Grand Theft Automated: How to Save a Trillion Lives
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Jul 4, 2025
Dive into the fascinating world of effective altruism, where billionaires grapple with the moral implications of their wealth. Explore Sam Bankman-Fried's controversial duality as both a humanitarian and a con artist. Unravel ethical dilemmas in philanthropy, from the struggle of small business owners to the chaos in cryptocurrency. Engage with philosophical debates around altruism and humanity's conflicting nature, revealing how self-sacrifice can lead to unexpected financial consequences.
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Singer's Moral Philosophy
Moral philosopher Peter Singer argued that distance does not reduce moral obligation to help others.
We should treat a starving child far away as morally equal to a drowning child nearby.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Will MacAskill's Effective Altruism
Will MacAskill read Singer's essay and decided to give away surplus income to effective charities.
He founded the Effective Altruism movement focusing on maximizing impact of donations.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Earn to Give
MacAskill advised students to become high earners and donate a large portion of income.
"Earning to give" can fund many more effective interventions than direct work in poor countries.
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In 'Famine, Affluence, and Morality,' Peter Singer presents a compelling argument that individuals with sufficient resources are morally obligated to donate to humanitarian causes, especially when such actions can prevent suffering without significant personal sacrifice. The essay uses the 'drowning child' analogy to illustrate the moral imperative to act in the face of preventable suffering, regardless of geographical distance.
Going Infinite
The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Michael Lewis
In 'Going Infinite', Michael Lewis delves into the life of Sam Bankman-Fried, the enigmatic founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The book provides a psychological portrait and a financial roller-coaster ride, tracing Bankman-Fried's trajectory from becoming the world's youngest billionaire to his eventual downfall. It covers topics such as high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, effective altruism, and the justice system. Despite criticism for its sympathetic portrayal of Bankman-Fried, the book offers a fascinating insight into the complex world of cryptocurrencies and the character of its central figure.
What We Owe the Future
William MacAskill
In this book, William MacAskill advocates for longtermism, the idea that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority. He argues that future people count, there could be many of them, and we can make their lives better. MacAskill discusses various threats to humanity, including climate change, AI misalignment, and pandemics, and proposes strategies to ensure civilization's survival and improve its trajectory. The book explores moral and philosophical issues surrounding longtermism, including the risks of human extinction, civilizational collapse, and technological stagnation, while offering a measured optimism about the future's potential for human flourishing[1][5][4].
A radical thought experiment transforms the lives of a new breed of philanthropists, as they follow the logic of altruism to extraordinary lengths. The most famous convert to the Effective Altruism movement, Sam Bankman-Fried, is either a humanitarian hero, a con artist at an astonishing scale, or most bafflingly, both.
For a full list of sources, see the show notes at timharford.com.
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Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford 
