I’m very very skeptical of longtermism in a practical sense, but not for the reason described here.
It’s like watching people try to come up with rules about flight safety before powered flight—with some people arguing about lifting gasses, others worrying about muscle strains that will occur when everyone has to turn the hand cranks that power the aircraft, and yet others concerned about the potential for an aircraft to accidentally fly to close to the sun. Even if one person started thinking about a real risk (for example, landing too hard) - how would they even come up with a solution without knowing what a plane looks like or what a control surface is?
I think most people who are skeptical of longtermism have reasoning some what similar to mine.
I’m very very skeptical of longtermism in a practical sense, but not for the reason described here.
It’s like watching people try to come up with rules about flight safety before powered flight—with some people arguing about lifting gasses, others worrying about muscle strains that will occur when everyone has to turn the hand cranks that power the aircraft, and yet others concerned about the potential for an aircraft to accidentally fly to close to the sun. Even if one person started thinking about a real risk (for example, landing too hard) - how would they even come up with a solution without knowing what a plane looks like or what a control surface is?
I think most people who are skeptical of longtermism have reasoning some what similar to mine.