What We Owe the Future

An Oxford philosopher argues that solving today's problems might require putting future generations ahead of ourselves

The human story is just beginning. There are five thousand years of written history, but perhaps millions more to come. In What We Owe the Future, philosopher William MacAskill develops a perspective he calls longtermism, showing that our vast future is of enormous moral importance. We uphold the idea that where we live does not affect our moral worth; MacAskill argues that when we live does not matter either.

Yet we are putting future generations at grave risk, and not just with climate change. AI could lock us into a perpetual dystopia, or pandemics could end us. But, if we avoid these threats, the future could be wonderful: moral and technological progress could result in unimaginable human flourishing.

What we do today will determine the happiness or misery of trillions of people to come. As MacAskill shows, the future is in our hands.