One increasingly complex problem within utilitarianism is that it puts such emphasis on the individual. The idea that utility is individually felt and assessed may miss something important about utility - the fact that it is a concept that is deeply relational. Or put differently: if you were the last human on Earth you would… Continue reading Network concepts
Hallucination, prediction, guessing
Tyler Cowen makes a series of excellent points in a recent post where he muses over the value of large model hallucinations. He notes that he would not like for these systems to stop hallucinating, since the hallucinations have value in representing something. What this something is, he suggests, could be our statistical average view… Continue reading Hallucination, prediction, guessing
Science as remembering – the case of Roman concrete
It is a common mistake to think that modern methods of production are superior to what has come before, or that we are, in our time, at the pinnacle of knowledge. A lot of knowledge has been lost or forgotten over the years, and rediscovering old knowledge can be as powerful as producing entirely new… Continue reading Science as remembering – the case of Roman concrete
Writing politics – ideology and propaganda
What role does writing play in politics? Do we care about intellectuals penning long form essays about the future of the state or about official policy documents setting out frames and ideas for how to approach political issues? Historically the answer has been a very clear 'yes!'. The role writing played in the shaping of… Continue reading Writing politics – ideology and propaganda
Questioning is sharing attention
The philosophy of questions is an on-going interest of mine. After having co-authored a book on questions - in Swedish, here - I have continued to keep notes and think about questions and how they relate to other subjects I am interested in. One of the things that recently struck me was that questions are… Continue reading Questioning is sharing attention
6 hours by car
Time to travel back to the city, sort out of a few things and then back to London. The trip back to Stockholm is 6 hours by car. I used to dread that, but have come to quite like the opportunity to think, listen to music and audiobooks as well as watch the landscape change… Continue reading 6 hours by car
Noise, uncertainty and weather
In The Primacy of Doubt: From climate change to quantum physics, how the science of uncertainty can help predict and understand our chaotic world (2022) Tim Palmer, weather mathematician and physicist, explores a set of issues related to uncertainty. It is a great read, even if it gets technical in places, because it tracks the… Continue reading Noise, uncertainty and weather
Summing up 2022
2022 was a reasonably eventful year, for me personally (the year globally is not the subject of this post). I took on a new job, at DeepMind, as global policy director. I also moved to London and now share my time between London and Stockholm, exploring what it feels like to live in two cities… Continue reading Summing up 2022
Evening thoughts
The sun is setting over Camden. A new work week is coming up, and we are not sure who we are - or who we will be. Most of us are becoming. I met a man in the street today, walking down to buy some groceries, who walked slowly, elegantly dressed and speaking to a… Continue reading Evening thoughts
Dimensionality
"What is the right dimensionality of this problem?" This question - deceptively simple - is a good way to avoid defaulting into the dimensionalities that are most available to us - 2 or 3 dimensions to a problem, and, frankly, mostly two. Often when we describe a problem we somehow come back to the simple… Continue reading Dimensionality