Longtermism

tl;dr

Longtermism is Nick Bostrom’s update for the Singularity – a religious cult for the (tech) wealthy, backed by the likes of Thiel and Musk to provide a moral philosophy for their appalling behavior.

Longtermism has become part of a new term:

TESCREAL stands for “transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism (in a very specific context), Effective Altruism, and longtermism.”

A Reading List on Longtermism

Émile P. Torres has been the lone fighter on this beat for some time:

• Why longtermism is the world’s most dangerous secular credo
• The Dangerous Ideas of “Longtermism” and “Existential Risk”
• How Elon Musk sees the future: His bizarre sci-fi vision should concern us all
• Understanding “longtermism”: Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic

Good to see others chiming in:

• Longtermism is merely a more acceptable mask for transhumanism by Paul Graham Raven
• Against Jackpot-Longtermism by Dave Karpf (s. also The Jackpot)
• Timnit Gebru: “How can we let it be known far & wide that there’s a religion in Silicon Valley (longtermism/effective altruism & similar) that has convinced itself that the best thing to do for “all of humanity” is to throw as much money as possible to the problem of “AGI”…”