Abstract
The vast number of future people who will live on Earth means that anything we do to affect their lives has enormous moral importance. Yet, we do not take these future people’s interests seriously, and are not currently working to shape a long-term future that is beneficial to them. We have the potential to significantly impact the long-run future through three avenues: addressing climate change, preventing civilizational collapse, and guiding values change. Addressing climate change is necessary because the CO2 we emit today will last for thousands of years, and even a small decrease in economic growth due to climate change would have catastrophic consequences in the future. We must also be wary of the possibility of civilizational collapse, whether through the use of nuclear weapons or the creation of deadly, synthetic pathogens. Finally, we must realize that our values today shape the long-run future, and that by promoting values like cosmopolitanism, concern for non-human animals, consequentialism, liberalism, and longtermism itself, we can help ensure a better future for all. – AI-generated abstract.
