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→Controversies and memes: WP:SYNTH and misrepresentation of passing mention in flimsy editorial source. |
My bad, I cited the incorrect The New Statesman article previously. I've also added in the repeated usage of the term doxing into the body section about the summary, since the term gives context for why Alexander and supporters were upset about the Times article. |
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'''''Astral Codex Ten''''', formerly called '''''Slate Star Codex''''' (SSC), is a [[blog]] focused on [[science]], [[medicine]] (especially within [[psychiatry]]), [[philosophy]], [[politics]], and [[futures studies|futurism]]. The blog is written by Scott Alexander Siskind,<ref name="TheVerge"/> a [[San Francisco Bay Area]] [[psychiatrist]],<ref name=nytssc/> under the pen name Scott Alexander.
''Slate Star Codex'' was launched in 2013, and was discontinued on June 23, 2020, after Alexander's full name was published by the ''[[New York Times]]'', in what Alexander and his supporters referred to as [[doxing]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> {{As of|2020|July|22|df=US}}, the blog is partially back online, with the content restored but commenting disabled. The successor blog, '''''Astral Codex Ten''''' (ACX),<ref name=nytssc/> was launched on [[Substack]] on January 21, 2021.
Alexander also blogged at the [[Rationalism#Contemporary_rationalism|rationalist]] community blog ''[[LessWrong]]'',<ref name="NewYorker" /> and wrote a fiction book in blog format named ''Unsong''.<ref name="Yudelson Palmer Adler 2017 r542">{{cite web |last1=Yudelson |first1=Larry |last2=Palmer |first2=Joanne |last3=Adler |first3=Leah |date=2017-01-03 |title=The great American kabbalistic novel? |url=http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/the-great-american-kabbalistic-novel/ |access-date=2023-07-06 |website=[[Jewish Standard]] |archive-date=July 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707164130/https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/the-great-american-kabbalistic-novel/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
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=== ''The New York Times'' controversy ===
Alexander used his [[first name|first]] and [[middle name]] alone for safety and privacy reasons, although he had previously published ''Slate Star Codex'' content academically under his real name.<ref name="nytssc" /> In June 2020, he deleted all entries on ''Slate Star Codex'', stating that a ''[[New York Times]]'' technology reporter intended to publish an article about the blog using his full name. Alexander said that the reporter told him that it was newspaper policy to use real names
Prior to the article's publication, several commentators argued that the ''Times'' should not publish Alexander's name without good reason. Writing in ''[[National Review]]'', Tobias Hoonhout said that the newspaper had applied its anonymity policy inconsistently.<ref name="hoonhout" /> The ''[[New Statesman]]''<nowiki/>'s Jasper Jackson wrote that it was "difficult to see how Scott Alexander's full name is so integral to the ''NYT''{{'s}} story that it justifies the damage it might do to him", but cautioned that such criticism was based solely on Alexander's own statements and that "before we make that call, it might be a good idea to have more than his word to go on."<ref name=":2" /> As reported by ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', the criticism by Alexander and his supporters that the paper was doxing him caused considerable internal debate among ''Times''{{'}} staff, with many staffers affirming that the paper was doxing Alexander.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Tani |first=Maxwell |date=24 June 2020 |title=The Latest Squabble Inside The New York Times |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-slate-star-codex-doxxing-is-the-latest-squabble-inside-new-york-times |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626022626/https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-slate-star-codex-doxxing-is-the-latest-squabble-inside-new-york-times |archive-date=26 June 2020 |access-date=26 June 2020 |work=[[The Daily Beast]] |language=en}}</ref>
Supporters of the site organized a petition against release of the author's name. The petition collected over six thousand signatures in its first few days, including psychologist [[Steven Pinker]], social psychologist [[Jonathan Haidt]], economist [[Scott Sumner]], computer scientist and blogger [[Scott Aaronson]], and philosopher [[Peter Singer]].<ref name=NewYorker/>
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