Current Projects

Ethics of AI/Emerging Technologies

My current work in this area focuses on two questions.

First, I'm exploring the ethics of predictive algorithmic systems, particularly in the military context. Specifically, I'm interested in the extent to which the outputs of these systems constitute a relevant sort of evidence—and if so, whether this suffices to justify the actions undertaken by the operators who rely on these systems. 

Second, I am interested in the broad question of when reliance on AI systems goes from being impermissible, to permissible, to obligatory. The question, ultimately, is: when is the morally right time to deploy and rely on AI systems? This question is more complicated than it seems at first glance, in part because it relies on a host of controversial assumptions, both empirical and ethical.

The Ethics of Travel

There are myriad ethical and political issues arising from mass tourism, and philosophers have largely ignored them. My current focus in this area is on how cultural tourism harms the very culture it ostensibly aims to celebrate. But I am also working on a broader series of topics surrounding mass tourism, such as whether people have a (pro tanto) right to visit beautiful and important sites of cultural heritage; whether the cognitive value of travel is sufficient to justify the harms; and how we ought to understand the political significance of tourism.

Ethics of War/Military Ethics

I have several papers on issues in military ethics. Much of my current focus in this area concerns military AI, which I already noted above. I have other papers I'm shopping around on topics like: partiality in war—both among people, and with respect to sites and items of cultural heritage; the lack of viewpoint diversity in the military—particularly, from progressive voices—and the extent to which this problem can be solved; the intersection of deterrence, proportionality, and intervening agency; and a very long paper arguing that much of the Israeli military's actions throughout the Gaza War have been unjust.  

Ethics of Enhancement

I have a few somewhat related papers in progress in bioethics, mostly on issues surrounding enhancement.

In a forthcoming book chapter, I argue for mandatory soldier enhancement, and explore a few of the theoretical limits to this principle.

I also have a paper that explores the possibility of an enhancements to bypass the grieving period. And I argue for the (apparently unpopular) view that, while grief does indeed have value, opting for such an enhancement is not a moral failing. This, I think, highlights the fact that grief has merely a sort of conditional value—which might tell us something about the relationship between pharmacological enhancements and the value of the emotions they affect.

I am also working on a monograph that argues in a more systematic way that people have a right to modify their bodies—and in general, doctors should be permitted (legally, professionally, ethically) to assist them.

Other Stuff

I am also writing two 'creative' pieces related to philosophical themes. The first is a longform reflection on my experiences in the straight edge scene in my late teens/early-twenties, and how, despite my not being straight edge anymore, I nevertheless see a compelling prudential, aesthetic, and moral argument for zero-threshold/abstinence-based counter-cultural social identities, like Straight Edge. I am also writing a longform dialogue, in a style similar to John Perry's dialogues on personal identity, examining the arguments for and against medical assistance in dying.

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In my dissertation, I defended a modest form of national partiality in war, which has important implications for the central moral constraints governing both entering into war (jus ad bellum) and conduct within war (jus in bello). This was the topic of my dissertation, National Partiality and War, which I defended in 2019. Click here to download the full dissertation.