The ‘far future’ is not just the far future

Abstract

It’s a widely held belief in the existential risk reduction community that we are likely to see a great technological transformation in the next 50 years. A technological transformation will either cause flourishing, existential catastrophe, or other forms of large change for humanity. The next 50 years will matter directly for most currently living people. Existential risk reduction and handling the technological transformation are therefore not just questions of the ‘far future’ or the ‘long-term’; it is also a ‘near-term’ concern.