The Long Reply

The Long Reply

Ethics & Argument

The Machine in the Mirror
AI, Greek Myths, and the Fear That Consciousness Is Made of Matter
 • Tom J. Elston
The New Gods Don’t Feel Guilty
Towards a secular theology: rationalism, meritocracy, and the strange afterlife of older moral orders
 • Tom J. Elston
Minding Our Own Business
Steelmanning Tucker Carlson's case against foreign wars, and what happens when everybody agrees with him.
 • Tom J. Elston
The Machine-Made Soul.
Why the human being was never just a body.
 • Tom J. Elston
Oxyrhynchus and the Accident of Memory.
The Rubbish Dump That Saved the Ancient World.
 • Tom J. Elston
Theory Is What You Leave Out.
Theory, Nuance, and Maps, Maps, Maps.
 • Tom J. Elston
The Right to Be Wrong.
Why error needs mercy, but not immunity.
 • Tom J. Elston
Empathy Is Not Agreement.
Understanding a belief is not the same as giving it moral shelter.
 • Tom J. Elston
Nothing to Hide?
The Tyranny of Transparency, and the Power to Disappear
 • Tom J. Elston
The Problem With Being on the Right Side of History.
History Does Not Absolve You From Persuasion.
 • Tom J. Elston
Moloch Was Never a God: on coordination, sacrifice and the theology of helplessness
Some meditations on "Meditations on Moloch", climate policy, and AI
 • Tom J. Elston
You Are Not Obliged to Optimise Yourself.
In Defence of Wasting Time Properly.
 • Tom J. Elston
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