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Will MacAskill - Longtermism, Altruism, History, & Technology

9 Aug 2022 12 published claims 2 attributable people

Speakers in the public record

Claim mix

evaluation 4prediction 3disagreement 2uncertainty 1commitment 1preference 1

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Claim ledger

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12 published records

02 / commitment

If you're thinking that we've got ten years till the end of history, then don't broadly try and promote better values. But, we should have a very significant probability mass on the idea that we will not hit some historical end of this century.

“If you're thinking that we've got ten years till the end of history, then don't broadly try and promote better values. But, we should have a very significant probability mass on the idea that we will not hit some historical end of this century.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

03 / evaluation

If you've got a dictatorship, then you've got single person ruling the society. That means it's heavily contingent on the views, values, beliefs, and personality of that person.

“If you've got a dictatorship, then you've got single person ruling the society. That means it's heavily contingent on the views, values, beliefs, and personality of that person.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

04 / evaluation

Perhaps if the Industrial Revolution happened in India, rather than in Western Europe, then perhaps we wouldn't have wide-scale factory farming—which I think is a moral atrocity.

“Perhaps if the Industrial Revolution happened in India, rather than in Western Europe, then perhaps we wouldn't have wide-scale factory farming—which I think is a moral atrocity.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

05 / evaluation

One argument for why Baghdad lost its Scientific Golden Age is because the political landscape changed such that what was incentivized was theological investigation rather than scientific investigation in the 10th/11th century AD.

“One argument for why Baghdad lost its Scientific Golden Age is because the political landscape changed such that what was incentivized was theological investigation rather than scientific investigation in the 10th/11th century AD.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

07 / preference

My view goes the opposite of the Burkean view. We are cultural creatures in our nature, and are very inclined to agree with what other people think even if we don't understand the underlying mechanisms.

“My view goes the opposite of the Burkean view. We are cultural creatures in our nature, and are very inclined to agree with what other people think even if we don't understand the underlying mechanisms.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

08 / evaluation

I think you can do both research and education far better than it currently exists. It's extremely hard to break in or creating something that's very prestigious because the leading universities are hundreds of years old.

“I think you can do both research and education far better than it currently exists. It's extremely hard to break in or creating something that's very prestigious because the leading universities are hundreds of years old.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

09 / disagreement

If it's true, as you say, in the book, that moral values are very contingent, then shouldn't that make us suspect that modern Western values aren't that good? They're mediocre, or worse, because ex ante, you would expect to end up with a median of all the values we could have had at this point.

“If it's true, as you say, in the book, that moral values are very contingent, then shouldn't that make us suspect that modern Western values aren't that good? They're mediocre, or worse, because ex ante, you would expect to end up with a median of all the values we could have had at this point.”
Speaker
Dwarkesh Patel
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

11 / prediction

The point in time (which may be sooner than we think) where the rulers of the world are digital rather than biological, that [ideological conformity] could persist.

“The point in time (which may be sooner than we think) where the rulers of the world are digital rather than biological, that [ideological conformity] could persist.”
Speaker
Will MacAskill
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast
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