In science, theories eventually get discarded if they lack explanatory power. This mechanism acts quite slowly at times, as we can see in the case of string theory. But over the course of history it has worked quite well. Nobody spends time on the phlogiston theory of combustion. It is at best of historical interest but doesn’t inform current science or engineering. In philosophy on the other hand, texts continue to be studied, no matter how impractical, useless, or even detrimental the ideas...

The term abundance is being slung around a lot these days. First came the discussion that was kicked off by the recent eponymous book, which fell comically short of its title. Now we are deep into a debate on AI. On one side are proponents of massive AI expenditure arguing that if we get to artificial super intelligence then we will live in abundance. And so of course we should aim to get there as fast as possible. On the other side are those who see this simply as a cynical ploy to drive up ...

The Magic Employment Fallacy Invoking the “Lump of Labor Fallacy” to shut down discussion of the labor market impact of AI and robotics is once again popular. Labeling something a fallacy is a powerful move. After all, who would want to hold “a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument” (common definition for fallacy) and where one will be accused of zero sum thinking?So what is the lump of labor fallacy? It is the belief that there is a fixed amount, a “lump,” of labor and so...

I wrote previously about the threat of a Trump dictatorship. That was in 2020 which seems like a long time ago. After I wrote that post we got close to disaster when Trump attempted in various ways to stay in power despite the election results. We are now in the second Trump term and the situation is considerably worse. Back then I wrote that “... I deem it unlikely that Trump has a masterplan for becoming a dictator. Then again he probably didn’t have a masterplan for becoming president but ...

So promptly after I wrote about having "Renewed Energy" I entered another 7 week writing gap. There are of course many reasons, with some better than others. On the fun side there was a brief sailing adventure on Frolic, heading from the Canaries to Cabo Verde and exploring the volcanic islands on both ends with Gigi (Frolic is now en route to the Carribean). At work I have been particularly busy with several financings happening at the same time along with working on a new investment. I have...

Between work, projects and travel I have missed many weeks of writing on Philosophy Mondays. Thankfully during this time I have also gained clarity that my fundamental goal with this series, which is to argue for a universal moral core on an objective basis, is more important than ever. As a result I am feeling a renewed sense of urgency for this work. I was utterly fascinated by the conversation between Dwarkesh Patel and Richard Sutton, which is worth listening to in its entirety. Quite ear...

“God is dead” Nietzsche famously proclaimed. Humanity’s desire to be ruled by god, by contrast appears very much alive. Our latest hope for salvation rests with Artificial Intelligence. Climate crisis? AI will cool the planet. Death and disease? AI will make us immortal. War? AI will bring about peace. Machina deus ut deus ex machina (with apologies to my Latin teacher and asking for help from anyone who can come up with the right idiom; update: "Deus machinae ut deus ex machina" has been pro...