Dissent
Philosophy, policy, progress and the distant future

Latest

12
Apr

UK Student Finance and The Curse of Egalitarianism

There's been some chatter recently in the UK about student loan balances, repayments and possibly reform/forgiveness. I
4 min read
04
Feb

Notes on Toby Ord's AI Scaling Series

I've been reading Toby Ord's recent sequence on AI scaling a bit. General notes come first,
5 min read
14
Dec

Misc Links December 2025

Don’t get cross with NIMBYs. Make deals with them argues that we should try to co-opt NIMBY's
5 min read
09
Dec

Thoughts the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Maths

Half a year or so ago I stumbled across Eugene Wigner's 1960's article "The Unreasonable
4 min read
02
Dec

The Smoking Lesion Doesn't Really Distinguish EDT from CDT

Context: Causal Decision Theory (CDT) = Choose the action that cause the best expected outcome Evidential Decision Theory (EDT) = Choose the
2 min read
01
Dec

Does dissolving newcomb's paradox matter?

Context: Newcomb's Paradox is a problem in decision theory. Omega swoops in and places two boxes in front
2 min read
29
Nov

Unstated Cruxes in Migration Debates

Migration is a fairly big issue. Let's say you have a fairly simple questions. "Are migrants net
2 min read
20
Oct

Recollection of a Dinner Party

It’s early. 0100. I’ve just come home from walking a guest at my latest party to her bus
6 min read
21
Jul

Ethics can still be valuable if you're a moral anti-realist

I had a conversation at a party a few days ago. I was talking about ethics to a guy. He
2 min read
14
Jul

Citizen Sleeper Review

I spent a while playing citizen sleeper. Finished it. I wasn’t too impressed. It’s basically a very simple
4 min read