Writings of 2022

Every New Year's Day, I post a retrospect of the past year's writings. Here are the retrospects of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The biggest project this year was my new book The Weirdness of the World, submitted in November and due in print in early fall 2023.  This book pulls together ideas I've been publishing over the past ten years concerning the failure of common sense, philosophy, and empirical science to explain consciousness and the fundamental structure of the cosmos, and the corresponding bizarreness and dubiety of all general theories about such matters.

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Books

Submitted:

The Weirdness of the World (under contract with Princeton University Press).

Under contract / in progress:

As co-editor with Jonathan Jong, The Nature of Belief, Oxford University Press.

As co-editor with Helen De Cruz and Rich Horton, a yet-to-be-titled anthology with MIT Press containing great classics of philosophical SF.

Full-length non-fiction essays

Appearing in print:

"Measuring eudaimonic and non-eudaimonic goods in the pursuit of the good life: The Riverside Eudaimonia Scale and the Rich & Sexy Well-Being Scale" (with Seth Margolis, Daniel J. Ozer, Ramona Martinez, and Sonja Lyubomirsky). International Journal of Well-Being, 12, 1-20.

"Engaging charitable giving: The motivational force of narrative versus philosophical argument" (with Christopher McVey and Joshua May), Philosophical Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2022.2088340.

"Uncle Iroh, from fool to sage -- or sage all along?" (with David Schwitzgebel), in H. De Cruz and J. De Smedt, eds., Avatar: The Last Airbender and Philosophy.

Finished and forthcoming:

"The ethics of artificial life: The moral status of life as it could be" (second author, with Olaf Witkowski), Artificial Life Conference Proceedings 2022.
• winner: Best ALIFE 2022 paper

"How far can we get in creating a digital replica of a philosopher?" (third author, with Anna Strasser and Matt Crosby”, Robophilosophy Proceedings 2022.

"What is unique about kindness? Exploring the proximal experience of prosocial acts relative to other positive behaviors” (with Annie Regan, Seth Margolis, Daniel J. Ozer, and Sonja Lyubomirsky), Affective Science. 

In draft and circulating:

"Borderline consciousness: When it's neither determinately true nor determinately false that consciousness is present".

"Creating a large language model of a philosopher" (with David Schwitzgebel and Anna Strasser).

"The full rights dilemma for A.I. systems of debatable personhood" [available on request].

"Inflate and explode". (I'm trying to decide whether to trunk this one or continue revising it.)

Shorter non-fiction

"Does the heart revolt at evil? The case of racial atrocities", Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture, 38, 5-13.

"Dehumanizing the cognitively disabled: Commentary on Smith’s Making Monsters" (first author with Amelie Green), Analysis Reviews (forthcoming). 

"The nature of belief from a philosophical perspective, with theoretical and methodological implications for psychology and cognitive science", Frontiers in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.947664.  

"If we’re living in a simulation, the gods might be crazy", Slate (Jun. 25, 2022).

"Is life a simulation? If so, be very afraid", Los Angeles Times (Apr. 22, 2022).

"The COVID jerk", The Atlantic (Feb. 3, 2022).

"The best books on science fiction and philosophy", Five Books (Jan. 22, 2022).

Science fiction stories

"Let Everyone Sparkle: Psychotechnology in the Year 2067", Aeon Ideas (Apr 12).

Some favorite blog posts

"Ethical efficiencies" (Jan 13).

"The parable of the overconfident student -- and why philosophy still favors the socially privileged" (Mar 14).

"Everything is valuable" (May 6).

"Results: The computerized philosopher: Can you distinguish Daniel Dennett from a computer?" (Jul 25).

"The washout argument against longtermism" (Aug 23).

"The coming robot rights catastrophe" (Oct 27).

"Credence-first skepticism" (Nov 11).

"The moral measurement problem: Four flawed methods" (Dec 22).

Reprints and Translations

"Fish dance", reprinted in R. M. Ambrose, Vital (2022).  Inlandia Institute.

"Diversity and philosophy journals: Practices for improving diversity in philosophy journal publishing" (with Sherri Conklin and Nicole Hassoun), reprinted as an appendix to "The past 110 years: Historical data on the underrepresentation of women in philosophy journals,” by Nicole Hassoun, Sherri Conklin, Michael Nekrasov, and Jevin West, Ethics, 132, 727-729.