The contemporary effective altruism movement seeks to transform philanthropy in two ways: 1) by directing philanthropy to the most important objectives, and 2) by ensuring that philanthropic dollars ...

I've got a new article in the New Yorker this week about the persistent paradox of altruism. It's subscription only, but here's the beginning: The vampire bat emerges from its cave at the darkest hour ...

February 2 marks the birth of one of the most praised and vilified writers of the past century — Ayn Rand, who sold over 30 million books. This makes it an appropriate time to reconsider her ...

This article was featured in New York’s One Great Story newsletter. Sign up here. In 2022, Itsi Weinstock moved to the Bay Area to join a synthetic-cheese start-up. A machine-learning scientist from ...

Hamilton's rule, introduced in the 1960s, says that altruism—helping others at your own expense—can evolve when the benefits to others, multiplied by how closely related they are to you, outweigh the ...

It is one of the unfortunate truisms of the human condition that there is hardly a good idea, noble impulse, or sound suggestion that can't be (and isn't eventually) adopted and bastardized by zealots ...

Altruism is the greatest hidden and apparent ornament. It is a sign of one’s firm belief and strong trust in what the Most Beneficent has provided him. It is a mark of loving one’s brothers, and proof ...

There are many definitions out there for what constitutes “true” artificial intelligence, but a single quality underlies them ...

Nature is full of animals helping each other out. A classic example is meerkat cooperation. When the group is foraging for food, one individual will head to a vantage point and keep watch for ...

On 21st Street, between L and K, there is a homeless man who sits perched atop his small pile of possessions, observing, with a kind of detached curiosity, Washington’s harried pedestrians. I pass him ...