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John Danaher Profile
John Danaher

@JohnDanaher

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Following
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25,006
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Academic and blogger. I like to imagine, navigate and analyse the future of humanity. Tweets about philosophy, ethics, technology and law (mainly)

Ireland
Joined May 2011
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 month
Very sad to see this news about Daniel Dennett. His two books Consciousness Explained and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea are probably the main reasons why I have ended up doing what I’m doing
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Just sent off the manuscript for my first solo-authored book. Should be out sometime in Fall/Autumn with Harvard University Press -
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
8 months
Myself and @SvenNyholm have just launched a new podcast series - This is Technology Ethics. It is a broadly accessible introduction to key debates and arguments in technology ethics. Episode one - Introducing technology ethics? is available here
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
The big day has finally arrived - Now available in the US (Hardcover + Kindle) and in the UK/Irl (Kindle - Hardcover available from the 27th): Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in a World Without Work - and 1/5
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
I have one funded PhD scholarship to come work with me on the 'AI and the Technological Disruption of the Law' project. It's a 4-year position (EU fees covered + a stipend of €18,500 per annum). Please share and spread the word! Full details here
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
To everyone that I owe an email: I apologize. I have given up. I now declare email bankruptcy. A court appointed auditor will deal with my outstanding debts
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Do we need a new ethics for each and every new technology (or application of technology)? In a new paper, myself and @spillteori argue that there is a danger in ethical proliferation. Features some nifty diagrams and tables (created by Henrik, not me!).
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
It was around about this time 2 years ago that my sister, Sarah, died. The dedication on my recent book sums up a lot of my feelings about her. I miss her everyday
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
The first hardcopy of my book 'Automation and Utopia' arrived today. In anticipation of its release on the 24th Sept, I'm going to give away 5 free copies via the mailing list on my blog. If you want to be in with a chance to win one, sign up today!
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
This is an interesting study showing that people prefer human decision-makers to algorithms because they value the (in my view, perceived rather than real) human freedom to deviate from moral principles at will...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
Is there a more depressing sentence to read in a student essay than "Three decades ago, in 1990"?
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I was one of the authors on this new book The Citizen's Guide to AI (Feb 2021, MIT Press). It's a concise but informative analysis of the political, legal and social implications of AI If you are so inclined, you can preorder below.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
If you’re interested in understanding how AI might affect you as a citizen, I can highly recommend this new book from @JohnZerilli and co. I’m biased of course since I am one of the co... got my author copies this morning. Available from fine booksellers in Feb
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Automation and Utopia now has a cover and you can (if you like) preorder it on Amazon. [BTW - I'm sure they'll discount it when it is actually released (since they always do)] or
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Writing a new book....Just signed the contract. Out sometime in the future...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I have a new (controversial?) paper. I'm not going to comment on it too much, except to say I hope that people engage with the full thing and the arguments offered therein; I hope that people don't dismiss it on the basis of what they think it says
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
New post! - A Taxonomy of Possible Moral Changes - In which I try to identify the possible forms of moral change in human society
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
That’s a pity (to say the least) - All the great technical universities in the Netherlands do so. They are now one of the world’s leading hubs for philosophy and ethics of technology
@IrishTimes
The Irish Times
2 years
‘We won’t be teaching philosophy’: Meet Ireland’s five newest universities
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
Quick reminder - I have one four-year PhD scholarship available to work with me on 'AI and the Technological Disruption of the Law'
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 years
I have a new article out: Towards an Ethics of AI Assistants: An Initial Framework. You can get a free, read-only version here
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
11 months
Axiological Futurism is the systematic inquiry into the future of human values, covering how they are likely to change and what the moral significance of this is. With @HopsterJeroen and @spillteori , I've published a tetraology of papers on this topic. Open Access links to all...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
I have two new book chapters in @CarissaVeliz 's Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics. The first one is on 'Automation and the Future of Work' -
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
7 years
BOOK LAUNCH: Some things you wanted to know about robot sex* (but were afraid to ask)
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
New episode - interview with @Miles_Brundage (head of policy research @OpenAI ) on the speed of AI development and the risks and opportunities of GPT/Generative AI. Interesting insights from someone at the coalface of AI development.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Here is a new paper from myself and @spillteori - Technology and Moral Change: The Transformation of Truth and Trust. The paper considers how technology is and might in the future transform the values of truth and trust. Available open access below:
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
