New paper out today, with Olaf Witkowski, 'The Ethics of Life as It Could Be: Do We Have Moral Obligations to Artificial Life?' (open access)
direct.mit.edu/artl/article/d…

On my blog I've posted an excerpt on the possible moral considerability of nonconscious ALife: schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/05/could-…

My review of Neil Van Leeuwen's Religion as Make-Believe is now live at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews:

ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/religi…

Kate Manne and David L. Smith have been doing some great philosophy, and it’s so gratifying — and such a good sign concerning the direction of the discipline — to see them receiving this prestigious award!

Formal decision theory is an optional tool that breaks when values are huge. Or so I argue in the post linked below. This is my reaction to recent work on 'fanaticism', the St Petersburg paradox, infinite consequences, etc.
Details here: schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/05/formal…

Only $16 for the hardback of The Weirdness of the World, with Princeton's 50% off sale!

Enter code: FIFTY

press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…

'AI and Democracy: The Radical Future': comments for an interdisciplinary session with Mark Coeckelbergh here at UCR in less than an hour.

Session info and registration: civic.ucr.edu/events/

Post:
schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/05/ai-and…

'Why Is the World So Weird?' -- this week on Philosophy Talk! Philosophy Talk
philosophytalk.org

Blog post: Neurons Aren't Special: It would violate a plausible principle of Copernican mediocrity if humans were luckily endowed with consciousness-instilling Earthiform neurons, while aliens of different biology are generally experienceless 'zombies':
schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/04/neuron…

Updated today -- my Stanford Encyclopedia entry on introspection:

plato.stanford.edu/entries/intros…

Always fun chatting with Philosophy Talk — this time about a topic especially near to their hearts, the weirdness of the world!

Today I am again feeling like a tangerine on the Seder plate

latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/…

My current list of in-progress papers -- a bit much?

Hybrid event at UCR with Mark Coeckelbergh -- preregister here:

ucr.zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Reflections on #Dennett 's graciousness about junior scholars' many conflicting interpretations of him.
We should all realize that others might legitimately find diverse and contradictory things in our work, including things we like and things we dislike.
schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/04/flexib…

There is no end to philosophy. Whatever new things we learn, we can always engage in the toddler's trick of asking for the why behind the why behind the why. We will never be able to rub our hands and say, 'ah, there, philosophy is complete!'

schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2024/04/philos…

I enjoyed chatting with Carrie Figdor over at New Books in Philosophy about The Weirdness of the World. Carrie is one of the best interviewers in the discipline. It's an honor and privilege to have been able to discuss my newest book with her.
newbooksnetwork.com/the-weirdness-…