The hottest Ethics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

EAs should probably focus on recruiting the ultra-wealthy

Something to Consider • 99 implied HN points • 11 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Altruism Economics Social Impact Fundraising
  1. Effective Altruism should prioritize recruiting wealthy individuals because a big donation can have a much larger impact than many small ones. It's more beneficial to convince one billionaire to give a large amount than to have thousands give small amounts.
  2. The reputation issues from past events, like the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's companies, shouldn't discourage efforts to recruit wealthy donors. The potential benefits of their donations greatly outweigh these concerns.
  3. Investing resources in programs that can attract wealthy individuals is seen as a very cost-effective strategy for Effective Altruism, as the benefits can be significantly greater.

For more lifeboats: The only just academic job market is a tight academic job market

Philosophy bear • 135 implied HN points • 14 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Job Market Social Critique Higher education
  1. Lifeboat ethics talks about how to share limited resources when not everyone can have what they want. It's an important conversation in academia to think about who gets what.
  2. Many discussions in philosophy focus on how to share jobs and recognition, but we need to pay attention to creating more opportunities rather than just dividing what's there.
  3. Increasing the number of academic positions can help reduce inequality and give people a better chance, especially those who face challenges in their careers.

Extraterrestrial Governance

Skeptic • 42 implied HN points • 30 Dec 24
📖 Philosophy Governance Ethics Human nature Society Exploration
  1. As we start living on other planets, we need to figure out how to govern ourselves there. This means thinking about the best way to make decisions and keep everyone safe.
  2. Direct democracy sounds good for a small group, but as the population grows, we might need more rules and systems to handle conflicts. Balancing freedom and order will be a big challenge.
  3. We can learn from Earth's history and societies to create better systems on other planets. Sharing resources, cooperating, and having good leadership are crucial for survival and success.

Weird people doing good things

Samstack • 1768 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🎭️ Culture Philanthropy Community Ethics Social movements
  1. Effective Altruists do some weird things, like considering options like eliminating predators or flipping a coin with huge consequences.
  2. Effective Altruism is about using evidence to do the most good possible, even if some of the ideas seem strange or unconventional.
  3. Being weird is an integral part of doing good - the unconventional practices of Effective Altruists contribute to their impact.
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Can society be perfect?

In My Tribe • 486 implied HN points • 05 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Epistemology Politics Society Tradition
  1. Perfectionists believe society can be made perfect by following what they think are the right ideas. They think mistakes can be corrected easily.
  2. Anti-perfectionists believe that trying to perfect society often fails because of human flaws. They think it's okay for people to make mistakes and learn from them.
  3. Conservatives value traditions and experiences as important knowledge, while perfectionists sometimes discard traditions when they think they've found something better.

How Many Fucks Should Be Given, and About Whom?

I Might Be Wrong • 9 implied HN points • 05 Feb 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics Morality Charity Philosophical Concepts Social Responsibility
  1. We have a responsibility to help others in need, just like we would save a drowning child, even if it's inconvenient for us. Helping others shouldn't depend on whether someone else is doing it too.
  2. Thinking about charity should focus on our obligations to help, rather than questioning if we should care about people far away. Our compassion should guide our actions.
  3. Discussions about aid, like those involving organizations such as USAID, often lack depth. We need to critically evaluate the impact and effectiveness of our help.

An extremely festive reminder

Michael Tracey • 59 implied HN points • 24 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Political Commentary Current Events Ethics Media YouTube
  1. You can watch videos and streams related to articles on YouTube. This includes discussions about current news and other topics.
  2. There are some access issues with these streams on Substack, but the creator is working on fixing them.
  3. The author humorously mentions celebrating Christmas by reading an ethics report, highlighting a quirky way to engage with serious topics.

