I think there are a lot of misunderstandings of what effective altruism and long-termism are trying to do. The most important, by far, misunderstanding is not appreciating that what we're talking about is just what should we be doing on the margin. You said earlier that your approach is to be less judgmental than Peter Singer has been in some of his writings.
If the human race lasts as long as a typical mammalian species and our population continues at its current size, then there are 80 trillion people yet to come. Oxford philosophy professor William MacAskill says it's up to us to protect them.
In his bold new book, "What We Owe the Future," MacAskill makes a case for longtermism. He believes that how long we survive as a species may depend on the actions we take now.
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