As a student I was convinced advances in the hard sciences, such as physics, were what was driving improvements in human lives over recent centuries and that the soft sciences, such as sociology, were likely too difficult to tackle with the intellectual tools we have available. As I studied the process and institutions of science, I became aware of the problems that can arise even in the hard sciences and that there in fact are extremely useful and reliable results in the soft sciences.

In my early 20s I was convinced by those arguing existential risk was a neglected area of extreme importance. I was dismayed at what seemed very important gaps in our knowledge in relevant fields. I was very concerned by the following observation: There has been no such thing as an immortal human society. They were all eventually destroyed or transformed beyond recognition, not always for the better. I think there are strong arguments that the end of our current society would likely entail human extinction. I work on figuring out whether this is likely. Related areas of study are institutional design and institutional epistemology.