Patrick Riordan: Common Goods and AI

When someone like me from an older generation is confronted with a new piece of technology, inevitably we must turn to a younger person for help. What is described as ‘user friendly’ is usually so only to those who are already familiar with the ways of the machines. ‘Well, they have grown up with the...

Neil Jordan: The Obesity Market: A Question of Character?

Are drugs like semaglutide a quick fix, or might they be opportunities to practise virtue? Obesity is thought to affect over 800 million adults worldwide and according to the World Health Organisation, has tripled since 1975. Indeed, estimates are that half of the world’s population will be overweight or obese by 2035 and very few...

Neil Jordan: Artificial General Intelligence and Reasoning

Reasoning Robots It was announced recently that developers of artificial intelligence models at Meta are working on the next stage of ‘artificial general intelligence’, with a view to eliminating mistakes and moving closer to human-level cognition. This will allow chatbots and virtual assistants to complete sequences of related tasks and was described as the beginning...

Neil Jordan: The Moral Argument(s) against Driverless Cars

On Saturday, February 10th, in Chinatown in San Francisco, a crowd of people attacked and burnt a driverless car operated by Waymo (Google’s self-driving car project). This represents an escalation of activism against autonomous vehicles led by a group calling itself the Safe Street Rebels, who generally seek to disable driverless cars by placing a...

Lyndon Drake: Virtues of Growth and Restraint

In this final article, I will draw from two stories in the Bible that will be well-known to many readers, to give an example of how those who read the Bible as scripture can draw from those stories in developing modern economic ethics. The first story is of the Garden of Eden, and of the...

Lyndon Drake: The Task of Modern Economic Ethics

As I suggested in my previous article, my preferred way to read the biblical texts is to identify in them a particular kind of method, rather than precise prescriptions. In this article, I will suggest some specific aspects of method in modern, theologically-informed economic ethics. Above all, I suggest that we give attention to human...

Lyndon Drake: Types of Creativity in Biblical Texts

One way to approach biblical texts is to read them as if they prescribe economic medicine for modern social maladies. For example, Paul Mills argues that an appropriate and devout appreciation of the Jubilee of Leviticus 25 will result in the construction of an economic system where no interest is charged on debts. This has...

CEME Video Podcast: Interview with Andrew Lilico

Join us for this episode of the CEME video podcast where our host Graeme Leach interviews Dr Andrew Lilico. Dr Andrew Lilico is Executive Director and Principal of Europe Economics. He has over 15 years’ experience of providing expert economic advice to clients around the world. Andrew has previously been the Chief Economist of Policy...