The Art of Academia (Series Index) - Just updated to include new posts on how to give talks, how to cope with academic metrics and how to handle ambition. If you are an academic or are interested in working in academia, you might find it useful
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
The AI Ethicist's Dirty Hands Problem - new (short) paper by myself, @spillteori and @MCoeckelbergh (full paper in images below or at this link )
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I have been doing a series of Philosophical Disquisitions podcasts on the ethical issues raised by the COVID 19 pandemic. Here are all the episodes so far.../n
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
New post! - The Technological Mediation of Morality: Explained
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
25 days
Fascinating new paper from @SvenNyholm on the effects of gamification on agency and responsibility. While many people have discussed the ethics of gamification, Sven addresses a neglected aspect of it
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 years
Bertrand Russell - Face to Face Interview (BBC, 1959) - YouTube
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
If you want to learn about the reproducibility crisis in science, this article provides one of the most comprehensive overviews that I have seen
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
The final version of my paper - Axiological Futurism: The Systematic Study of the Future of Values - has now been published in Futures. It's open access so everyone can enjoy for free
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
Another new article - Generative AI entails a credit-blame asymmetry. Just out in Nature Machine Intelligence. Co-authored with @briandavidearp , @SvenNyholm and many others whose twitter handles I do not know or do not exist. Shareable link here
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
New paper! My attempt to provide an ameliorative definition of Techno-optimism and a moderate defence of an 'agency-based' version of it. I'll post the published version (hopefully fully open access) when it is available
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
7 months
Episode 4 of This is Technology Ethics with @SvenNyholm is now available. In this episode, we discuss the role technology plays in controlling and changing our behaviour. Do we control it or does it control us?
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Here's a free official version of my new paper 'Welcoming Robots into the Moral Circle: A Defence of Ethical Behaviourism'. My thanks to @matthijsMmaas @SvenNyholm and @David_Gunkel for helping me to clarify elements of it. I'm to blame for its contents ~
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
In my 2019 book, Automation and Utopia, I argued (admittedly using a simplification) that humanity faced a choice between two futures. Sometimes these things age badly, but if anything I think the analysis is even more salient in the wake of GPT-4
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
Here's a new paper - Axiological Futurism: The Systematic Study of the Future of Values - this one has taken a long time to see the light of day but I think it is one of the more interesting and important things I have written. Let me know what you think...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
I rarely acknowledge or celebrate milestones. Today is no exception but, nevertheless, I thought it might be worth noting that my blog - Philosophical Disquisitions - recently crossed the 6 million pageviews threshold
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
I am an inconsistent and unreliable podcaster. Nevertheless, I have somehow managed to record and release 95 episodes over the past few years. You can access them all here, including the original episode on 'The Ethics of Big Data' with Tal Zarsky
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I was part of the group that prepared these 20 new recommendations for a safe and ethical transition towards driverless mobility - Check them out (as always I encourage people to read the detail not just the summaries!) via @EU_Commission
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
Great to get my hands on this excellent new book from @SvenNyholm - a really well written intro to tech ethics
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Feedback so far is that this paper is the most absurd thing I have ever written...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
New post - The Moral Problem of Grading: An Extended Analysis - Do academics do more harm than good when they grade students? Is there a moral duty to grade? I try to examine these topics, and more.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 months
Episode 7 of This is Technology Ethics is now available! @SvenNyholm and I discuss whether machines can ever acquire moral status and what the ethical significance of this would be. Lots of ground covered in this one. Check it out at the link
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
I'm a little bit late to the party, but I want to do a series of podcasts on the philosophy and ethics of GPT (and other similar generative AI). Who should I interview? What topics/questions should I cover? Suggestions welcome.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Is an academic career an ethical choice? What is the value of research? What should we teach and how should it be taught? How can I be a good academic 'citizen'? The Ethics of Academia podcast explores these questions with a range of guests...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
Is it possible to live a meaningful life in virtual reality? In this paper I argue that it is. This is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Meaning in Life. The paper is my best effort at summarising my thoughts on virtual reality and meaning
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
New article - Artificial (General) Intelligence and the Problem of Cognitive Inflation - in which I propose that the switch from human embodied intelligence to AGI is akin to the switch from the gold standard to fiat money. Might be of interest to some
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
Should you want to be a member of the Borg? This new paper from myself and Steve Petersen answers "maybe" - In Defence of the Hivemind Society, available here:
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
I don’t understand Wittgenstein. Everything I’ve read by him or about him suggests to me that his influence is due to the strange cult of personality/perceived genius that sprung up around him (I blame Betrand Russell, in part, for this). Am I wrong? Why?
