What We Owe the Future

The fullest popular statement of longtermism, the view that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. MacAskill's argument is simple: future people count, there could be enormous numbers of them, and we can make their lives go better or worse. He pictures humanity as an imprudent teenager whose choices now have lasting effects, and suggests judging possible actions by the significance, persistence and contingency of their effects. Moral change is one example: he argues that the abolition of slavery was less inevitable than it seems, and warns of 'value lock-in', especially through advanced AI. He then discusses extinction, the collapse of civilisation and long technological stagnation, and turns to population ethics, defending the view that adding happy lives makes the world better. The book closes with practical advice on careers, donations and political action. Critics argue that longtermism rests on speculative forecasts and could be used to justify neglecting present needs.

It is the most accessible case for taking future generations seriously, and a clear way into the moral questions behind effective altruism and current debates about AI and catastrophe.