Controversy
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 7.31.25
It is important to disagree. Lively debate is a healthy exercise in public discourse. Without dissenting points of view, we struggle to determine the truth. As presented in Greg Lukianoff’s piece observing John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty:
“in the unlikely event that you are 100% correct, you still need people to argue with you, to try to contradict you, and to try to prove you wrong. Why? Because if you never have to defend your points of view, there is a very good chance you don’t really understand them, and that you hold them the same way you would hold a prejudice or superstition. It’s only through arguing with contrary viewpoints that you come to understand why what you believe is true.”
With modern technology, we have the ability to access the vast majority of human knowledge in an instant while discussing these points of view with anyone across the globe in real time. We have never been better equipped to discover and debate opposing points of view. At the same time, it has never been easier to establish our own bespoke realities where we rarely need to interact with anyone outside of our immediate subculture.
We only follow the people we agree with and subscribe to the publications that reinforce our existing beliefs. Our algorithms learn what we like so they can feed us more of the same. We join like-minded communities, moderated by a few individuals that are empowered to kick out anyone that rocks the boat. We leverage our technology to shield ourselves from ideologies that might challenge our understanding of the world.
Often, we only interact with the radical opposition of our own beliefs when screaming past the other side to bait engagement and make fun of the absurd ideas spouted by the out-group. The animosity of these interactions has only inflamed our growing polarization.
If we truly want to expand our worldviews and collaborate across ideologies to find realistic solutions to pressing problems, we must begin to forge connections across ideological divides. Divides that have grown for decades. These are not problems we can solve overnight, but we can begin to slowly reverse the long-term course.
To solve this issue, Aemula implements bridging-based algorithms to slowly build new lines of communication between communities of readers and writers. Everyone can freely explore new perspectives in their own time, slowly branching out from their current beliefs while interacting with credible, well-reasoned content. Writers are rewarded for being able to speak to a broader audience rather than pandering to a niche, fringe belief group.
To see this in action, create a free account in seconds, check out our platform perspective map, or review our open-source recommendation and ranking algorithms. As a decentralized platform, we are governed by our community of readers as they use the platform each day. Together, we can reverse the trend of polarization and break free of the information silos in which we have become entrenched.
This week, we are highlighting posts about controversial topics. Fundamentally, Aemula is neutral platform that does not aim to promote or suppress any specific point of view. As such, we relied on X to source the hotly debated topics of the day, and selected the first Substack posts populated in our search. The highlighted quotes are simply the beginning of each post.
We encourage you to explore the work of each writer, share your thoughts on each topic, and consider subscribing to support these writers directly!
A Red Team Climate Report
Published by The Honest Broker, written by Roger Pielke Jr., a political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado whose long-standing work at the intersection of science, policy, and politics now drives a widely read newsletter committed to independent analysis, open debate, and intellectual pluralism.
“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new assessment of climate science written by five scientists who have long-argued that climate science assessments have overlooked key issues.
The report — A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate — was released yesterday accompanying the Trump Administration’s announcement that it was reconsidering the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases.
While the authors do not use this terminology, I’m calling this report a “red team” report because it explicitly seeks to challenge aspects of climate science and policy in order to motivate debate and discussion. One of the report’s authors, Steve Koonin, has long argued for a “red team” approach for improving climate science assessments.”
The Tyranny of the Trivial
Published by A Lily Bit, written by Lily, an independent writer who investigates globalism, elite power structures, and the hidden dynamics shaping international affairs, offering historical context and critical analysis beyond surface narratives.
“In the summer of 2025, American civilization reached a peculiar meltdown: a nation of 335 million souls found itself convulsed in ideological warfare over an actress in denim making a pun about genetics. The Sydney Sweeney American Eagle controversy represents far more than marketing genius or social media hysteria—it constitutes a diagnostic moment revealing the profound intellectual bankruptcy of our contemporary discourse on both sides and the weaponization of meaning itself.”
Suddenly, Trait-Based Embryo Selection
Published by Astral Codex Ten, written by Scott Alexander, whose writing first came to prominence through the blog Slate Star Codex, where Meditations on Moloch became an often referenced piece in Ethereum subculture, previously featured in our spotlights “Progress” and “Life Imitates AI Art”.
“In 2021, Genomic Prediction announced the first polygenically selected baby.
When a couple uses IVF, they may get as many as ten embryos. If they only want one child, which one do they implant? In the early days, doctors would just eyeball them and choose whichever looked healthiest. Later, they started testing for some of the most severe and easiest-to-detect genetic disorders like Down Syndrome and cystic fibrosis1. The final step was polygenic selection - genotyping each embryo and implanting the one with the best genes overall.”
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