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 months
New Episode of This is Technology Ethics - 8 - Machines as Colleagues, Friends and Lovers - in which @SvenNyholm and I discuss the philosophical possibility and ethical status of different types of relationships with machines.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
If you think managerialism and cancel culture are bad in universities today, spare a thought for 13th century academics in Bologna
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
Book giveaway time. I’ve got two copies of Automation and Utopia and two copies of A Citizen’s Guide to AI to giveaway. Email me if you are interested - first come, first served
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
It's a good lesson: if you like something someone has written you should consider reaching out to them and letting them know. Usually it's only the people who really hate what they have written that make the effort...
@David_Gunkel
David J. Gunkel
5 years
A post like this really makes my day.... I never know whether any of these texts connect with anyone anywhere. So a brief but insightful comment like this is really priceless.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
7 months
New episode of This is Technology Ethics! - 6 - Moral Agency in Machines - in which @SvenNyholm and I discuss the concept of moral agency, whether it is possible for machines to be moral agents, and whether this is desirable. Check it out
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
9 months
New article by @spillteori and myself that examines the debate between long-term, x-riskers and their critics. Is it possible to reconcile the warring camps from AI ethics with established risk management practices? We argue that it should be
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
New post! - Understanding Legal Argument (1): The Five Types of Legal Argument
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 years
My TEDx talk is still 995,485 views off the original target of 1 million views. You know what you have to do - Symbols and their Consequences in the Sex Robot Debate
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
New Episode! - Are you being tracked and traced every minute of the day? In the latest podcast I talk to @carissaveliz about her excellent new book Privacy is Power
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
New episode! - I chat to @briandavidearp about the ethics of love drugs. We talk about the nature of love, its biological underpinnings, the reality and/or hype of love drugs, using MDMA to improve your relationship and much more. Check it out here -
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
New post - From Mind-as-Computer to Robot-as-Human: Can Metaphors Change Morality?
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
Good paper taxonomising the risks associated with LLMs (from @IasonGabriel and others @DeepMind ). I do, however, wish the table summarising the taxonomy was in the main part of the paper (screenshot below).
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
General writing rule of thumb: acronyms/initialisms save time for the writer, not the reader. You should serve the reader, not yourself.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 years
New podcast - Episode #47 with @PopTechWorks talking about her book Automating Inequality, looking at how automated decision-making tools are constructing a new digital poorhouse and reinforcing systemic biases in society
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
I'm curious, after the initial hype has died down, does anyone here actually use ChatGPT for some productive/work related purpose? My general take is: it's fun to play with and undoubtedly generates plausible-sounding responses to queries but...1/5
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
I haven't done enough to advertise this yet, but I have funding, again, for one PhD in AI and the Technological Disruption of the Law. Full scholarship plus stipend for 4 years. Open to all nationalities (subject to visa where applicable) Details here
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Amazing stuff! - Automation and Utopia isn't even out yet and it is already #99 in 'Managers' Guide to Computing' on Amazon. That was exactly the demographic I was aiming for when writing it. Dreams really can come true.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
I'm very pleased today to be launching a new mini podcast series called The Ethics of Academia. The podcast will deal with the ethical dilemmas and challenges faced by academics in their working lives. My first guest is my colleague and friend @SvenNyholm
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
7 months
In light of the recent furore around techno-optimism (sparked by @pmarca 's manifesto), it might be worth noting this article I wrote explaining (a) what techno-optimism is; (b) why it is hard to defend; and (c) why it might be possible to defend a modest form of it (h/t
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
So that's pretty much all the great social psychology experiments of the 20th century cast into doubt (Robber's Cave; Stanford Prison etc.)
