Why did you write your essay?

We are in a place where, in some sense, we’ve lost the ability to do any thinking about complicated problems. Most of the important problems in the world are complex. If you can’t engage about complex problems in a balanced way, how do we solve them?

But is this really that complicated?

Joi seems to me to have genuinely believed, after doing really extensive due diligence, that the guy was terrified of the world coming down on top of him if he crossed the line — that he wasn’t going to cross the line of pedophilia. Now, that doesn’t mean he was going to get into a monogamous relationship with a 45-year-old woman for the rest of his life, but it was plausible that he was not going to be sleeping with — trying to seduce — 16-year-olds and 14-year-olds.

And then on the basis of that judgment, Joi continues to work with M.I.T. to bring in money that’s not going to be identified. Because it’s not identified, he’s not whitewashing Epstein’s reputation with M.I.T. That seems to be a virtue, not a vice.

Why do you think Epstein was donating to the Media Lab?

What I’m sure of is that he wasn’t donating for the reasons that the Kochs give money. It’s not like he benefited from the science going one way or the other.

O.K., but why was Epstein donating?

When Joi would recount who he was, I think Epstein genuinely had an interest in certain science and wanted certain science to be advanced. I think he wanted to be close to the advancement of that science.

When Joi had been convinced that, you know, this is not an ongoing criminal, I think Joi was open to what might have been interesting about him and his, you know, his talents. And I remember, when he described that to me, thinking, “Boy, I just wouldn’t be able to get there.” Because of my background, I can’t see beyond it. But I’m not everybody, and I could see it differently for others.