About Me
I am Professor of Philosophy at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
I've been busy over the past almost thirty years exploring the ethical implications of technological change, and the ways in which genetic and cybernetic technologies may alter us. Recently I've been very busy writing about the coronavirus pandemic.
Latest
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
A piece for the ABC that recounts an embarrassing and expensive error with digital tech and uses it to highlight a very profitable digital tech business model that exploits human cognitive frailty.
How tech co-opted the philosophical debate about human enhancement
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
A piece for the ABC that calls out the suborning of the philosophy of human enhancement by tech and money.
Too much information, too little time: Why conspiracy theories appeal to the time-poor
How exploiting confusion about digital tech became an enormously profitable business strategy — and what can be done to stop it
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
A piece on the ABC that explores a conjecture about increasing levels of time-poverty and the rise of conspiracy thinking.
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
A piece with the ABC that calls out the politicians' habit of always trying to look on the bright side of advice about the pandemic. Boris Johnson is the worst offender. Australia can put its recent disappointments about Omicron down do political bright-siding of scientific advice.
We need more philosophy to create cognitive herd immunity
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
We need more philosophy to create cognitive herd immunity
Achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 requires more than vaccines. It requires cognitive herd immunity.
Finding Purpose in the Humanities
COVID-19 reminds us why we should be wary of politicians bright-siding scientific advice
We need more philosophy to create cognitive herd immunity
A piece on Project Syndicate. With policymakers intent on privileging technical “job-ready” majors, it is becoming more difficult for liberal arts departments to attract students. But these fields of study are as important as ever, and with a few modest reforms, they should be an easy sell for today’s “purpose-driven” young people.
Beware the Wikipedia effect in higher education
Never mind the naysayers — let’s start listening to the “silent majority” about vaccines
Beware the Wikipedia effect in higher education
This piece on the ABC uses ideas from the behavioural economist Dan Ariely to point to a threat for the in-depth understanding characteristic of the humanities from Wikipedia's knowledge-for-free business model.
Confessions of a philosophical shit-stirrer
Never mind the naysayers — let’s start listening to the “silent majority” about vaccines
Beware the Wikipedia effect in higher education
A follow up to this piece on the vice of philosophical shit-stirring. And a bit of a mea culpa for past shit-stirring.
Never mind the naysayers — let’s start listening to the “silent majority” about vaccines
Never mind the naysayers — let’s start listening to the “silent majority” about vaccines
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
A piece on the ABC that suggests we focus more on the knowledge that most of us have acquired about vaccines than on the angry minority who haven't been paying attention.
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
Piece on the ABC in which I discuss the difficult choices about whether and how to vaccinate against COVID-19 that Australians confront. I offer a warning about the future of ‘flu vaccination.
The Inflection Pointillists
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
The Inflection Pointillists
A piece in the Los Angeles Review of Books written with Stuart Whatley that challenges popular beliefs about exponential improvement as the solution to pretty much everything.
The Dream Economy
The paradox of choice: How Australia’s vaccine rollout provides a warning for the future of the flu
The Inflection Pointillists
A piece in the Los Angeles Review of Books written with Stuart Whatley that deflates some of the hype that turns tech visionaries into multibillionaires.