Yes, I'm going to wade into the subject of AI

So Here’s a Thing • 1101 implied HN points • 25 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Art Ethics Creativity Imagery
  1. AI is a significant topic in 2023, impacting various industries and raising concerns about job security and creative integrity.
  2. AI-generated art, like that from Midjourney, can produce unique and artistic images rapidly and affordably, though it currently lacks the finesse of human artists.
  3. The rise of AI presents challenges regarding authenticity and truth, as it can replicate artistic styles with accuracy, raising ethical concerns about misattribution and deception.

Property Rights Are All in Your Head – Part I

Living Fossils • 28 implied HN points • 01 Jan 25
📖 Philosophy Ethics Property Rights Morality Conflict resolution
  1. Property rights exist because we believe in them. They aren’t like physical things we can measure but are ideas that people create and agree on.
  2. When disputes happen over property, it's often a matter of conflicting beliefs. The winner is decided based on how society views those beliefs, which can change over time.
  3. Different cultures have different rules about property. These rules shape how property rights are understood and can even change who gets to keep what when someone passes away.

The Ethics of Cybersecurity

Rod’s Blog • 615 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Ethics Privacy Data Protection Encryption
  1. Cybersecurity is crucial for protecting personal information, financial assets, intellectual property, critical infrastructure, and national security.
  2. Ethical considerations in cybersecurity include principles like confidentiality, integrity, availability, and justice.
  3. Balancing security and privacy involves strategies like risk-based approaches, data minimization, using encryption, respecting privacy rights, and staying informed about cybersecurity trends.

Novo Nordisk's Ethically Questionable Wegovy Publicity Stunt

Weight and Healthcare • 1078 implied HN points • 09 Aug 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Pharmaceuticals Weight Loss Ethics Research Health Risks
  1. Novo Nordisk released a press release touting study results that were not peer-reviewed or published, raising ethical concerns.
  2. The study population in the trial for the weight loss drug Wegovy was limited to specific criteria, excluding certain groups for evaluation of benefits and risks.
  3. The publicity stunt around the drug's benefits showcases the pharmaceutical company's marketing tactics that may manipulate perceptions and stock prices.

When Hatred and Fear Mask as Indignation

Philosophy bear • 114 implied HN points • 16 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Moral Philosophy Ethics Social justice Education Political theory
  1. Indignation is feeling morally upset about someone doing something wrong, while contempt is viewing someone as less than human and not caring about their welfare. It's important to understand the difference between these feelings.
  2. People often hide their contempt under the guise of indignation, especially towards groups like children who may commit crimes. We should question this attitude and seek to unmask the true feelings behind it.
  3. Children's moral development is ongoing, and they shouldn't be held to the same standard of moral responsibility as adults. It's unjust to treat them as fully moral agents while denying them basic rights like voting.

Import AI 363: ByteDance's 10k GPU training run; PPO vs REINFORCE; and generative everything

Import AI • 419 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Research Reinforcement Learning Language Models Ethics
  1. DeepMind developed Genie, a system that transforms photos or sketches into playable video games by inferring in-game dynamics.
  2. Researchers found that for language models, the REINFORCE algorithm can outperform the widely used PPO, showing the benefit of simplifying complex processes.
  3. ByteDance conducted one of the largest GPU training runs documented, showcasing significant non-American players in large-scale AI research.

A short philosophical history

Philosophy bear • 114 implied HN points • 15 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Ethics Metaphysics History Narrative Transhumanism Altruism
  1. Morality has evolved over time, influenced by intelligence, language, and culture. It can be seen as both a helpful adaptation and something that just happens without benefit, like men's nipples.
  2. The main conflict in history is between human morality and natural selection. Sometimes they work together, but other times they clash, shaping our progress as a species.
  3. We may have the chance to take control of our future and overcome natural selection through technology and ethics. Once we do this, our moral values could become the guiding force for society.

The Ten Principles of Win-Win

Win-Win • 319 implied HN points • 02 Apr 24
📖 Philosophy Wisdom Ethics Mindset Collaboration
  1. The world has plenty to offer, so thinking there's not enough can hold you back. Focus on abundance and opportunities instead of scarcity.
  2. Life is always changing, so it's important to be flexible and adaptable. Sticking to rigid ideas can make it hard to enjoy the journey.
  3. Working together can create win-win situations. Instead of just looking out for yourself, think about how you can benefit others too.

