Bryan Caplan

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"Accept the common sense views that eating meat, wearing leather, animal experimentation, and casually crushing insects is fine — and that giving money to shrimp and insect charities in a world with hungry human children is silly at best." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"No matter how much I think about the issue, I still think that one human baby’s life is more morally valuable than the lives of a million wild birds. I don’t know how to convince Adelstein or Huemer, but the problem isn’t lack of vivid consideration." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"I’m doing normal moral philosophy, where you can challenge grand moral theories with pointed counterexamples. Adelstein is doing dogmatic utilitarianism, where you instantly reject all the counterexamples because they contradict your grand moral theory." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

Did you major in STEM? Are you smart enough to major in STEM?

If absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence, what *would* count as evidence of absence?

"Feminists in Korea believe they are in danger, despite living in one of the safest countries in the world. Antifeminists believe that they are suffering under an extreme form of misandry, when feminism as a movement is arguably weaker in Korea than it is in any other developed…

I tried tracking down this Dan Hamermesh video years ago but failed to find it! econ.video/2017/11/27/the…

"After studying the history of moral philosophy for years, I haven’t located a single supremely invulnerable foundational moral premise. Huemer should agree, seeing as he’s the man who made me a moral pluralist." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"We have to weigh the (nontrivial) plausibility of 'It is wrong to cause enormous suffering to build a swimming pool” against the (overwhelming) plausibility of 'It is NOT wrong to cause enormous suffering to ants to build a swimming pool.'" betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"By Adelstein's logic, exterminating all bees would be great for bees. Unfortunately, losing these pollinators would probably mean mass famine for humans. Since bees vastly outnumber humans, however, he should still consider bee extermination a net good." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"In Adelstein’s eyes, bug suffering is so horrible that the typical bug would be better off dead. Death doesn’t just end their misery, but the misery of all their descendants." betonit.ai/p/reflections-…

"The most popular heart medications top out at a few billion dollars in spending. Medicaid is a product that spends nearly $1 trillion per year. Yet most scholars responded to Oregon's null results by doubling down on their support of Medicaid." mfcannon.substack.com/p/randomized-c…

"Dramatic old guy fishes" book was fun read this morning.

Caplan as Hemingway: “I must vote, even though I will get wet standing in the rain.” “No. A man must not waste his time voting.” “But I studied the issues.” “You are not like most men.”

Stiglitz published this early paper on signaling 50 YEARS AGO! jstor.org/stable/pdf/180…

My AI “Feast or Famine” bet versus Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of @GiveWell and Open Philanthropy. betonit.ai/p/my-feast-or-…

“Bryan will strive to count ‘weird’ production not be captured in official statistics — for example, if AIs are building stuff in outer space, Bryan would still take this production into account when adjudicating the bet.” betonit.ai/p/my-feast-or-…

“Holden suspects that AI will dramatically change the global economy, but he’s undecided about whether the changes will be dramatically good or dramatically bad. In contrast, I’m skeptical that AI will do anything dramatic anytime soon.” betonit.ai/p/my-feast-or-…

Even a well-functioning DMV is a small taste of hell.

This is one of the things I tell my kids when one of their favorite celebrities has a scandal. betonit.ai/p/metoo-the-ob…