This is the sixth bimonthly 'What are you working On?' thread. Previous threads are here. So here's the question:
What are you working on?
Here are some guidelines:
- Focus on projects that you have recently made progress on, not projects that you're thinking about doing but haven't started.
- Why this project and not others? Mention reasons why you're doing the project and/or why others should contribute to your project (if applicable).
- Talk about your goals for the project.
- Any kind of project is fair game: personal improvement, research project, art project, whatever.
- Link to your work if it's linkable.
I'm currently working on several FAQs/overviews.
I'm reading Benatar's Better Never To Have Been and I noticed that the actual arguments for categorical antinatalism aren't as strong as I thought and seem to hinge on either a pessimistic view of technological progress (which might well be justified) or confusions about identity and personhood. But I'm currently confused about the relevant philosophy, so I'm collecting the arguments and justifications, and will turn this basically into an antinatalism FAQ and reference. A lot of people seem to dismiss Benatar without actually reading him, so writing a more accurate overview of his and related arguments might help.
Of more questionable importance, I'm also finally writing an Early Christianity FAQ. I'm working through Price's work on the New Testament and have a hard time keeping all the different characters and weird theories straight, so I'm writing an overview from a perspective of higher criticism. It seems to me that a lot of good insights in the field are too strongly compartmentalized, so just getting them all into one place should make things clearer. It's mostly for my own use, though, and intended as supplement material for my own crackpot theories, but it's a lot of fun.
I'm also writing/researching an introduction to Solomonoff Induction etc. and hope to get my first draft of a (German) student paper done by the end of the year. I'll probably write a less formal (English) version at the same time. I can't think without writing, so I basically get a rough draft for free and might as well clean it up a little. (However, I have abandoned overviews before once I understood everything and got bored, so yeah.)
(I'm also working on a student project about performance estimates of embedded systems, but I'm kinda tired of SystemC and wrestling with weird platforms. Should've stayed with that theology degree after all.)
I don't think this is true. Benatar's position is that any being that ever suffers is harmed by being created. This is not something that technological progress is very likely to relieve. Or are you thinking of some sort of wireheading?
That sounds like an interesting criticism.