February Newsletter

RSS DS+AI Section • 5 implied HN points • 01 Feb 25
🕹 Technology AI Data science Research Applications Ethics
  1. AI and Data Science are rapidly evolving fields with new projects and innovations popping up all the time. It's important to stay updated with the latest research and applications.
  2. Ethics in AI is a huge concern, with ongoing discussions about bias, privacy, and the regulation of AI technology. People are looking for ways to use AI responsibly.
  3. There's a growing demand for skilled professionals in AI, particularly in areas like AI Product Management, which is becoming a hot job opportunity.

Deep Dive on Aleph Alpha - Towards European AI Sovereignty

AI Supremacy • 491 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Startups Funding Models Ethics
  1. Aleph Alpha is a German AI startup focusing on AI governance, privacy, and ethics aligning with EU standards.
  2. Aleph Alpha's flagship product, Luminous, offers language models in multiple sizes and is known for its ability to explain outputs.
  3. Aleph Alpha's collaborative and 'sovereignty first' approach sets it apart from US AI companies, emphasizing data privacy and transparency.

Putin's Pope

Diane Francis • 1039 implied HN points • 17 Aug 23
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Religion Theology Ethics Morality
  1. Pope Francis has not directly condemned Vladimir Putin or Russia for their actions in Ukraine, which many see as disappointing and unacceptable. His statements have sometimes aligned with Kremlin views, making it hard to see where he stands.
  2. Unlike previous Popes who took strong stands against oppressive regimes, Pope Francis seems to avoid clear condemnation of the aggressors in the Ukraine conflict. This has led to frustration among those who expect moral leadership from him.
  3. The Pope's attempts at peace talks have been criticized as ineffective, especially since they often ignore Ukraine's role as a victim. Many believe that until he openly condemns Russia, he won't be taken seriously.

You Know Literary Fraud When You See It

The Recovering Academic • 494 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
📚 Literature Memoir Autofiction Ethics Invention Truth
  1. Memory is unreliable - even recent events can be distorted by suggestion or misinterpretation, challenging the accuracy of our recollections.
  2. Inventing responsibly in memoir involves maintaining the balance between truth and embellishment, with the aim of illuminating deeper truths without resorting to outright lies.
  3. Ethics in writing demand a delicate balance - while some level of invention may be permissible to enhance storytelling, crossing the line into outright deceit constitutes literary fraud and violates the trust of the reader.

You live in a world that philosophy built

Trevor Klee’s Newsletter • 3283 implied HN points • 18 Mar 23
📖 Philosophy Science Society History Knowledge Ethics
  1. The Catholic Church venerated Aristotle and opposed Galileo because they trusted ancient philosophy over new scientific ideas.
  2. Living in a world where science evolves, we give more weight to current evidence than ancient texts or philosophers.
  3. Lessons from history remind us of the importance of valuing empirical evidence over established theories.

The aim of maximising happiness is doomed to fail as a public policy

Optimally Irrational • 79 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Utilitarianism Happiness Public Policy Ethics Cognitive Science
  1. Aiming to make everyone happy through public policy might not work. Happiness is not a simple thing that can just be increased.
  2. People adapt to their situations quickly, which means that any increase in happiness usually fades back to a normal level. This makes it hard to keep happiness growing over time.
  3. Happiness is often more about feeling good in the moment than about long-term goals. People might even choose challenging paths because they bring deeper satisfaction, rather than just chasing fleeting feelings of joy.

Schrödinger's Gender

ajkay • 982 implied HN points • 07 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Identity Ethics Reality Society Fantasy
  1. Failing to validate the preferred gender of trans-identifying people can impact their existence.
  2. Material reality is measurable and observable, different from what exists solely in one's imagination.
  3. Refusing to validate trans-identifying individuals is an ethical choice, even if it amounts to denying their existence.

