Investigations into philosophy, science, religion, history, politics, and whatever else interests me.
I have been increasingly surprised over the past year at what I perceive to be the lack of critical thinking in response to new announcements regarding AI model capabilities. I’ve written about many of these issues before, but as AI hype accelerates the problems seem to be getting worse. Here I want to highlight a [ ]
Introduction The recent development of large language models (LLMs) based on the transformer architecture has led to extensive discussion as to how to best measure their capabilities. The most common way to assess LLMs is by their performance on standardised tests called benchmarks. These tests are designed to interrogate the ability of LLMs to perform [ ]
Originally written for the Australian Humanist magazine, Oct 2024 Critical thinking is the activity of carefully applying our intellect to form beliefs informed by the best available evidence and reasons, while reducing the impact of bias and other sources of error. Thinking critically is not something that comes easily or naturally to most, but like [ ]
Essay originally written for Rationalist magazine, Aug 2024 Science communication aims to describe scientific research and findings to the general public in a persuasive and comprehensive manner. But why does the public need to know about science? Many reasons have been advanced, including the importance of science knowledge for making informed decisions regarding voting, medical [ ]
The following is a short email that I wrote to the ABC in response to the linked article about indexation of student loans under the HECS system. I did not receive any response from the ABC, so I decided to share this letter on my blog, in case anyone else might find my perspective on [ ]
Note: this article was originally written in May 2023 and published on the EA forum. Introduction Over my years of involvement in Effective Altruism, I have written several forum posts critical of various aspects of the movement’s focus on AI safety, with a particular focus on fast takeoff scenarios. It is no secret that the [ ]
Introduction In this article I will provide a brief critique of the way an ‘AI takeover scenario’ is typically presented in EA discourse. I wanted this piece to be more comprehensive, but owing to time constraints I have focused on three recent articles on the EA forum which discuss this issue, authored respectively by Ajeya, [ ]
Introduction In this piece I want to discuss the political philosophy of liberalism, outlining its key tenets, the historical context in which it has arisen and developed, and discussing its relationship to various rival ideologies in the political landscape. Although I consider myself to be a liberal and therefore cannot claim to be unbiased, my [ ]
Introduction I am writing this mostly to get some things off my chest, and also for the sake of posterity. Perhaps some others will also find my thoughts of interest. Eight years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine the first time in their occupation of the Crimea, I was dismayed at the lack of Western response. [ ]
Introduction The Kalam Cosmological Argument is an argument for the existence of God that Craig developed during his doctoral work in the 1970s. While it can be formulated in various ways, here I will consider the following version: P1. The universe began to exist. P2. If the universe began to exist, it had a cause. [ ]