Gary David O’Brien
Biographic Data
| ID | 6559057 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gary David O’Brien |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gary David |
| FAMILY NAME | O’Brien |
| SIGNATURE | O’BRIEN G D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8528-5724 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 6 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 6 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Exploring Repro‐Timing Harm and Benefit
It is plausible that time of birth affects one's prospects for wellbeing. Being born during a war or recession might have a negative impact on early life and lifetime wellbeing. In natural reproduction, delaying conception does not result in the same child being born later, but rather a different child altogether; therefore, prospective parents cannot harm/benefit their children by choosing their time of birth. However, we argue that for prospect…
All Play and No Work? AI and Existential Unemployment
Recent developments in large language models and image generation software raise the possibility that AI systems might one day replace humans in some of the intrinsically valuable work through which humans find meaning in their lives – work like scientific and philosophical research and the creation of art. If AIs can do this work more efficiently than humans, this might make human performance of these activities pointless. This represents a thre…
Bully for You? Breed-Specific Legislation and Dangerous Dog Breeds
The UK has seen a significant increase in the number of fatal dog attacks on humans in the last few years. A breed of dog called the American Bully has been involved in more than half of them. This has led the UK government to ban the breed. Several cities and counties in North America have also enacted bans on pit bulls. These policies are instances of ‘Breed Specific Legislation” (BSL). In this paper I investigate the ethics of BSL. I argue tha…
Totalism, Animals, and the Repugnant Conclusion
Totalism states that one population is better than another iff it has higher total welfare. One counterintuitive consequence is the Repugnant Conclusion (RC). Totalism also entails that a very large population of animals with lives barely worth living is better than a smaller population of happier humans. Furthermore, the strategies that have been used to avoid the troubling normative implications of the RC do not work in the animal case, so we m…
Directed Panspermia, Wild Animal Suffering, and the Ethics of World‐Creation
Directed panspermia is the deliberate seeding of lifeless planets with microbes, in the hopes that, over evolutionary timescales, they will give rise to a complex self‐sustaining biosphere on the target planet. Due to the immense distances and timescales involved, human beings are unlikely ever to see the fruits of their labours. Such missions must therefore be justified by appeal to values independent of human wellbeing. In this article, I inves…
The Definition of Consequentialism
There are different meanings associated with consequentialism and teleology. This causes confusion, and sometimes results in discussions based on misunderstandings rather than on substantial disagreements. To clarify this, we created a survey on the definitions of ‘consequentialism’ and ‘teleology’, which we sent to specialists in consequentialism. We broke down the different meanings of consequentialism and teleology into four component parts: O…
The Definition of Consequentialism
There are different meanings associated with consequentialism and teleology. This causes confusion, and sometimes results in discussions based on misunderstandings rather than on substantial disagreements. To clarify this, we created a survey on the definitions of ‘consequentialism’ and ‘teleology’, which we sent to specialists in consequentialism. We broke down the different meanings of consequentialism and teleology into four component parts: O…
Directed Panspermia, Wild Animal Suffering, and the Ethics of World‐Creation
Directed panspermia is the deliberate seeding of lifeless planets with microbes, in the hopes that, over evolutionary timescales, they will give rise to a complex self‐sustaining biosphere on the target planet. Due to the immense distances and timescales involved, human beings are unlikely ever to see the fruits of their labours. Such missions must therefore be justified by appeal to values independent of human wellbeing. In this article, I inves…
The Definition of Consequentialism
There are different meanings associated with consequentialism and teleology. This causes confusion, and sometimes results in discussions based on misunderstandings rather than on substantial disagreements. To clarify this, we created a survey on the definitions of ‘consequentialism’ and ‘teleology’, which we sent to specialists in consequentialism. We broke down the different meanings of consequentialism and teleology into four component parts: O…
Totalism, Animals, and the Repugnant Conclusion
Totalism states that one population is better than another iff it has higher total welfare. One counterintuitive consequence is the Repugnant Conclusion (RC). Totalism also entails that a very large population of animals with lives barely worth living is better than a smaller population of happier humans. Furthermore, the strategies that have been used to avoid the troubling normative implications of the RC do not work in the animal case, so we m…
All Play and No Work? AI and Existential Unemployment
Recent developments in large language models and image generation software raise the possibility that AI systems might one day replace humans in some of the intrinsically valuable work through which humans find meaning in their lives – work like scientific and philosophical research and the creation of art. If AIs can do this work more efficiently than humans, this might make human performance of these activities pointless. This represents a thre…
Bully for You? Breed-Specific Legislation and Dangerous Dog Breeds
The UK has seen a significant increase in the number of fatal dog attacks on humans in the last few years. A breed of dog called the American Bully has been involved in more than half of them. This has led the UK government to ban the breed. Several cities and counties in North America have also enacted bans on pit bulls. These policies are instances of ‘Breed Specific Legislation” (BSL). In this paper I investigate the ethics of BSL. I argue tha…
Exploring Repro‐Timing Harm and Benefit
It is plausible that time of birth affects one's prospects for wellbeing. Being born during a war or recession might have a negative impact on early life and lifetime wellbeing. In natural reproduction, delaying conception does not result in the same child being born later, but rather a different child altogether; therefore, prospective parents cannot harm/benefit their children by choosing their time of birth. However, we argue that for prospect…
Economics (3 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Evolution and Science Education (2 works) · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations (2 works) · Philosophical Ethics and Theory (2 works) · Psychology (2 works) · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics (2 works) · Sociology (2 works)