About


Keynote Presentation at W-JAX, Munich

Who am I?
I like to imagine, navigate and analyse the future of humanity. I am currently an academic and lecturer at the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway. I teach in the School of Law. I am also an affiliate scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

My research deals primarily with the ethical, social and legal implications of emerging technologies, but dances around some other philosophical topics. In the past I have written papers about social robots, the risks of advanced AI, the meaning of life and the future of work, the ethics of human enhancement, the intersection between law and neuroscience, the utility of brain-based lie detection, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of religion.


What academic work have I done?
If you would like to learn more about my academic work, see here or here or here. Below are (open access) links to a sample of my academic papers:





What is this blog about?
The purpose of this blog is to share, explain and comment on various philosophical articles and books that I read; to share occasional ideas that I have; and to present my own academic work to a wider audience. The content is fairly eclectic. I've been known to discuss robotics, human enhancement, death, the meaning of life, metaethics, applied ethics, free will and responsibility, game theory and the philosophy of religion. So there's something for nearly everybody.

To get a sense of what I write about, check out the 'Best of' page. Here are some of my more popular series of posts to get you started:


If you enjoy the content here, you might like to subscribe to the monthly newsletter. You might also enjoy the podcast I do.

Finally, here's a video of a talk I once gave about the ethics of sex robots.