Episode 73
How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of
Crazy Town · Post Carbon Institute
May 17, 20231h 3m
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Show Notes
Meet William MacAskill, the puerile professor who helps crypto capitalists justify sociopathy today for a universe of transhuman colonization tomorrow. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Andrew Anthony, "William MacAskill: 'There are 80 trillion people yet to come. They need us to start protecting them'," The Guardian, August 21, 2022.
- Guiding Principles of the Centre for Effective Altruism
- Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence and Morality," givingwhatwecan.org.
- Sarah Pessin, "Political Spiral Logics," sarahpessin.com.
- Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down," Time, March 29, 2023.
- Emile Torres explains the acronym TESCREAL in a Twitter thread.
- Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill, "Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis," 80,000 Hours, March 26, 2023.
- William MacAskill, "The Case for Longtermism," The New York Times, August 5, 2022.
- Emile P. Torres, "Understanding “longertermism”: Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic," Salon, August 20, 2022.
- Nick Bostrom, "Existential Risks," Journal of Evolution and Technology (2002).
- Nick Bostrom, "Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development," Utilitas (2003).
- Emile P. Torres, "How Elon Musk sees the future: His bizarre sci-fi visions should concern us all," Salon, July 17, 2022.