In response to the plea at the end (and quoting of Popper) to focus on the now over the utopian future: I find myself sceptical and ultimately wanting to disagree with the literal content, and yet feeling that there is a good deal of helpful practical advice there:
I don’t think that we must focus on the suffering now over thinking about how to help the further-removed future
I do think that if all people across time were united in working for the good, then our comparative advantage as being the only people who could address current issues (for both their intrinsic and instrumental value) would mean that a large share of our effort would be allocated to this
I do think that attempts to focus on hard-to-envision futures risk coming to nothing (or worse) because of poor feedback loops
In contrast tackling issues that are within our foresight horizon allows us to develop experience and better judgement about how to address important issues (while also providing value along the way!)
I don’t think this means we should never attempt such work; rather we should do so carefully, and in connection with what we can learn from wrestling with more imminent challenges
In response to the plea at the end (and quoting of Popper) to focus on the now over the utopian future: I find myself sceptical and ultimately wanting to disagree with the literal content, and yet feeling that there is a good deal of helpful practical advice there:
I don’t think that we must focus on the suffering now over thinking about how to help the further-removed future
I do think that if all people across time were united in working for the good, then our comparative advantage as being the only people who could address current issues (for both their intrinsic and instrumental value) would mean that a large share of our effort would be allocated to this
I do think that attempts to focus on hard-to-envision futures risk coming to nothing (or worse) because of poor feedback loops
In contrast tackling issues that are within our foresight horizon allows us to develop experience and better judgement about how to address important issues (while also providing value along the way!)
I don’t think this means we should never attempt such work; rather we should do so carefully, and in connection with what we can learn from wrestling with more imminent challenges