I’ve noticed that Greatplay.net lacks an about page, or any specific kind of summary of who I am what it is that I am trying to do with this website. Why does this website even exist and why should it continue to exist? Today I have set out to create a post to fix this problem and explain what the heck it is I am trying to do with this site.

I'm told I look stylish.

Who am I? I’ve never really thought of my personal life or identity that important to this blog, but I am Peter William Hurford. I attend Denison University, which is located in Granville, Ohio. At the time of this writing, I am 20, and a sophomore at Denison.

Denison is a pretty swell place. I am currently attempting to get a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science with two minors in Economics and Psychology, and a concentration in Organizational Studies.

I am also currently involved in ongoing political science research, having already published two papers. I have no official credentials. You can contact me by using this form, or by leaving a comment on any of my essays, including this one. You can see what I’m reading on my reading list.

What is this blog? The short answer is that this website is where I post everything I felt motivated to write since March 2009, which has typically tended to follow a Monday, Wednesday, Friday format with occasional missed days and complete blog vacations — a complete table of contents of these posts is available. Additionally, this website is the resting place for all of my assorted projects ranging from derelict multiplayer games and chatbots to web proxies and coin flippers. Lastly, this website also hosts my attempts at online game design, as seen in my arcade.

An Online Notebook

Why do I want a blog? Why not simply keep a diary or just not write at all? I do it for three reasons: to remember information, to organize and apply information to solve problems, and to have a creative outlet to recommend to others that can secure the benefits of discussion.

• The first reason I have a blog is that it is a good way to remember everything. Like most people who seriously study, I read a lot of books and a lot of articles on the internet. I end up constantly learning tons of new things in my quest to figure out how the world (and the people in it) work. However, like most people I also tend to forget a lot of what I learn. All too often I have too many cool ideas in my head to keep track of them all. Thus the reason to keep a written record — if I summarize some of my learning on my blog, I can go back and re-read what I wrote. My ideal blog would be a written summary of absolutely everything I learn that is worth remembering.
• The second reason I have a blog is that it is a good way to organize and apply information. It is not enough to merely have a laundry list of facts to recite on every subject, but a way to synthesize those facts into new information; to think creatively and apply knowledge to chip away at and eventually solve tough and interesting problems. Writing a blog gives me a chance to not only record thoughts, but to record thoughts in action. Writing a blog post forces me to condense information and use it to make a point, and then use multiple points to make progress on solving problems.
• The third and final (and most important) reason I have a blog is that it is a good way to have a creative outlet I can share with others and secure the benefits of discussion. When people want to hear information on a topic, I can refer them to a blog post I have written that I find relevant. I can also publish persuasive argument and use it to challenge the way others think. I also get to dialogue with others out in the open, and use their insight to improve my thinking and get challenged by their persuasion. If I receive criticism of my ideas, I can use it to further inform my own thinking, and reflect on whether I am wrong. If I am wrong, I will change my position, and then can write about it on the blog to help others and help myself. It’s far easier to solve a problem together than it would be just myself, and by keeping my thoughts private I deny myself and others this opportunity.

Building a Body of Knowledge

Another intention of mine is not to simply write an essay and then keep it in its form forever, casually moving on to another topic, but to consistently revisit old topics and update them with my best understanding. So, when I learn something new, I may end up abandoning an old theory. In the process of crafting a series of posts, I may decide that I want to rework the entire series to be more coherent. This might lead to me deleting old posts, updating them, reorganizing them, and republishing them.

I promise this won’t happen often, I will likely err on the side of publishing a new essay explaining the faults in the old essay, and I will never delete a series that is finished. I will hold a tendency to build upon existing works of mine rather than demolishing them. But still, in the case of an unfinished series that has been updated but lost its focus, I will likely demolish it and replace it with newer, more correct knowledge.

Another tactic I might use is to go back to recent posts and edit them, adding responses to objections that I didn’t know of before. Again, I promise only to do this to essays that are recently forming (published within the last month or so), and to update older essays with new essays explaining the faults.

Intellectual Interests

What is this blog used for? Now that I mentioned that this website is as a tool to develop and nurture my intellectual interests, it leads one to ask what exactly are my intellectual interests?

Currently, these intellectual questions and problems include:

1. The fundamental question of epistemology: Why do people so sharply disagree about what is true? What does truth mean? Is there any way to successfully resolve these disputes on truth? Are there any ideal methods to ascertain truth? Are there any ideal methods to share truth with others?
2. The fundamental question of political science: Why do people make the decisions and act in the specific ways that they do? How can this information be used to make better decisions?
3. The fundamental question of morality and rationality: What should we do in the life that we have? What does should mean, if anything? What is the most reliable way to do whatever it is that we should do?
4. The fundamental question of charity: Which charities are most effective and most deserving of donation? How can an individual maximize the difference he or she makes? How can we best make the world a better place? How can charity be optimized?
5. The fundamental question of economics: Which political and economic policies are most conducive to making the world a better place?
6. The fundamental question of artificial intelligence: How can we build an artificial intelligence that is capable of not just communicating, but truly thinking and reasoning on a human or even post-human level? And what does it mean to “think” or “reason” anyway? How do we determine when something has truly been “understood”?

Note that calling those questions “fundamental” is me editorializing my own opinion. However, if I figure out a way to solve all of those problems, I will die a fulfilled man.

People Praising Me!

Hamilton could have been president any time he wanted (before July 11, 1804, when Aaron Burr shot him in the liver). As commenters in this thread have pointed out, the Constitution specifically carves out a loophole for anybody born wherever who was already a U.S. citizen at the time of ratification. Which Hamilton was. This undergrad blogger unpacks the issue much more accurately than Jonathan Turley Himself did in USA Today. — Ken Jennings (July 19, 2011)

Very nice articulation of the arguments against Pascal’s Wager. — John Loftus (Nov 4, 2011)

Holy Crap Pete, You’re one sharp 19-year-old! Marvelous piece on Pascal’s Wager. You seem to have a philosophy-related cartoon for every topic. You should do youtube vids. But I can see how much you enjoy and excel at the written word. — Ed Babinski (Nov 4, 2011)

Clear and well-written: The Meaning of Morality. — Luke Muehlhauser (November 3, 2011)

I don’t know how many of you have met him yet, but Peter Hurford is a new commenter around here with a blog of his own, and from what I’ve seen so far, I would highly recommend dialoging with him on behalf of his aptitude and courtesy. He also asks good questions, the kind that get you thinking, as opposed to, say, the kind that piss you off. — cl (July 20, 2011)

I’d like to delay one more moment for the continued heaping of praise your writing, Peter. I’m fairly miserly with praise, but you’re just plain excellent at communicating clearly. It’s a great skill. I was having fun reading even while considering my prospects of an effective rebuttal rather bleak. — Bryan (January 20, 2012)

I ran across this great essay which I wanted to share because it really sums up how I feel about belief in gods and other supernatural claims. It’s written by Pete Hurford. I wish I was as smart as he is at 19 years old! He’s got a lot of other great essays on his blog as well. — Linda (November 5, 2011)

Pete has a lot of really well polished articles that are fun to read. Atheists of any age will find it an interesting read. Hope everyone takes time to stop by and say hello. This guy is sharp! — sbj1964 (August 11, 2011)

Last updated February 9, 2012.

Be Sociable, Share!

•