Back
Effective Altruism, Longtermism, and William MacAskill Interview - TIME
webCredibility Rating
3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: TIME
A mainstream media interview offering an accessible introduction to longtermism and effective altruism from one of its leading proponents; useful for understanding the philosophical and cultural backdrop of AI safety funding and priorities.
Metadata
Importance: 45/100interviewnews
Summary
A TIME magazine interview with philosopher William MacAskill discussing his book 'What We Owe the Future,' the principles of effective altruism, and the case for longtermism—the view that positively influencing the long-term future is among the most important moral priorities. MacAskill addresses critiques of longtermism and explains how the movement relates to AI safety and existential risk.
Key Points
- •MacAskill argues that future people matter morally and that humanity has enormous potential if we can navigate existential risks successfully.
- •Longtermism prioritizes reducing catastrophic and existential risks, including those from advanced AI, as among the highest-leverage interventions.
- •The interview addresses criticisms that longtermism is speculative or diverts resources from present-day suffering.
- •MacAskill discusses how effective altruism has evolved and its growing influence on philanthropy, policy, and AI safety funding.
- •The piece provides accessible context for understanding how EA and longtermist ideas have entered mainstream discourse.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| EA and Longtermist Wins and Losses | -- | 53.0 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Mar 20, 202637 KB
- [Ideas](https://time.com/section/ideas)
- [society](https://time.com/tag/society)
# Want to Do More Good? This Movement Might Have the Answer
[ADD TIME ON GOOGLE](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=https://time.com)
Show me more content from TIME on Google Search
by
[Naina Bajekal/Oxford, U.K.](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)
Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME.
Loading...
Illustration by The Project Twins for Time
by
[Naina Bajekal/Oxford, U.K.](https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/)
Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME.
Loading...
Thirteen years ago, William MacAskill found himself standing in the aisle of a grocery store, agonizing over which breakfast cereal to buy. If he switched to a cheaper brand for a year, could he put aside enough money to save someone’s life? It wasn’t the first time he’d been gripped by this kind of angst. His life has often felt like a series of difficult choices: Should he donate even more money to charity? Should he quit academia and work in politics—even if he hated it—in the hopes of having a greater social impact? What if he moved to a different city—could he do more to help others elsewhere?
For anyone enjoying a comfortable life in a world of horrifying inequality, examining your choices closely might spark similar questions. For MacAskill, a [35-year-old Scottish philosopher who co-founded a movement](https://time.com/3935328/how-to-do-well-when-you-do-good/) dedicated to doing the most good possible, the stakes of even mundane decisions can feel especially high.
Yet when we meet on a sunny July afternoon in Oxford, he seems to have found a way to carry that load. In fact, for a man who’s spent the past few years thinking about how humanity might permanently derail its future, he’s surprisingly cheerful. He’s just returned from a week of surfing with his partner Holly Morgan on the south coast of England. After years of suffering from depression and anxiety, he now prioritizes sleep, exercise, and meditation. He enjoys swimming outdoors, playing the saxophone, and holding “fire raves” in fields with friends, dancing around a bonfire to house music until the early hours. “There are many things in my life I care about for intrinsic reasons,” he says, “not because I’ve done some 12-dimensional maths about how it
... (truncated, 37 KB total)Resource ID:
ca2667413d513070 | Stable ID: ZWQ5ZmE1NW