@GreggDCaruso
Gregg Caruso
5 years
Unpublished data from Stanley Milgram's experiments cast doubt on his claims about obedience
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
New post - How Can Algorithms Be Biased? - This one discusses moralised and neutral senses of 'bias' and the different possible causes of algorithmic bias.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
Possible Worlds and Possible Lives - "Here’s a simple thought, but one that I think is quite profound: one’s happiness in life depends, to a large extent, on how one thinks about and navigates the space of possible lives one could have lived."
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
How much of academia is marketing? Case in point: my 2016 paper 'The Threat of Algocracy' has been cited nearly 300 times. Very few of those citations show any knowledge of its contents. If I were to guess, most just seemed to like the title and thought it was catchy...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
This is an interesting article on how technology is leading to new forms of magical thinking and will eventually result in a kind of neo-feudalism
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
8 months
Episode 3 of This is Technology Ethics is now available! - @SvenNyholm and I discuss the problems of value alignment and control in technology risk and design. Check it out at the link
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
11 months
What are the six ways that technology can change our moral beliefs and practices? @spillteori and I cover this in our recent paper. Here is a quick summary with some examples. As always, there is a lot more in the full paper (available here: )
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
AI ethics has been solved
@NateSilver538
Nate Silver
2 years
An algorithm is just a set of rules for processing data or completing a task. Algorithms have many uses, though it's hard to design good ones. If you design a dumb set of rules, you'll end up with dumb results. And if you design a biased set of rules, you'll get biased results.
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
6 years
My sister (Sarah) would have been 44 today. Sadly she is not here to celebrate -- Epicureanism and the Problem of Premature Death
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
A bit of a clickbaity headline, and I don't think I ever make the claim that human judgment is 'notoriously fallible' (and it's not part of the argument made here) but nevertheless here's a new article by me in Wired - via @wired
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
New Episode! - I chat to @Jessifer about the ethics of ungrading. Yes, you read that right. Are traditional grading practices unethical, competitive and coercive? If so, what, if anything, should we replace them with?
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
7 years
How Assistive AI Could Alleviate Social Inequality (w @Miles_Brundage ) #ethics #AI
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Does the value of scholarship rest in how many people read it? What's the point of writing the 5000th interpretation of a Platonic dialogue? Is learning a private or communitarian good? All these questions are addressed in my conversation with @zenahitz
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Automation and Utopia is coming out in September. You can pre-order now (if that's your thing). Here's a very small teaser from chapter 1. Thanks to @xuenay for allowing me to use his poem as the epigraph!
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
The Ethics of Academia - a short podcast series (12 episodes) exploring the ethical dilemmas and challenges facing academic researchers and teachers. Here are the descriptions and links to all episodes
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I don't know if anyone cares about this, but in case they they do, here are the links to all the interviews and podcasts I have done about Automation and Utopia thus far
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
2 years
Here is the published version of my paper 'Techno-Optimism: An Analysis, an Evaluation and a Modest Defence'
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
4 years
I think we are finally seeing the first step to the automation of philosophers
@raphaelmilliere
Raphaël Millière
4 years
I asked GPT-3 to write a response to the philosophical essays written about it by @DrZimmermann , @rinireg @ShannonVallor , @add_hawk , @AmandaAskell , @dioscuri , David Chalmers, Carlos Montemayor, and Justin Khoo published yesterday by @DailyNousEditor . It's quite remarkable!
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
I have been doing a series of podcasts on LLMs and their social, economic, educational, legal and ethical impact. Check it out at the link below. Episodes so far include...
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
The idea that humans should abandon their individuality and use technology to bind themselves together into hivemind societies seems both farfetched and frightening but in this article with Steve Petersen we argue that it might be better than you think
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
3 years
I'm very humbled to share my IMDB profile. I have an 5 credits to my name now. I specialise in immersive method acting, focusing primarily on playing myself over and over again.... Not sure who this "professor of law" character is though
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Interesting paper from @David_Gunkel - No Brainer: Why Consciousness in Neither a Necessary nor a Sufficient Condition for AI Ethics
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
New paper with @spillteori - Mechanisms of Techno-Moral Change: A Taxonomy and Overview. We argue that there are six primary mechanisms through which technology can change our moral beliefs and practices and that these fall within three main categories: (i) decisional; (ii)
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
1 year
New paper - Moral Uncertainty and Our Relationships with Unknown Minds
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@JohnDanaher
John Danaher
5 years
Excellent writing advice here from @briandavidearp
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