Coming from an economics background, here’s how to persuade me of longtermism:
Set up a social planner problem with infinite generations and solve for the optimal allocation in each period. Do three cases:
A planner with nonzero time preference and perfect information
A (longtermist) planner with zero time preference and perfect information
A planner with zero time preference and imperfect information
Would the third planner ignore the utility of all generations less than 1000 years in the future? If so, then you’ve proved strong longtermism.
Current theme: default
Less Wrong (text)
Less Wrong (link)
Arrow keys: Next/previous image
Escape or click: Hide zoomed image
Space bar: Reset image size & position
Scroll to zoom in/out
(When zoomed in, drag to pan; double-click to close)
Keys shown in yellow (e.g., ]) are accesskeys, and require a browser-specific modifier key (or keys).
]
Keys shown in grey (e.g., ?) do not require any modifier keys.
?
Esc
h
f
a
m
v
c
r
q
t
u
o
,
.
/
s
n
e
;
Enter
[
\
k
i
l
=
-
0
′
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
→
↓
←
↑
Space
x
z
`
g
Coming from an economics background, here’s how to persuade me of longtermism:
Set up a social planner problem with infinite generations and solve for the optimal allocation in each period. Do three cases:
A planner with nonzero time preference and perfect information
A (longtermist) planner with zero time preference and perfect information
A planner with zero time preference and imperfect information
Would the third planner ignore the utility of all generations less than 1000 years in the future? If so, then you’ve proved strong longtermism.