Viewquakes

One of the things I like the most with my job is that I learn so much. It may sound banal: of course I do, I am a researcher. But everyone who has been in academia for a while knows that it is not that self-evident after all. I especially like to experience “viewquakes” (to borrow the term of Robin Hanson) as when things dramatically change my worldview.

Today, I was again trawling through the backwaters of the transhumanist field, full of ideas by people who take, how should I put it, a mostly instrumental rather than romantic view on life. 99 per cent of them are men (I do not know why but this seems like an important factor to consider). Anyway, I managed to catch some really good ideas that I will definitely bring into the Book. Yes, that is correct, I am indeed working on a monograph which feels very good without the pressure of knowing that that book will also be my doctoral dissertation.

I am afraid the subject of today’s viewquake is a bit too big for Rawls & Me, but let's say it had something to do with the democratic implications of division of labour and the fixation with autarky among green theorists. You will see in due time.