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Being Realistic

There is an inevitable tension here: we need hopes and dreams, but we also need to keep our feet on the ground; we need to aim high, but also have realistic expectations. The challenge here is not to achieve a balance between these two opposing prin

CFAR and its Cousins

The ‘Center for Applied Rationality’, or ‘CFAR’ is one of a group of organizations, run by a fairly small group of individuals, in the fields of artificial intelligence, rationality and global philanthropy. This is an attempt to identify some of the

The Future of AI

there is not going to be just one market winner in the field of Artificial Intelligence, because there is not just one form of intelligence - and the different forms of intelligence are, to some extent at least, incompatible with each other

Middle East

[Back to World Affairs]

In our conversations, we keep circulating around the topic of the Middle East, Israel and Gaza, but never addressing it in any substantial way, largely because nobody can think of anything productive to say.  'We are against g

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AI - Social Justice

AI - a big subject - my un-artificial intelligence has serious problems even understanding what it is!
 
In my lifetime the JCB did away with many jobs that have never been replaced, same happened when the coal mines were closed, I could go on and on.
 

AI - Social Justice

AI - a big subject - my un-artificial intelligence has serious problems even understanding what it is!
 
In my lifetime the JCB did away with many jobs that have never been replaced, same happened when the coal mines were closed, I could go on and on.
 

Effective Beliefs

We need to find beliefs which work - beliefs which work sufficiently well and sufficiently often, without any need to pretend that they are 100% effective in all situations. We need beliefs which we can engage with as beliefs rather than proven trut

Emergent Properties

An emergent property is a property which is present implicitly in the components, but which can only be seen when it emerges in the larger system; once you see the emergent property, you understand how the interaction of the components produces it.

The Language of Morality

One difficulty when we try to talk about morality is the language: there are various terms we can use, but they are all ambiguous and problematic in various ways. It seems there is a difference between 'moral' and 'ethical', but the difference is no

Eye in the Sky - Ethics and Morality

MORALITY - Eye in the Sky - Film - Drone Strike - ethical issues

The film I referred to on Thursday was 'Eye in the Sky' - Helen Mirren one of the leading actors

The ethical issue was whether a drone strike should be completed to 'take out' a terrorris

What Do We Mean By Morality?

When we say that something is immoral, are we only saying, as some people suggest, that we disapprove of it? Is morality just a statement of personal or group preference? And, if not, then what is it?
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Reforming the NHS

Almost everybody agrees that the UK National Health Service (NHS) is in need of radical reform, so let's start to spell out what that reform might look like. Other countries manage to deliver prompt and effective healthcare: it's not impossible. Bu

Population Demographics

Today, most of the world has a birthrate which is below the replacement level: we have populations which are ageing, with increasing numbers of pensioners and decreasing numbers of working age people to support them. And we have an economic system w

A Peace Deal for Ukraine

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office. This was clearly never going to happen but, as I said (probably, far too often), ending the war was one promise I believed he was able to keep. The war i

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