Conor McCammon
Stories (10/0)
The White House by the Sea
What will become of the world, little one? How will we make and unmake things Until they are strange and new? * They lived in the white house on the outcrop by the sea. The wind was always blowing and the days were always a half-darkness of dense grey clouds, syltasi’va in the tongue of their grandmother. Always, the clouds.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Fiction
Worshipping False Gods
When I first started studying philosophy, I went deep. I realised that all of my cherished beliefs and ethical convictions could be incoherent, unjustified, delusional, even morally bad. I went into studying ethics with an open mind. More open than any of my classmates I suspect. Of course, to appropriate Eliezer Yudkowsky, there is more than one rationalist virtue. Merely being maximally open to changing one’s mind and considering arguments at face value isn’t enough (although it’s a wonderful start). Because it led me to views that I can now safely describe as the convictions of a supervillain. At one point I was a negative utilitarian so extreme that, if presented with a button that would destroy the universe, then I would unilaterally and without flinching hit it.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in The Swamp
Utopia Part 2
Continued from Part 1. It’s easy to smirk at my friend’s final comment, especially if you consider yourself a futurist. But it represents a common phenomenon, even amongst very clever people. And after all, why on earth should we spend any time thinking about what we want the world to look like in a hundred years? It would seem to make sense to focus on our current problems, and only worry about the next five to ten years or so.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Futurism
Magical Thinking, Mundanical Thinking
We’re all familiar with the problem of magical thinking. Magical thinking is generally used to refer to superstitious beliefs which ignore basic things like causation or evidence. But we can expand the definition slightly, to encompass any belief which ignores reason or evidence in favour of something nice, or comforting, or optimistic. (This is sometimes called wishful thinking but I irrationally like the feel of ‘magical’ as a cover-all term). A good example of this is the belief that human history will necessarily turn out well; that it is inconceivable for humanity to drive ourselves extinct or otherwise royally screw-up our future. In many cases it can involve a kind of positive fatalism: “things will turn out okay”, “God has a Plan”, or “lots of bad things like extreme poverty have been decreasing for a long time so things will probably just keep getting better and we don’t need to worry too much about existential risks” (looking at you Steven Pinker). Magical thinking often involves a poorly considered, naive optimism that spares the details in favour of fantasy.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Psyche
tempestas
It was a murky Thursday evening and Morris Mendelsen was hoping to be struck by lightning. The storm had rolled in yesterday, a wash of eggshell thunder-cracks and pissing rain, tearing the sheets off his clothesline with a kind of divine apathy. He had waded into the gardenia bushes to untangle now sopping pillowcases, startling a gang of magpies that had been sitting on the fence in the downpour. They took to the air, cawing indignantly in his general direction. His jacket was tissue-paper soaked almost immediately, the wet worming its way into his socks and up his sleeves as he scrabbled in the branches. He was just scooping up the last towel when a wink of brilliant light had made him look up.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Fiction
Carnivorous Vegans
Today, vegans are a small but dedicated group who, despite market pressure, make morally driven consumption decisions. That is, they allow a moral principle to guide their purchases and consumption over personal utility. Of course, some vegans just hate the taste of meat or are vegans for health reasons. But the vegans that I’m talking about specifically are Moral Vegans. Be it about rights, welfare, or the environment, Moral Vegans are stubbornly principled in the face of social conventions and economic influences. They often pay more for vegan alternatives, and are relatively marginalised in the marketplace (although a fairly robust niche for vegan alternatives has definitely emerged in the last few years). They remain stoic: they're in the right, and everyone else is making a terrible consumptive mistake.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Futurism
The T-Rex Buried in Your Backyard
When you’re a kid, you hear that you’re going to be an adult someday. But you don’t know it, not really. Because when you’re a kid, time stands still. Do you remember how long the space between Christmases used to be? That’s because time works differently for kids. They live in their own little eternity.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Confessions
Utopia Part 1
I have a friend who is very smart (this is an important detail). We both love talking about politics and so we have a long back-catalogue of passionate conversations. But a few years ago during one of these conversations I was struck by something which stuck with me.
By Conor McCammon3 years ago in Futurism