Fabio Tollon

Nudging, Big Data, And Well-Being

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here. We often make bad choices. We eat sugary foods too often, we don’t save enough for retirement, and we don’t get enough exercise. Helpfully, the modern world presents us with a plethora of ways to overcome these weaknesses of our will.Continue reading “Nudging, Big Data, And Well-Being”

The ‘Soft’ Impacts of Emerging Technology

This article was originally published in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here. Getting a handle on the various ways that technology influences us is as important as it is difficult. The media is awash with claims of how this or that technology will either save us or doom us. And in some cases,Continue reading “The ‘Soft’ Impacts of Emerging Technology”

Virtue Ethics, Technology, and the Situationist Challenge

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here. In a previous article I argued that, when it comes to our moral appraisal of emerging technologies, the best normative framework to use is that of virtue ethics. The reasons for this were that virtue ethics succeeds in ways that consequentialist or deontologicalContinue reading “Virtue Ethics, Technology, and the Situationist Challenge”

Virtue Ethics and Emerging Technology

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here In 2007 Wesley Autrey noticed a young man, Cameron Hollopeter, having a seizure on a subway station in Manhattan. Autrey borrowed a pen and used it to keep Hollopeter’s jaw open. After the seizure, Hollopeter stumbled and fell from the platformContinue reading “Virtue Ethics and Emerging Technology”

Does AI Need Free Will To Be Held Responsible?

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here) We have always been a technological species. From the use of basic tools to advanced new forms of social media, we are creatures who do not just live in the world but actively seek to change it. However, we now liveContinue reading “Does AI Need Free Will To Be Held Responsible?”

A Neoliberal COP-out

(This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here) From a heat dome in North America, people drowning in their basements in New York, and a climate famine in Madagascar, you would think we would have started to take the climate crisis seriously. This is to say nothing of the volumes ofContinue reading “A Neoliberal COP-out”

Epistemic Freedom

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily, see here). An easy way to ruin any conversation is to start talking about philosophy. An easier way to do so is to mention free will. The issue of free will (whether we have it, if it is compatible with determinism, whether itContinue reading “Epistemic Freedom”

Justification And The Value-Free Ideal In Science

This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily (see here). One of the cornerstones good of science is that its results furnish us with an objective understanding of the world. That is, science, when done correctly, tells us how the world is, independently of how we might feel the world to beContinue reading “Justification And The Value-Free Ideal In Science”

Irrationality, Artificial Intelligence, and the Climate Crisis

This article was originally published in the Monday Magazine of 3 Quarks Daily (see here). Human beings are rather silly creatures. Some of us cheer billionaires into space while our planet burns. Some of us think vaccines cause autism, that the earth is flat, that anthropogenic climate change is not real, that COVID-19 is aContinue reading “Irrationality, Artificial Intelligence, and the Climate Crisis”

Should We Disregard The Norms Of Assertion In Inter-Scientific Discourse? A Response To A False Dilemma

by George Barimah, Ina Gawel, David Stoellger, and Fabio Tollon* This article originally appeared in the Monday Magazine at 3 Quarks Daily (see here). When thinking about the claims made by scientists you would be forgiven for assuming that such claims ought to be true, justified, or at the very least believed by the scientists themselves.Continue reading “Should We Disregard The Norms Of Assertion In Inter-Scientific Discourse? A Response To A False Dilemma”