Epistemic status: Speculation from two decently informed advocates armed with anecdata.
Note on process: After having some version of this conversation several times and saying, “we should probably write about this publicly,” we took the less heroic route: we recorded one of our conversations, fed the transcript into an LLM, and then substantially revised the structure, substance, and framing ourselves. We will not be sharing the transcript, as it is in...
TLDR: Take the population ethics quiz here: https://mdickens.me/pop-ethics/
Population ethics is an oft-overlooked subfield within ethics. Many people hold views that they don't realize contradict each other, or that have strange implications that they wouldn't endorse if they thought about it more.
Not just that—population ethics is a BIG DEAL. A lot of ethical decisions hinge on how you think about changes in future populations....
Headline finding: I audited 17 AI Safety Talent programmes. Zero of 17 have published any comparison group, rejected-applicant follow-up, matched control or randomisation. Not one. Every programme that mentions a counterfactual does it by asking participants to self-report.
Background
At least $70 million...
“In Texas cattle country, ranchers brace for flesh-eating screwworms”
Second and third Reuters front-page articles I’ve seen on the issue in the last few months.
I suspect funding and openness to new solutions may increase in response to this growing problem, which could create opportunities for projects like Screwworm-Free Future.
https://www.reuters.com/world/texas-cattle-country-ranchers-brace-flesh-eating-screwworms-2025-08-15/
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/mexican-ranchers-hit-by-flesh-eating-screwworm-want-action-cattle-smuggling-2025-08-15/
Updated with second article, which I didn’t originally notice.
And another today, this one an exclusive article about the first travel-associated human case in the U.S. connected to the outbreak. My impression is that it isn't realistically possible for these screwworms to cause a human outbreak in this context, but I think the human cases that will arise from this outbreak could be a compelling part of a broader narrative about its welfare costs and the urgency to control it.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-confirms-nations-first-travel-associated-human-screwworm-case-connected-2025-08-25/