If AI Replaces Human Labor Does That Have To Strip Human Lives Of Meaning?

November 16, 2025

A common worry is that technological development, and increasingly advanced AI in particular, will necessarily remove meaning from our lives. For instance, if humanity ends up in a situation of extreme material abundance, but at some point there is a lack of ability for most (or all) people to do work that's value-additive, will that lead to widespread depression and lack of meaning? While I think there are very serious concerns that advancing technologies, and AI in particular, raise (such ...

Is every action secretly selfish?

November 9, 2021

I often hear people claim that everything we do is "selfish" or ultimately aimed at our own pleasure (and avoidance of pain). The way the argument usually goes is that we wouldn't do something unless we "wanted" to do it - and that even for altruistic actions, we do them because they feel good. This view is sometimes called "psychological egoism:" the claim that every human action is motivated by self-interest. I think this claim is either seriously mistaken (if interpreted one way) or true but...

What In The Hell Is Humor?

July 6, 2019

Comedy and laughter are remarkably tricky to explain. As evidence of this, I'll point to the fact that there are more than 13 different theories of humor (each described at the bottom of this post). If you examine them, I think you’ll agree that while each captures relevant aspects of humor, none satisfactorily describes humor in all its forms. Part of what makes comedy so hard to describe is that it has such variety. While the boundaries between different types of humor are fuzzy, I think y...

Human Symbiogenesis

September 10, 2011

One of the most mutually beneficial states that two people can achieve is symbiogenesis, where they take such pleasure in each other's happiness (and displeasure in each other's unhappiness) that they start viewing each other's interests almost as their own. The more strongly this happens, the closer the pair is to being a single, two bodied organism, working towards a common set of goals. One remarkable benefit to such a state is that it allows for a level of optimal allocation of resources ...

Planning Your Life Based on Your Ideal Ordinary Week

August 4, 2011

When people consider how they want their lives to be, they often think in terms of reaching specific milestones. They set goals like earning a certain amount of money, achieving a certain level of success at work, having a certain group of close friends, falling in love, getting married, having a spectacular wedding, having children, and being thought of as a good person. But milestones like these don't necessarily determine how much people enjoy their lives, how high their mood is on a regular ...