Con Them With Kindness – “Longtermism” and “Effective Altruism” are the New Faces of Transhumanism
Con Them With Kindness – “Longtermism” and “Effective Altruism” are the New Faces of Transhumanism The FTX crypto scandal has unmasked the hypocrisy that drives our “philanthropic” elites Joe Allen Futurists don’t just predict coming events. They also seek to shape them. Each prediction is framed to bring about change in a certain direction, whether by bold promises or doomsday prophecies. For instance, when you hear warnings that artificial intelligence could outsmart humankind and destroy us all—or more precisely, if you believe those claims—there is no choice but to rethink your long-term strategy. Maybe you smash the machines preemptively. Or maybe you teach the AI to be nice and then jam a Neuralink trode in your brain to keep up with the conversation. To the extent our immediate decisions are guided by these imagined futures, we’re all unwitting tools of the futurist. After the spectacular crash of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, the twin philosophies of “effective altruism” and...