Crazy Town

How Longtermism Became the Most Dangerous Philosophy You’ve Never Heard of


Listen Later

Meet William MacAskill, the puerile professor who helps crypto capitalists justify sociopathy today for a universe of transhuman colonization tomorrow. Please share this episode with your friends and start a conversation.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

For an entertaining deep dive into the theme of season five (Phalse Prophets), read the definitive peer-reviewed taxonomic analysis from our very own Jason Bradford, PhD. 

Sources/Links/Notes:

  • Andrew Anthony, "William MacAskill: 'There are 80 trillion people yet to come. They need us to start protecting them'," The Guardian, August 21, 2022.
  • Guiding Principles of the Centre for Effective Altruism
  • Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence and Morality," givingwhatwecan.org.
  • Sarah Pessin, "Political Spiral Logics," sarahpessin.com.
  • Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down," Time, March 29, 2023.
  • Emile Torres explains the acronym TESCREAL in a Twitter thread.
  • Benjamin Todd and William MacAskill, "Is it ever OK to take a harmful job in order to do more good? An in-depth analysis," 80,000 Hours, March 26, 2023.
  • William MacAskill, "The Case for Longtermism," The New York Times, August 5, 2022.
  • Emile P. Torres, "Understanding “longertermism”: Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic," Salon, August 20, 2022.
  • Nick Bostrom, "Existential Risks," Journal of Evolution and Technology (2002).
  • Nick Bostrom, "Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological Development," Utilitas (2003).
  • Emile P. Torres, "How Elon Musk sees the future: His bizarre sci-fi visions should concern us all," Salon,  July 17, 2022.

Support the show

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Crazy TownBy Post Carbon Institute

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

196 ratings


More shows like Crazy Town

View all
On the Media by WNYC Studios

On the Media

9,175 Listeners

Climate One by Climate One from The Commonwealth Club

Climate One

564 Listeners

Upstream by Upstream

Upstream

1,819 Listeners

Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff

Team Human

362 Listeners

The War on Cars by The War on Cars, LLC

The War on Cars

907 Listeners

Drilled by Critical Frequency

Drilled

2,209 Listeners

Accidental Gods by Accidental Gods

Accidental Gods

121 Listeners

Live Like the World is Dying by Margaret Killjoy

Live Like the World is Dying

420 Listeners

Tech Won't Save Us by Paris Marx

Tech Won't Save Us

532 Listeners

This Machine Kills by This Machine Kills

This Machine Kills

201 Listeners

Planet: Critical by Rachel Donald

Planet: Critical

89 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,510 Listeners

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens by Nate Hagens

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

405 Listeners

Human Nature Odyssey by Alex Leff

Human Nature Odyssey

43 Listeners

The Climate Denier's Playbook by Climate Town

The Climate Denier's Playbook

294 Listeners