I’m Joe Carlsmith. I’m a senior research analyst at Open Philanthropy, where I focus on existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence. I also write independently about various topics in philosophy and futurism, and I have a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford.
The essays on this substack are cross-posted from my website, joecarlsmith.com. I’ve also added some favorites from my old blog, Hands and Cities, to get things started.
Much of my work is about trying to help us orient wisely towards humanity’s long-term future. I see this work as fitting a loose logical structure, with questions about meta-ethics and rationality at the foundation, feeding into questions about ethics (and especially about effective altruism), which motivate concern for the long-term future, which motivates attention to advanced artificial intelligence in particular – and a further strand of my work (what I’m calling the “crazy train” strand) grapples with some of the stranger places that further philosophical reflection of this broad sort can lead. I also sometimes write about topics in the philosophy of mind, and about other aspects of my overall existential/spiritual orientation (death, evil, clinging, innocence).
Twitter: @jkcarlsmith
Opinions my own, not speaking on behalf of my employer.
See here for audio versions of some of the essays, or search “Joe Carlsmith Audio” on your podcast app.
