William Eliot

2022

Why is truth good? (Podcast) →
philosophy

I express my confusion over the value of truth to Robin Hanson and Agnes Callard, and together we ponder the benefits of fiction and of fact.

Is life worth living? (Podcast) →
philosophy

I ask Agnes Callard and Robin Hanson how we are biased towards being alive, and not dying. We consider whether a human could drop this bias, but come to no useful conclusion.

The committee member →
fiction

The following letter, typed out on a coarse sheet of paper, was hand-delivered to the Office of Rational Intelligence Discovery, Whitehall.

Self-destructing businesses and self-destructing employees →
economics

Is self-destruction an undesirable behaviour by default? No, but we typically associate it with a sort of failure.

2021

A plucked Osteichthyes →
fiction

The befouling of Earth will eventually be visible to you. Until it's invisible against the darkness of space.

In defence of instant universal death →
philosophy

I could be killed by a lightning bolt and never know the difference.

Perception graveyard →
fiction

This life is total darkness, but not black like space, or one's favourite ink.

Unencumbered autonomy is impossible →
philosophy

Autonomy must be debased by the conditions of existence that frown upon our ability to be truly free.