Beyond Determinism: A Treatise (Freedom, Fate, or Both?)

1. Introduction 1.1. Compatibilism I feel more comfortable with the free-will-existence debate than any other topic in philosophy. I personally have convinced several people to, if not change their mind, at least reconsider their position. The people I convinced were not philosophers, but still. My position on free will is the following: I am a … Continue reading Beyond Determinism: A Treatise (Freedom, Fate, or Both?) →

Words I Wish Existed

It's happened so many times: a word is on the tip of my tongue, and I reach for a thesaurus (metaphorically reach; I use an online thesaurus) only to find that the word I want doesn't exist. Only the concept exists in my brain, but all existing English words lack the connotation I'm seeking. I … Continue reading Words I Wish Existed →

The Body of the Universe

Let me give you some context to the below document. I have a friend on discord who has been experimenting with very unconventional machine learning models. He recently confided in me some frankly sensationalistic and hard to believe claims of breakthrough. He claims that his model has tapped into a previously invisible “information field“. He … Continue reading The Body of the Universe →

Reasonable Reasons to NOT be THAT Worried about AI Doomsday

Introduction This will be a long article. I was spurred to write it by this post on the SlateStarCodex subreddit. It rubbed me the wrong way. I worry AI safety folks are risking the same fate of the New Atheists. That is, the vast majority of people who disagreed with them had bad philosophical justifications … Continue reading Reasonable Reasons to NOT be THAT Worried about AI Doomsday →

No, self-driving cars don’t require we solve “trolley problem” moral dilemmas

Stop me if you've heard this: Now with self-driving cars, engineers will be faced with dilemmas. They will have to decide the answers to certain contentious questions in moral philosophy. For example, should a car go straight and hit the child, or divert and hit the man? How should the software be programmed to behave? … Continue reading No, self-driving cars don’t require we solve “trolley problem” moral dilemmas →

Find the Absurdities in Your Own Arguments

Part 1: Modus-Tollens Moral arguments are hard because often you are arguing with someone who simply has different fundamental presuppositions than you do. It’s hard to apply formal logic to morality because when reach those base axioms, you’re at an impasse. However, one thing that we can do is show that the opponent’s moral system, … Continue reading Find the Absurdities in Your Own Arguments →

Do the Gods Have a Plan for You?

To what extent do you have “fate?” And no, I’m not talking about free will and determinism. I mean the expectation that your experiences are going to follow a certain trajectory. You can experience a bit of existential dread: you are not the character of a movie or novel, and nothing is going to happen … Continue reading Do the Gods Have a Plan for You? →

Political Freedom is Really Only About Managing Recursion

Part 1: Free Speech Almost all free-speech-advocates make the argument for free speech in a flawed way. It’s understandable; the complete case for free speech is more complex than even what I will provide in this essay. I think the right case for free speech is from a “political freedom” frame. A good, popular, short-form … Continue reading Political Freedom is Really Only About Managing Recursion →

12 Rules for Life

So, in proving that I can do whatever the most prominent thought leaders of our time can do, except better (ok, you be the judge), I present to you

Maximum Realism

Preface I don’t believe everything written here. The point of this article is to shock you with something sufficiently far outside of your normal sensibilities that you may momentarily jump-start your moral outlook. If you had a negative reaction to that last sentence, you should stop reading now, because you probably won’t like my writing … Continue reading Maximum Realism →