (split into two two-hour chunks) willing to experience some perceptual learning while providing their brainwave data. To see what it’s like, watch this short video of the demo. To participate, fill in the form — I’d greatly appreciate your help. More information about the project is in the form description.
The code for the project is available on Github. The results will be published on my psychotechnology Substack.