Thanks for the post. Following along with the other comments, I think this community sometimes overemphasizes the utilitarian case for longtermism (that, even if sound, may be unpersuasive for non-utilitarians), and often neglects the possibility of basing it on a theory of intergenerational cooperation / justice (something that, in my opinion, is underdeveloped among contractualist political philosophers). That’s why I think this discussion is quite relevant, and I commend you for bringing it up. I agree with Justin’s comment that acausal trade might be a good way to frame the relationship between agents through different time slices… but you need something even weaker than that—instead of framing it as a cooperation between two agents, think about a chain of cooperation and add backward induction: if 27!Austin finds out he’ll not comply with 17!Austin commitments, he’ll have strong evidence that 37!Austin won’t comply with his commitments, too—which threatens plans lasting more than a decade. And this is not such a weird reasoning: individuals often ponder if they will follow their own plans (or if they will change their minds, or be driven away by temptation...), and some financial structures depend on analogous “continuing commitments” (think about long-term debt and pension funds).
(actually, I suspect acausal trade might have stronger implications than what most people here would feel comfortable with… because it may take you to something very close to a universalization principle akin to a Kantian categorical imperative—but hey, Parfit has already convinced me we’re all “climbing the same mountain”)
Thanks for the post. Following along with the other comments, I think this community sometimes overemphasizes the utilitarian case for longtermism (that, even if sound, may be unpersuasive for non-utilitarians), and often neglects the possibility of basing it on a theory of intergenerational cooperation / justice (something that, in my opinion, is underdeveloped among contractualist political philosophers). That’s why I think this discussion is quite relevant, and I commend you for bringing it up.
I agree with Justin’s comment that acausal trade might be a good way to frame the relationship between agents through different time slices… but you need something even weaker than that—instead of framing it as a cooperation between two agents, think about a chain of cooperation and add backward induction: if 27!Austin finds out he’ll not comply with 17!Austin commitments, he’ll have strong evidence that 37!Austin won’t comply with his commitments, too—which threatens plans lasting more than a decade. And this is not such a weird reasoning: individuals often ponder if they will follow their own plans (or if they will change their minds, or be driven away by temptation...), and some financial structures depend on analogous “continuing commitments” (think about long-term debt and pension funds).
(actually, I suspect acausal trade might have stronger implications than what most people here would feel comfortable with… because it may take you to something very close to a universalization principle akin to a Kantian categorical imperative—but hey, Parfit has already convinced me we’re all “climbing the same mountain”)