The unfinished fable of the sparrows

A flock of sparrows once decided life would be easier with an owl in the nest. One of them asked them to learn how to live with it first. The rest had already gone looking for an egg.

That scene is the opening of Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence, posted on the OUPblog in August 2014 as “The unfinished fable of the sparrows.” The sparrows want help with the hard work. The careful bird wants a plan before the owl arrives. Almost nobody stays to write the plan.

OwlOWL is the pause in that story. The name is the owl the flock is in a hurry to raise, and the few birds who remain on the branch. This page is the perch: the fable, the contract, and one place to talk.

Nothing here is the book, and nothing here is Oxford University Press. Read Bostrom’s fable on the OUPblog. What this page adds is a contract address and a Twitter account.

Inspired by the chestnut-sparrow header on the original OUPblog post. Illustration on this page is original.