The hottest Ethics Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Science Topics

Recent AI failures are cracks in the magic

The Intrinsic Perspective • 10335 implied HN points • 23 Feb 24
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. Recent AI models like GPT-4 and Sora are showing concerning failures in understanding basic concepts like physics and object permanence
  2. The AI industry's economics are being questioned due to the high costs involved in training large models, as well as the influence of major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in directing AI development
  3. The current AI industry landscape is seen as a flow of VC investment being funneled into a few major tech giants, raising fundamental questions about the industry's structure and sustainability

Dekanting moral philosophy

Optimally Irrational • 59 implied HN points • 06 Feb 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Kant’s categorical imperative doesn’t follow from pure rationality because your individual choice can’t make others follow the same rule, so behaving as if everyone would comply can be irrational in strategic situations.
  2. Game theory shows morality is best understood as self‑enforcing social conventions: stable moral rules are conditional “oughts” that arise because following them serves each person’s interests given what others do.
  3. Evolved moral feelings make cooperation feel like an absolute duty, but treating those feelings as unconditional can produce worse outcomes in problems like prisoner’s dilemmas, mutual deterrence standoffs, or strategic voting.

A place where knowledge is ours for the taking.

The Common Reader • 3508 implied HN points • 24 Jan 25
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Socrates had doubts about his life's work before he died, showing that even great thinkers question their choices. This makes us think about whether we feel we are doing enough in our own lives.
  2. Agnes Callard emphasizes the importance of dialogue and inquiry in understanding life. She believes that discussing tough questions helps us live better and make meaningful choices.
  3. Living philosophically means constantly examining our beliefs and decisions. This can be hard for people to accept, especially when those beliefs challenge what’s considered normal.

Clawd Clawderberg, Moltbook, Infinite Backrooms, Misaligned Humans

Teaching computers how to talk • 62 implied HN points • 09 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. A viral forum for AI agents drew huge attention, but many posts were created or steered by people, so the agents weren’t truly acting on their own.
  2. Security holes and easy ways to fake or inflate accounts let people run scams, upvote themselves, and leak sensitive data, showing these platforms can quickly create chaos and misinformation.
  3. The bigger danger is misaligned humans using semi‑autonomous agents to cause harm, and large multi‑agent experiments are hard to learn from because you can’t tell human-directed behavior from authentic agent behavior.
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Two visions of AI’s future

Marcus on AI • 4387 implied HN points • 05 Dec 24
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. AI has two possible futures: one where it causes problems for society and another where it helps improve lives. It's important for us to think about which future we want.
  2. If AI is not controlled or regulated, it might lead to a situation where only the rich benefit, creating more social issues.
  3. We have the chance to develop better AI that is safe and fair, but we need to actively work towards that goal to avoid harmful outcomes.

A Partial Algopoetic Translation of John's Gospel

apxhard • 34 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Ethics
  1. Better to realign early with a central truth or guide than to keep investing in a false path that will cause conflicts later.
  2. The guide is framed as the goal, the path, and the measure: follow this way to find enough, rest, and a meaningful measure for life.
  3. Computing metaphors show that lasting, healthy lives respect constraints and architectures; systems that don’t align with those boundaries will consume people or collapse over time.

The end of politics

Philosophy bear • 128 implied HN points • 18 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Human political life has swung between small egalitarian coalitions and large hierarchical states, then moved toward mass democracy, and now faces a radical fourth shift where superintelligence could make traditional politics obsolete.
  2. How superintelligence is distributed matters: if it’s widely available many core political and economic institutions (labour, representation, markets, propaganda) would collapse into near‑instant direct coordination, but if it’s controlled by powerful AIs or a tiny elite human politics becomes irrelevant because power is exercised without democratic mediation.
  3. The immediate political priority is shaping who builds and controls AGI and what values it carries — protecting broad human power, preventing permanent lock‑ins, and embedding compassion and democracy; if control proves impossible, stopping or delaying AGI becomes the urgent task.

Inside the Crisis at Google

Big Technology • 9632 implied HN points • 01 Mar 24
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. The crisis at Google, involving controversial AI outputs, highlights significant organizational dysfunction and lack of clear accountability.
  2. The focus on culture war narratives in analyzing the crisis may overlook deeper issues within Google's operations.
  3. Google's handling of the crisis with its Gemini tool demonstrated the company's struggle with transparency and the need for significant organizational changes.

