It seems really important to head off the capture of potential longtermist institutions in government. I think many agencies are helpful for the problems they are created to solve, and then evolve overtime to become captured by other interest groups or to become an interest group themselves. NEPA right now seems like a force for harming the environment by delaying clean infrastructure, and I’d worry that posterity impact statements implemented in a similar way would start off good and then rapidly become bad.
I like the idea of rewarding people in the future upon assessing past efforts from a more scoped out view, though I worry this may not actually go well in progress, particularly if the metrics used get politicized.
Overall, I’d like to see recommendations like this that are more robust in an environment of intense political competition.
It seems really important to head off the capture of potential longtermist institutions in government. I think many agencies are helpful for the problems they are created to solve, and then evolve overtime to become captured by other interest groups or to become an interest group themselves. NEPA right now seems like a force for harming the environment by delaying clean infrastructure, and I’d worry that posterity impact statements implemented in a similar way would start off good and then rapidly become bad.
I like the idea of rewarding people in the future upon assessing past efforts from a more scoped out view, though I worry this may not actually go well in progress, particularly if the metrics used get politicized.
Overall, I’d like to see recommendations like this that are more robust in an environment of intense political competition.