The future that we're looking at on business as usual to be is not one of ever more people clouding up the world. I'm actually a little bit more worried by what we might call underpopulation compared to overpopulation. South Korea in particular, their fertility rate is now 0.81 births per woman. That's a situation that we will be facing too in the coming decades. We could create a flourishing and long-lasting society where everyone's lives are better than the very best lives today.
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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