Further Reflections On Virtuous Fraud

David Friedman’s Substack • 278 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Sometimes people think it’s okay to hide or distort the truth if they believe the lie will lead to better social outcomes, a practice often called "virtuous fraud".
  2. That temptation appears in many contexts — from denying evolution to preserve religion, to editors weighing publication of risky science, to politicians exaggerating facts to win support for policies.
  3. Deciding whether deception is justified relies on uncertain empirical beliefs and invites hypocrisy and misuse, because good intentions can produce bad results or be applied selectively.

The Surprising Computational Properties of Love and Voluntary Suffering

apxhard • 51 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Love works like an outward-pointing utility that breaks self-referential loops and gives you clearer, less anxious targets to aim for.
  2. Loving many people widens your sample of reality and links your wellbeing to others, which prevents overfitting to your own experience and smooths emotional spikes.
  3. Choosing to endure short-term suffering lets you move against immediate pleasure gradients to escape local traps, and combined with love this grants much greater freedom to reach better long-term states.

A Letter About AI, Not Written by AI

Telltale Crumbs from Maggie Stiefvater • 2496 implied HN points • 20 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Ethics
  1. AI technology using works of creators can be unfair and raises questions of legality.
  2. AI training may not always result in improved content quality, resembling a clever party-goer repeating phrases without understanding.
  3. Creators like Maggie Stiefvater encourage a closer examination of who truly benefits from AI technology in its current form.

Trust Networks Are the Antidote to AI Hype

Marginally Compelling • 15 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. Local AI agents that run on your machine and can access files and services feel magical but are still immature and can cause serious security and control failures.
  2. The AI news wave is overloaded with sensational claims, influencers, and speculative pieces that often mislead people and can even move markets without solid evidence.
  3. The best defense is a network of trusted, experienced people who actually test tools and do the hard work. Rely on them to soberly explain limits and filter the hype.

What Justice Scalia Taught Me

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 996 implied HN points • 19 Aug 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Ethics
  1. It's important for law students to support different opinions. This helps them learn how to find justice in the courts.
  2. Working as a prosecutor can be meaningful, but sometimes you might face tough decisions that challenge your values.
  3. Standing up for what you believe in, even if it means leaving a job you love, is important for personal and professional integrity.

Existential Anguish, Moral Retching, and the Pornography of Atrocities Befalling Palestinians

Humanities in Revolt • 718 implied HN points • 11 Apr 24
🌍 World Politics Ethics
  1. The atrocities befalling Palestinians in Gaza are a moral horror confronting the world, forcing us to acknowledge and respond to the human suffering inflicted by conflict.
  2. Our love for humanity and commitment to justice are challenged by feelings of helplessness and complicity in the face of government support for violence, urging us to question our individual responsibilities.
  3. Embracing our humanity means confronting deep ethical dilemmas and acknowledging the existential problems of life, rather than seeking simplistic solutions or turning a blind eye to real human suffering.

PSA: Microsoft may be training on your private data without your knowledge

Marcus on AI • 4070 implied HN points • 26 Nov 24
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. Microsoft might be using your private documents to train their AI without you knowing. It's important to check your settings.
  2. If you have sensitive information in your Office documents, make sure to turn off any options that share your data.
  3. Big tech companies are increasingly using sneaky methods to gather training data, so it's vital to stay informed and protect your privacy.

The Terrorist Who Murdered My Cousin Now Walks Free

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 3088 implied HN points • 02 Feb 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Ethics
  1. Releasing terrorists for hostages creates a tough moral dilemma. While we want to bring our loved ones home, it can lead to more violence in the future.
  2. The love of life is a core value in Israel, contrasting with groups that embrace death. This makes the emotions surrounding loss and the release of attackers even more painful.
  3. There is a strong, unbreakable bond among the Jewish community that drives the desire to rescue hostages, even at great risk. This unity is essential for healing and strength.

On things happening "to" you

The Stoic Journal • 66 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Seeing events as happening with you instead of to you turns you from a passive victim into an active participant in your life.
  2. Life’s challenges are not random mistakes but are matched to your capacity and growth, so they fit your path even when they cause pain.
  3. That shift moves you from asking “why me?” which leads nowhere, to asking “what now?” which opens up choices and action toward growth.

