L. A. Paul

Transformative Experience is now available on Audible (narrated by yours truly) mysoundwise.com/soundcasts/1...

Super interesting! (Also, I am a kid at heart.)

10. We argue that kids are more likely than adults to think that radical transformation is possible. They think someone can be a "bad" person with a "bad" essence & that some social experiences can be so transformative that the person is fundamentally different on the other side.

Primer: Decision-Theoretic Paralysis In decision theory, ‘paralysis’ refers to a state of affairs where all options in a decision problem wash out to the same level of choiceworthiness.

thinking about this right now

This isn’t “romanticizing” empathy

AI is ‘beating’ humans at empathy and creativity. But these games are rigged | MJ Crockett Research pitting people against AI systems gives AI an edge by asking us to perform in machine-like ways

Guardian op ed by the brilliant MJ Crockett:

#796: L.A. Paul — On Becoming a Vampire, Whether or Not to Have Kids, Getting Incredible Mentorship for $250, Transformative Experiences, and More Podcast Episode · The Tim Ferriss Show · 02/20/2025 · 1h 42m

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/7...

I have not—I need to

www.transformative-ethics.net

Your interview of me is one of the best!

The Philosopher L. A. Paul Wants Us to Think About Our Selves To whom should we have allegiance—the version of ourself making choices, or the version of ourself who will be affected by them?

New Yorker profile is out...

Woody Allen should know

Another interesting new paper on TE: "The Psychology of Life’s Most Important Decisions," in American Psychologist, by Shahar Hechtlinger, Christin Schulze, Christina Leuker, and Ralph Hertwig.

When New Experience Leads to New Knowledge: A Computational Framework for Formalizing Epistemically Transformative Experiences Abstract. The discovery of a new kind of experience can teach an agent what that kind of experience is like. Such a discovery can be epistemically transformative, teaching an agent something they coul...

New paper on a computational approach to epistemic transformation:

SPP abstracts for the 50th Anniversary Meeting are due in one month, with a great lineup of speakers and events!