What in the world is the problem?
A Substack newsletter
In this substack newsletter, I consider the issues at the root of many of the biggest problems our world faces, and how we can start to address these issues.
The Healing Pathways
A website & Substack newsletter
A website and newsletter that walk through my recovery process from long covid and many other chronic health conditions. Understanding how our nervous systems work may be at the root of healing a number of chronic health conditions.
Mag10 Consulting
A consulting firm
Through this consultancy, I have had to opportunity to work with some incredible nonprofits and other organizations as they try to address some of the world’s biggest problems. My clients have included the IEEE-SA, the Future of Life Institute (FLI), the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED), and many others.
Other Projects
Below is a small selection of other projects I’ve worked on over the years that I was most proud of, most enjoyed, and/or are most reflective of the range of my work.
The ethical and technical challenges of AI
I’ve been working on ethical and governance challenges around artificial intelligence for about a decade now, and much of that work has focused on the use of AI in the military.
Most recently: I led two projects for the IEEE-SA on addressing the ethical and technical challenges of autonomous weapons systems; I’m an expert member with the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain; I’m a consultant with the Institute for Defense Analyses on the DARPA ASIMOV project; and I will be teaching a course on computing, ethics and society in the fall.
Not Cool: A Climate Podcast
I originally launched the Future of Life Podcast, which has now been ongoing with other hosts for nearly a decade. It was an amazing opportunity, I interviewed so many brilliant people, and I learned so much. The culmination of my time with that podcast was the creation of “Not Cool: A Climate Podcast.” As part of that series, I interviewed 31 climate scientists for 26 episodes, covering as many facets of the environmental crisis as I could.
The series is old by modern standards, but the science and information are still just as relevant as ever, and perhaps more so. Looking back at this now, I realize that this is truly a master class in climate science and understanding the impacts of climate change.
How to get involved in nuclear weapons advocacy
Throughout my time at the Future of Life Institute, I worked closely with a large number of prominent and smaller organizations who were working toward the abolishment of nuclear weapons. Yet for as much effort as these organizations put into public outreach, most people never knew about these organizations and the work they were doing, and/or people had no clue how to get meaningfully involved in anti-nuclear efforts.
When I left FLI, I continued to work with them as a consultant, partnering with about 25 anti-nuclear organizations to highlight the work the organizations were doing, inform people about the threats of nuclear weapons, and provide ideas and opportunity for members of the public to be more actively involved. The result was the website, www.nuclearweapons.info.
What you didn’t know about earthquakes
Before I got into existential risks and global catastrophic risks and the ethics around technologies that could destroy the world, I studied earthquakes. But not just any earthquakes. I studied “intraplate” earthquakes. These are the earthquakes that can occur anywhere in the world, even in places without known faults.
My own research looked at the earthquakes that were triggered by wastewater disposal wells from hydrofracking. I also created the website for the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory. It’s not the fanciest website you’ve ever seen, but I wanted to try my hand at building website from scratch using just HTML and CSS, and this was it. I also wrote most of the content, and it’s a good website if you want to learn about intraplate earthquakes.
Highlights of my speaking engagements
These are some of my favorite speaking opportunities, not only for the honor of being invited to speak, but also because of how much I learned at the events.