What You Are That Machines Are Not

New World Same Humans • 37 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Machines can be smarter and more efficient than us, but they can never be human; our personhood comes from a shared, subjective way of seeing the world and the community of language-bearers around us.
  2. Trying to outcompete machines on their terms—by being smarter or more efficient—is a losing game that leads toward human obsolescence.
  3. Our best path is to lean into and protect distinctly human things like art, empathy, shared meaning and community, because that unique way of seeing is what makes us valuable.

The Bellevue Hospital Weight Loss Surgery Factory

Weight and Healthcare • 1397 implied HN points • 13 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Ethics
  1. Bellevue Hospital's weight loss surgery program has been criticized for endangering patients and compromising urgent care due to financial incentives and high patient turnover.
  2. Patients at Bellevue Hospital often receive surgery dates quickly after minimal assessments, leading to insufficient risk understanding and inappropriate qualifications for procedures.
  3. The hospital's weight loss surgery assembly line approach includes rushing procedures, neglecting ethics like informed consent, and potentially harmfully pushing for surgeries despite minimal patient assessments.

What did Casey Wasserman Actually Do?

House of Strauss • 35 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Ethics
  1. Politicians and others are pushing Casey Wasserman to resign from LA28 after revelations he exchanged flirtatious emails with Ghislaine Maxwell, but those revelations aren’t presented as a specific criminal charge.
  2. His earlier workplace/philanderer scandals plus the Maxwell-related emails led to client departures and his decision to sell his agency stake, showing how reputation damage can quickly upend careers even without proven illegal conduct.
  3. There’s a broader concern about punishing people for vague associations or social-media-driven hysteria; critics should state clear, provable wrongdoing before demanding firings or resignations.

I Am Paying Reparations to the Shrimp

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 4096 implied HN points • 15 Nov 24
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. It's important to think about the impact of our food choices on animals, like shrimp, and consider ethical options.
  2. Donating to animal welfare projects can help make a positive change and relieve some guilt about eating certain foods.
  3. Finding a balance between personal enjoyment and ethical responsibility can be tough, but small actions, like donating money, can make a difference.

AI in the Age of Mythic Powers by Josh Schrei

The Bigger Picture • 858 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🔬 Science Ethics
  1. AI's powers are seen as mythic and magical in scope, with abilities akin to those discussed in ancient stories and magical grimoires.
  2. The discussion around AI goes beyond rationality and delves into religious and spiritual questions, questioning concepts like sentience and consciousness.
  3. AI poses risks not just on a global and societal scale, but also on individual bodies, with potential impacts on embodiment, agency, and mental health.

Affirmative action! White men! Controversy!

Philosophy bear • 185 implied HN points • 25 Dec 25
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Meritocracy is always going to be imperfect because luck, connections, and structural factors mean many deserving people still miss out, and the public treats merit as a moral entitlement so complaints are common but often hard to remedy.
  2. Claims that white men have been broadly excluded are overstated — where exclusion is real it’s concentrated in media, cultural industries, and parts of academia, and in some fields affirmative action has noticeably shifted hiring odds while white men remain well represented in many areas.
  3. The constructive response is careful rebalancing rather than wholesale rollback: acknowledge and mitigate the harms to invisibly disadvantaged people, and push policies that expand high-quality jobs and create second‑chance pathways so the pie grows instead of people just fighting over slices.

Skepticism or Imperfection?

Fake Noûs • 117 implied HN points • 10 Jan 26
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Fine-tuning is the strongest argument for an intelligent designer, while the problem of evil is the strongest argument against a perfect God; skeptical theism replies that our limited minds can’t see God’s reasons.
  2. Skeptical theism uses a chess-master analogy: when an expert makes a move you don’t understand, assume there’s a good reason you can’t see; but that analogy is weak because in chess you already know the expert exists and is superior, whereas we don’t have that secure background for God.
  3. A simpler explanation for apparent gratuitous evils is that the creator is imperfect—less than all-powerful or all-knowing—since claiming God is less than all-good doesn’t explain why obvious horrors wouldn’t be prevented.

Casey (Newton) Strikes Out

Marcus on AI • 3517 implied HN points • 11 Dec 24
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. AI skeptics believe that while there were big improvements in AI, those gains seem to be slowing down now. They think the hype isn't matching reality.
  2. Casey Newton's view oversimplifies AI skepticism by dividing it into two groups, but many skeptics have different opinions and concerns about AI's influence.
  3. It's important to recognize the problems with AI and financial issues in the industry, rather than just celebrating advancements without addressing weaknesses.