The Alabama Department of Corrections Uses a Different Dictionary

The Medicine & Justice Project • 159 implied HN points • 30 May 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Prison System Capital Punishment Legal issues Ethics
  1. Alabama's Department of Corrections uses language that can be misleading about executions
  2. There have been instances where Alabama's executions have gone wrong but were downplayed by officials
  3. The lack of transparency in Alabama's execution process raises concerns about accountability and the portrayal of executions

Darwin the Cynic

Everything Is Bullshit • 904 implied HN points • 24 Oct 23
📖 Philosophy Human nature Idealism Morality Ethics
  1. Being a Darwinian cynic means believing people are motivated by self-interest, family-interest, and group-interest.
  2. Darwinian cynicism challenges the idea of pure altruism, suggesting that human actions are ultimately selfish, nepotistic, or groupish.
  3. Moral progress and idealism are seen as accidental byproducts rather than deliberate desires in the lens of Darwinian cynicism.

For-Profit Academic Publishers Love LLM Garbage

Never Met a Science • 116 implied HN points • 08 Nov 24
🔬 Science Publishing Research Literature Ethics Technology
  1. For-profit academic publishers are more focused on making money than helping science. They charge high fees for publishing papers, leading to a system that doesn't prioritize true academic progress.
  2. The move to Open Access journals has created financial burdens, especially in social sciences and humanities. Many academics end up paying significant fees just to publish their research.
  3. There's growing concern that using AI tools to write academic papers can dilute the quality of research. Scholars need to ensure that the focus remains on meaningful work rather than just producing more papers.

The AI doppelgänger experiment – Part 1: The training

On Looking • 184 HN points • 15 May 24
🎨 Art & Illustration AI Style Ethics Identity Creativity
  1. Communication relies on shared language, and this is especially crucial when discussing visual concepts like style and art.
  2. Training generative AI models to transfer style involves complex processes of separating denotational and stylistic aspects of images.
  3. The AI doppelganger experiment explores the tension between human-created images and machine-generated ones, raising questions about personhood, identity, and creativity in the digital age.

Boom: The Gospel of Progress

Kvetch • 69 implied HN points • 01 Dec 24
📖 Philosophy Existentialism Metaphysics Ethics Spirituality
  1. The authors argue that progress comes from a strong vision for the future and the drive to achieve it. They believe that breakthroughs in science and technology can only happen if people unite behind bold ideas.
  2. They emphasize that greatness is often the result of singular efforts and conflicts rather than widespread consensus. Historical achievements like the moon landing were fueled by the passionate resolve of a few individuals.
  3. The text warns against complacency and believing that stagnation is inevitable. It encourages readers to challenge this notion and aim for transformative change instead.

On Techno-pragmatism

ailogblog • 579 implied HN points • 02 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Pragmatism Technology Ethics Social Change
  1. Techno-pragmatism offers a balanced approach to technology, acknowledging both its potential and risks.
  2. Pragmatism emphasizes action and adequacy, rejecting fixed principles and absolutes.
  3. In the face of uncertainty with emergent technologies like AI, a pragmatic mindset that prioritizes observation and experimentation is crucial.

NYT Ethicist's Weight Stigma Hypocrisy Part 2

Weight and Healthcare • 918 implied HN points • 05 Jul 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Weight Stigma Ethics Healthcare Body positivity Mental health
  1. The column discusses weight stigma and hypocrisy in healthcare, pointing out discrimination based on body size.
  2. It highlights the importance of respecting boundaries and being cautious with compliments related to body size manipulation.
  3. The response from the Ethicist regarding concerns about weight loss drugs brings to light inconsistencies and potential ethical issues.

Pinochet in London

A Lawyer Writes • 432 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
💾 History Judicial system Dictatorship Ethics
  1. The Pinochet case in London was a unique and groundbreaking event in English legal history.
  2. The case led to significant changes in the English legal system, pushing it into the modern era.
  3. Despite the legal twists and turns, Pinochet was never extradited to Spain due to health reasons.