34: Will MacAskill - Longtermism, Altruism, History, & Technology

07/26/22 • 56 min

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Will MacAskill is one of the founders of the Effective Altruist movement and the author of the upcoming book, What We Owe The Future.

We talk about improving the future, risk of extinction & collapse, technological & moral change, problems of academia, who changes history, and much more.

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform.

Read the full transcript here.

Follow Will on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

Timestamps

(00:23) - Effective Altruism and Western values

(07:47) - The contingency of technology

(12:02) - Who changes history?

(18:00) - Longtermist institutional reform

(25:56) - Are companies longtermist?

(28:57) - Living in an era of plasticity

(34:52) - How good can the future be?

(39:18) - Contra Tyler Cowen on what’s most important

(45:36) - AI and the centralization of power

(51:34) - The problems with academia

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Previous Episode

Alexander Mikaberidze - Napoleon, War, Progress, and Global Order

Alexander Mikaberidze is Professor of History at Louisiana State University and the author of The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History.

He explains the global ramifications of the Napoleonic Wars - from India to Egypt to America. He also talks about how Napoleon was the last of the enlightened despots, whether he would have made a good startup founder, how the Napoleonic Wars accelerated the industrial revolution, the roots of the war in Ukraine, and much more!

Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other podcast platform.

Episode website + Transcript here. Follow Professor Mikaberidze on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

Subscribe to find out about future episodes!

Timestamps:

(0:00:00) Alexander Mikaberidze - Professor of history and author of “The Napoleonic Wars”

(0:01:19) - The allure of Napoleon

(0:13:48) - The advantages of multiple colonies

(0:27:33) - The Continental System and the industrial revolution

(0:34:49) - Napoleon’s legacy.

(0:50:38) - The impact of Napoleonic Wars

(1:01:23) - Napoleon as a startup founder

(1:14:02) The advantages of war and how it shaped international government and to some extent, political structures.

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Next Episode

Fin Moorhouse - Longtermism, Space, & Entrepreneurship

Fin Moorhouse is a Research Scholar and assistant to Toby Ord at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute. He co-hosts the Hear This Idea podcast, which showcases new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism.

We discuss for-profit entrepreneurship for altruism, space governance, morality in the multiverse, podcasting, the long reflection, and the Effective Ideas & EA criticism blog prize.

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.

Episode website + Transcript here.Follow Fin on Twitter. Follow me on Twitter.

Subscribe to find out about future episodes!

Timestamps

(0:00:10) - Introduction

(0:02:45) - EA Prizes & Criticism

(0:09:47) - Longtermism

(0:12:52) - Improving Mental Models

(0:20:50) - EA & Profit vs Nonprofit Entrepreneurship

(0:30:46) - Backtesting EA

(0:35:54) - EA Billionares

(0:38:32) - EA Decisions & Many Worlds Interpretation