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Evidence receipt / uncertainty

Published · transcript-backed

Will MacAskill: uncertainty

9 Aug 2022 Dwarkesh Podcast Will MacAskill - Longtermism, Altruism, History, & Technology

“I don't know if it's intrinsic to the matter or if you could’ve had some system that wouldn't have been co-opted in the long-term.”

— Will MacAskill

Source trail

Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
Will MacAskill
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
uncertainty
Recorded
9 Aug 2022
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

Transcript context

…If we don't know how we would do it correctly, did you have an idea of how environmentalism could have been codified better? Why was that not a success in some cases? Honestly, I don't have a good understanding of that. I don't know if it's intrinsic to the matter or if you could’ve had some system that wouldn't have been co-opted in the long-term. Theoretically, the incentives of our most long-term U.S. institutions is to maximize future cash flow. Explicitly and theoretically, they should have an incentive to do the most good they can for their own company—which implies that the company can’t be around if there’s an existential risk……

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