I’m still new to the Effective Altruism community and in need of career guidance. I’ll be working with the advisors at 80k Hours soon.
Warren H
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Survival doesn’t in and of itself amount to a meaningful life. Generally, there ought to be a sweet spot between the two. If taken to the extreme, all resources that do not contribute to the subsistence of life is wasted. I don’t agree that we ought to live that way, and I think most people would support that conclusion.
To be a good ancestor it requires the current generation to dedicate a portion of our efforts in to understanding the values of potential future beings. This is incredibly hard, but also crucial for creating interventions that makes a positive social impact.
As we aim to predict further in time, the more uncertain the impact of our actions become. It is reasonable that we give ourselves leniency in forecasting the far future.
I’m not sure what kind of research would be best for understanding the value of future generations. It seems to me, a key assumption of longtermist thinking is that future generations will have somewhat similar values to out current ones. I am not so sure this is to be the case if humans were, for example, genetically modified, become digital beings, or something else altogether. I’m not so certain whether those futures are possible, but I think it is important to keep in mind when trying to make a positive impact into the future.
Where does our duty to the future end? I feel as if the best I can do is make some rounded estimates on my future impact and examine those assessments after significant changes in the information I posses.
It is also difficult to maintain such a far reaching perspective of my actions. Sometimes I wonder if all of that time were better spent simply investigating rather than letting my mind wonder. Writing that though, I think it is best to find a balance between investigative and speculative thinking. It’d be very difficult to be effective if I didn’t let myself ponder on more unusual ideas.