(Basic Books, August 2022, 333pp, including 83pp of acknowledgements, appendices, figure credits and data sources, notes, and index)
This book, which I read shortly after its publication in 2022, is by a young Oxford philosopher who is at the center of the Effective Altruism movement. The other book on that theme that I read about the same time is LONGPATH by Ari Wallach (review here) which IIRC mentions MacAskill only once, while this MacAskill book doesn’t refer to Wallach at all (while both refer to a core group of other writers, like Nick Bostrom ). Don’t know if that means anything.
I put off writing up this book because struck me as a bit overly earnest. Even tendentious. Almost trying too hard. Actually, I got that impression from the encyclopedic end notes, more from the text, which is straightforward. Set that aside for now.
At the same time I don’t disagree with any of the fundamental perspectives here. Thinking about the future, appreciating the extent of humanity’s past and potential future, looking at the big picture, is what science fiction is all about, and what most people never think about.
