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Ethical Investing
Ethical investing is the practice of not investing in companies which engage in ethically reprehensible behaviour. There are many varieties, but, for example, some people refuse to invest in companies which sell tobacco. Does this make any sense? There are presumably two goals here. One is to punish companies which act badly, in the hopes…
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Moral Instinct
Steven Pinker wrote an interesting article in the New York Times magazine this Sunday. I’m not a big Pinker fan. I think he tends to simplify a little too much, and sometimes falls into the classic error of evolutionary psychology: thinking that a plausible explanation is the right explanation. This was a good article, though,…
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NPG
Population growth must stop. Regardless of what we believe the resource limit of the planet is, it is clear that there is a limit. If population growth continues, we will hit that limit. As the saying goes, anything which can not go on forever will stop. Fortunately, the rate of growth of population is slowing.…
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Article about Books about Iraq
A depressing article about some books about Iraq, written by soldiers and a journalist who were there during the initial invasion. Of course war has huge human costs, but it’s hard to be unmoved by these stories about a war of choice. And it’s very hard to reconcile them with our goals and our inability…
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Fermi Forge
I recently reread Greg Bear’s SF novel The Forge of God, after coming across it in a book. It’s a novel about the destruction of the Earth. I may be too pessimistic, but I find it to be one of the most convincing explanations of the Fermi paradox. Assuming our civilization doesn’t collapse, it’s going…