MichaelA🔸 comments on On future people, looking back at 21st century longtermism

[MichaelA🔸]

Thanks, I thought this was really interesting and well-written. (Well, weirdly enough, I got nothing out of the quoted poems, but I found the rest of it quite poetic and moving!)

I especially liked this passage:

I imagine our descendants looking back at those few centuries, and seeing some set of humans, amidst much else calling for attention, lifting their gaze, crunching a few numbers, and recognizing the outlines of something truly strange and extraordinary — that somehow, they live at the very beginning, in the most ancient past; that something immense and incomprehensible and profoundly important is possible, and just starting, and in need of protection.

I imagine our descendants saying: “*Yes*. You can see it. Don’t look away. Don’t forget. Don’t mess up. The pieces are all there. Go slow. Be careful. It’s really possible.” I imagine them looking back through time at their distant ancestors, and seeing some of those ancestors, looking forward through time, at them. I imagine eyes meeting.

I immediately went and quoted that in a comment on the post What quotes do you find most inspire you to use your resources (effectively) to help others?, as I expect I’ll find that passage inspiring in future and that other people might do so as well.