Chuck Darwin<p>Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic </p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Nick" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Nick</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bostrom" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bostrom</span></a> has explored the possibility of engineering "radically enhanced" human beings by genetically screening embryos for "desirable" traits, destroying those that lack these traits, and then growing new embryos from stem cells.</p><p>This engineered person might be so different from us — so much more intelligent — that we would classify them as a new, superior species: a <a href="https://c.im/tags/posthuman" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>posthuman</span></a>. According to Bostrom's 2020 "Letter From Utopia," posthumanity could usher in a techno-utopian paradise marked by wonders and happiness beyond our wildest imaginations. </p><p>Referring to the amount of pleasure that could exist in utopia, the fictional posthuman writing the letter declares: "We have immense silos of it here in Utopia. It pervades all we do, everything we experience. We sprinkle it in our tea."</p><p>Central to the <a href="https://c.im/tags/longtermist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>longtermist</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/worldview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>worldview</span></a> is the idea of <a href="https://c.im/tags/existential" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>existential</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/risk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>risk</span></a>, introduced by Bostrom in 2002. He originally defined it as any event that would prevent us from creating a posthuman civilization, although a year later he implied that it also includes any event that would prevent us from colonizing space and simulating enormous numbers of people in giant computer simulations (this is the article that <a href="https://c.im/tags/Musk" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Musk</span></a> retweeted). </p><p>More recently, Bostrom redefined the term as anything that would stop humanity from attaining what he calls "<a href="https://c.im/tags/technological" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>technological</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/maturity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>maturity</span></a>," or a condition in which we have fully <a href="https://c.im/tags/subjugated" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>subjugated</span></a> the <a href="https://c.im/tags/natural" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>natural</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/world" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>world</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/maximized" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>maximized</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/economic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>economic</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/productivity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>productivity</span></a> to the limit — the ultimate Baconian and capitalist fever-dreams.</p><p><a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/08/20/understanding-longtermism-why-this-suddenly-influential-philosophy-is-so/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">salon.com/2022/08/20/understan</span><span class="invisible">ding-longtermism-why-this-suddenly-influential-philosophy-is-so/</span></a></p>