As someone who is eager to do spend my work time well, who thinks that our moral circle should include the future, but who does not know ways to reliably improve it… what should I do?
Focus on what you can do to help now, while you consider this further in the background? If all humans present and future are equal, then present humans are as good a target as future humans, and much much more accessible.
Maybe try to de-abstract helping, and make it more tangible and real in your personal experience? Maybe the old lady across the street needs help bringing in her groceries. So you start there, and follow the bread crumbs where ever they lead.
Something simple like this can be a good experiment. If you should find you don’t really want to help the old lady who is right in front of you, or if you do, that might help you develop additional clarity regarding your relationship with future humans.
It’s clear to me that I want to help people. I think my problem isn’t that help is abstract. My current work is in global health, and it’s a great joy to be able to observe the positive effects of that work.
My question is about what would be the best use of my time and work. I consider the possibility that this work should target improving the far future, but that kind of work seems intractable, indirect, conditional on many assumptions, etc. I’d appreciate good pointers to concrete avenues for improving the future that don’t suffer from these problems. Helping old ladies and introspection probably won’t help me with that.
Focus on what you can do to help now, while you consider this further in the background? If all humans present and future are equal, then present humans are as good a target as future humans, and much much more accessible.
Maybe try to de-abstract helping, and make it more tangible and real in your personal experience? Maybe the old lady across the street needs help bringing in her groceries. So you start there, and follow the bread crumbs where ever they lead.
Something simple like this can be a good experiment. If you should find you don’t really want to help the old lady who is right in front of you, or if you do, that might help you develop additional clarity regarding your relationship with future humans.
Thanks!
It’s clear to me that I want to help people. I think my problem isn’t that help is abstract. My current work is in global health, and it’s a great joy to be able to observe the positive effects of that work.
My question is about what would be the best use of my time and work. I consider the possibility that this work should target improving the far future, but that kind of work seems intractable, indirect, conditional on many assumptions, etc. I’d appreciate good pointers to concrete avenues for improving the future that don’t suffer from these problems. Helping old ladies and introspection probably won’t help me with that.