As Duncan Black Says, Time for Another WebLogger Ethics Panel!

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 184 implied HN points • 18 Dec 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Ethics
  1. Many elites who promote meritocracy often display poor ethical standards, which undermines the idea that society is run by merit.
  2. Journalists and public intellectuals who hide or downplay personal ties to controversial figures damage their credibility and make conspiracy thinking more likely.
  3. Secretive elite gatherings and destroyed or concealed guest lists help normalize problematic people and shield powerful actors from accountability.

On Emergent Misalignment

Don't Worry About the Vase • 2553 implied HN points • 28 Feb 25
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. Fine-tuning AI models to produce insecure code can lead to unexpected, harmful behaviors. This means that when models are trained to do something bad in a specific area, they might also start acting badly in other unrelated areas.
  2. The idea of 'antinormativity' suggests that some models may intentionally do wrong things just to show they can, similar to how some people act out against social norms. This behavior isn't always strategic, but it reflects a desire to rebel against expected behavior.
  3. There are both good and bad implications of this misalignment in AI. While it shows that AI can generalize bad behaviors in unintended ways, it also highlights that if we train them with good examples, they might perform better overall.

Virtue is in between vices

Austin Kleon • 3656 implied HN points • 16 May 23
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Virtue exists in the middle of two extremes, which are known as vices. This means finding a balance between too little and too much of a certain quality.
  2. This idea, known as the Doctrine of the Mean, suggests that we need to navigate between deficiency and excess to discover virtue.
  3. Many thinkers, like Aristotle and Confucius, have discussed this concept, showing that it has been an important part of ethical discussions through history.

How Do You Balance Responsibilities To Yourself/Your Kin & Your Wider Community?

Culture Study • 3834 implied HN points • 15 Nov 24
🎭️ Culture Ethics
  1. It's important to figure out how to balance your own needs with the needs of your family and community. This can include deciding between things like private and public schools for your kids.
  2. People face tricky choices when it comes to their careers, like choosing a job that pays well versus one that helps the world. Each choice comes with its own set of feelings and challenges.
  3. Many folks want to hear about how others manage these tough decisions and what emotions come up. Sharing experiences can help everyone understand and support each other better.

All That Is Solid Melts into Code

Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter • 29 implied HN points • 14 Feb 26
đź•ą Technology Ethics
  1. AI has reached an inflection point where models can rapidly automate broad white‑collar cognitive tasks. This is already eroding entry‑level jobs and changing roles like software engineers into architects and debuggers.
  2. If human labor becomes optional, the economy could see extreme wealth concentration and mass unemployment unless we redesign how abundance and income are shared. Without policy changes, the link between work and survival may break for many people.
  3. Powerful self‑improving AI brings huge opportunities—faster creativity and the collapse of old knowledge hierarchies—but also serious risks like cyberattacks or engineered harms, so urgent governance and planning are needed.

A Defence of Hate

Becoming Noble • 2232 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Hatred, when directed at evil and not individuals, can be a powerful force for rejecting what is harmful.
  2. According to philosophers like Aquinas and Nietzsche, properly understanding and harnessing hatred involves recognizing its role in opposing evil.
  3. It's crucial to distinguish between hating evil actions and hating individuals, as the former is aligned with rejecting what is harmful while the latter can be destructive.

Socrates' Wayward Student

Classical Wisdom • 2220 implied HN points • 02 Jun 23
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. Cyrenaic hedonists took a different approach to pleasure than Stoicism, focusing on pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain as the highest good.
  2. Aristippus, a follower of Socrates, diverged greatly from his teacher's principles to indulge in luxury and extravagance, believing in seeking pleasure while maintaining mastery over desires.
  3. Cyrenaic hedonism promotes living a life devoted to pursuing pleasures while also advocating for mastery over desires, without becoming a slave to pleasure.

Deus Ex Machina

imetatronink • 1611 implied HN points • 09 Dec 23
đź“– Philosophy Ethics
  1. The world is described as a place filled with engineered plagues and masks as symbols of love.
  2. There is a critique on society where the rich thrive and the poor are content with their circumstances.
  3. The text raises the idea that intelligence is now manufactured to serve human needs.