Indeed so! We admire the depth and scope of their writing, not to mention their beautiful visuals. In our extended announcement on our website, we credit them as a serious source of inspiration. Saloni Dattani of Works in Progress is also an advisor for Asimov Press.
Hello Brad,
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. To your last point, what if reading did maximize the welfare of an EA agent such that they were better able to effectuate their values? After all, many EAs take time away from directly doing good to lift weights, socialize, go out to dinners, and generally engage in other activities that give them pleasure. It won't be the same for everyone of course, but when considering the happiness/impact tradeoff I see many EAs devote time to the former in the hopes of maximizing the latter. In my case, reading n...
Hello Alexander,
Thank you so much for your comment. You are right, I don't think I sufficiently made the case for reading non-fiction books specifically and that my post blurred between the two genres a bit too readily. However, I think a lot of the arguments for fiction are true for non-fiction as well, namely, quality of prose, deep focus, and close reading. I think reading a whole non-fiction work rather than a summary helps the content go from disparate facts to being situated within a web of context. In this respect, I think we better retain the...
Hello Zachary,
I don't think the meaning of aesthetics that Etienne explores in this post really applies to Carrick Flynn's campaign. Aesthetics are a more replicable, cohesive, and norm-driven way of thinking about appearances. Carrick's Campaign may have garnered a poor public perception based on the proximity to/appearances of being a white-crypto bro. However, I don't think this has to do with an aesthetic he cultivated–rather a public image. The aesthetic of the campaign would have been things like graphic design choices, our media selection, and the r...
Thank you for your post. You present a well-reasoned and fascinating case for extending our moral circle to include insects.
I am an enormous insect lover and I have become hugely preoccupied with learning more about their subjective experiences and to what degree insects experience suffering. A couple of years ago I researched how the human consumption of insects–entomophagy, could support resilient diets. Initially, I was so enamored by the favorable land/water use of insect farming that I could largely overlook the ethical concerns behind entomopha...
I haven't seen much writing on this either, but we are certainly after some. "Living" or "self-healing" materials are big in biotech, and it just becomes a matter of seeing what is actually possible and can be done at scale. But yes, things such as living-roof materials, cables made from bacteria, and self-healing concrete are being explored.
https://asm.org/articles/2022/july/cable-bacteria-electric-marvels-of-the-microbial-w
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352710223010677