The Future Is Calling: How Longtermism Could Save Humanity from Itself

The Immensity of the Future and Our Moral Duty

Imagine a timeline so vast it spans trillions of years, encompassing all human lives past, present, and future. This perspective reveals that future generations vastly outnumber us and deserve equal moral consideration. Recognizing this calls us to expand our ethical concern beyond the present and act with foresight.

Framework for Long-Term Impact

Understanding how our actions affect the future requires evaluating significance, persistence, and contingency. Historical events like megafauna extinction and early deforestation illustrate how even ancient actions have lasting effects. This framework helps us weigh the long-term consequences of our choices.

The Power and Fragility of Moral Change

Moral revolutions such as abolition demonstrate how values can shift dramatically but are contingent on specific conditions and activism. Slavery’s end was neither inevitable nor economically driven alone but resulted from moral progress. This fragility motivates us to actively nurture ethical advances.

Value Lock-In and AI Risks

While moral change is possible, values can become locked in, creating rigid orthodoxy. Advanced AI may preserve values indefinitely, potentially freezing society’s moral evolution. Ethical guidance of AI development is crucial to avoid harmful ossification.

Fostering Moral Diversity and Cooperation

Encouraging diverse perspectives, free speech, and migration fosters innovation and resilience. Constructive dialogue between opposing groups builds durable solutions. This moral experimentalism is vital for a flourishing future.

Existential Risks and Mitigation

Humanity faces risks including nuclear war, pandemics, and climate change. Programs like asteroid detection show mitigation is possible. Proactive governance, science, and diplomacy are essential to safeguard civilization.

Philosophical Foundations and Embracing Longtermism

Longtermism relies on ethical frameworks like expected value theory to guide decisions under uncertainty. Common objections are addressed with reasoned arguments. Embracing longtermism inspires hope, responsibility, and action for a flourishing legacy.

The future calls us to act wisely and compassionately, shaping a world where countless generations can thrive.