Up until recently, there was no name for the cluster of views that involved concern about ensuring the long-run future goes as well as possible. The most common language to refer to this cluster of views was just to say something like āpeople interested in x-risk reductionā. There are a few reasons why this terminology isnāt ideal [...]
For these reasons, and with Toby Ordās in-progress book on existential risk providing urgency, Toby and Joe Carlsmith started leading discussions about whether there were better terms to use. In October 2017, I proposed the term ālongtermismā, with the following definition:
MacAskill: