One of the things that worries me about this philosophy is it's callousness to the people currently living, a longtermist may decide (and try to enact a plan) around the fact that relieving the world of a few billion people gives humanity the greatest chance of survival.
The last time rich people said it was okay to kill people in the name of the greater good, a World War had to shut that shit down. This is just disguised fascism and it's dangerous.
I care that we exist a billion years from now, I can adopt some longterminism, but I'm also a humanist and what's the point of humanity continuing if we can't solve poverty, and make it so everybody has a decent quality of life - all things a spacefaring civilization or (one day) should be able to aspire to.
Before we plan for a billion years from now, we should first figure out how to comfortably support the billions we have now and plan for maximum comfort for the poorest person, not full socialism, but surely better social safety nets in all countries and better democracies.
Our society is so flawed, hell making it through the end of this century seems like a 50/50 proposition, so lets make here and now better.
The last time rich people said it was okay to kill people in the name of the greater good, a World War had to shut that shit down. This is just disguised fascism and it's dangerous.
I care that we exist a billion years from now, I can adopt some longterminism, but I'm also a humanist and what's the point of humanity continuing if we can't solve poverty, and make it so everybody has a decent quality of life - all things a spacefaring civilization or (one day) should be able to aspire to.
Before we plan for a billion years from now, we should first figure out how to comfortably support the billions we have now and plan for maximum comfort for the poorest person, not full socialism, but surely better social safety nets in all countries and better democracies.
Our society is so flawed, hell making it through the end of this century seems like a 50/50 proposition, so lets make here and now better.