>be me >longtermist >future people matter just as much as people alive today >completely agree >there could be trillions of them >also agree >therefore we must decide what they need now >hang on >born in 1990 >making plans for people born in 2190 >they will have 164 more years of science >164 more years of political experience >164 more years of technological progress >possibly machine superintelligence >fortunately they also have me >guy with a pdf >explain that future generations may be unimaginably capable >they could cure diseases >build space habitats >engineer new forms of intelligence >solve problems we cannot even formulate >incredible >anyway i've worked out their priorities >friend asks why they can't decide for themselves >because by then it may be too late >too late for what >for us to tell them what to do >imagine 5000 BC >very serious longtermist meeting >our descendants will face unimaginable dangers >we must prepare >manufacture 80 million stone axes >bury them in strategic caches >future-proof civilization >bronze age begins >lol >lmao >committee publishes report blaming insufficient stone-axis funding >obvious lesson >don't just leave descendants tools >leave them the ability to make better tools >education >institutions >science >wealth >optionality >capacity to change course >sounds suspiciously like helping people who are alive >quickly return to asteroid scenarios >friend says maybe the best thing for 2200 is to help 2050 become competent enough to help 2100 >then 2100 helps 2150 >then 2150 helps 2200 >sounds inefficient >why use succession when i can personally optimize the year 2200 from my laptop >explain moral uncertainty >we should expect future people to know more than us >possibly be morally wiser than us >this is why we must be very careful not to lock in today's values >friend nods >asks whether they should be allowed to reject our values >that's value drift >very important distinction >future people are morally equal to us >they are not epistemically equal to us >obviously >they know less >friend points out they literally live in the future >ignore heckler >write grant proposal >goal: preserve humanity's option value >excellent >preserve options by building institution dedicated to one worldview >hire people who agree the worldview should remain influential for centuries >call this epistemic diversity >someone proposes spending money on children today >ridiculous >their effect on the distant future is impossible to calculate >someone proposes funding my speculative intervention >its effect on the distant future is impossible to calculate >exactly >that's why expected value is so large >imagine ancestor from 1720 >leaves me a letter >dear descendant >i have carefully considered your interests >you must invest in sailmaking >avoid electricity >maintain the divine right of kings >and under no circumstances revise these instructions >laugh at primitive idiot >open document titled >"Recommendations for the Long-Term Future of Humanity" >begin to understand the actual duty to descendants >not "solve their problems for them" >more like "don't destroy the world and leave them a functioning civilization" >this seems disappointingly normal >where are the exponents >try new framing >humanity is an intergenerational relay race >our job is to hand over the baton in good condition >next runner may be faster >may choose a better route >may discover the race is actually swimming >important thing is not welding the baton to our hand >colleague objects >some problems really are irreversible >asteroids >nuclear war >engineered pandemics >AI >fair enough >then show that this problem actually requires action now >show that delay destroys future options >show that your intervention helps >this sounds like a lot of work >can't we just say 10^50 people >realize the funniest part >entire argument for longtermism depends on future civilization becoming vastly more capable than us >entire argument for present control depends on future civilization being unable to reconsider our decisions >Schrödinger's descendant >smart enough to colonize the lightcone >too dumb to edit the roadmap >future humans convert stars into computronium >build minds beyond our comprehension >master matter and energy >open ancient archive from 2026 >"hello descendants, we anticipated your needs" >everyone stops >thank god >the stone-tool people left instructions -- this part is inspired by some @visakanv writings