From the myriad of reactions to Will MacAskill’s book on longtermism, this one from Robert Wright in his Nonzero Newsletter seems above average to me.
His main point is that, if we cannot make people be shortterminists (defined by him a bit expansively as “someone who worries about themself and their close relatives—including next-generation relatives like offspring, any grand-offspring, and for that matter nieces and nephews (or at least the well behaved nieces and nephews)”), trying to convince them to be longterminists doesn’t seem very promising.
The Case for Shorttermism—by Robert Wright
Link post
From the myriad of reactions to Will MacAskill’s book on longtermism, this one from Robert Wright in his Nonzero Newsletter seems above average to me.
His main point is that, if we cannot make people be shortterminists (defined by him a bit expansively as “someone who worries about themself and their close relatives—including next-generation relatives like offspring, any grand-offspring, and for that matter nieces and nephews (or at least the well behaved nieces and nephews)”), trying to convince them to be longterminists doesn’t seem very promising.
You can read the article in about 15 min.
Enjoy!