Longtermist institutional reform

Abstract

The future is not guaranteed and a global catastrophe could rob trillions of people of happy lives. Ensuring that political institutions take these future people into account can prevent existential risks, which could either destroy humanity or cause immense suffering. These institutions could take steps to foresee, understand, prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from catastrophes. Political short-termism is a hindrance to this and it could be solved by providing political incentives to assess policy impacts, focusing on future generations, and integrating knowledge about long-term governance and existential risks. Learning more and building credibility around existential risks is a good starting point. – AI-generated abstract.