Our existential risk – the probability that we could wipe ourselves out due to AI, bio-engineering, nuclear war, climate change, etc. in the next 100 years – currently sits at 1 in 6. Let that sink in! Would you get on a plane if there was a 17% chance it would crash? Would you do everything you could to prevent a calamity if you were presented with those odds?
My chat today covers a wild idea that could – and should - better our chances of existing as a species…and lead to a human flourishing I struggle to even imagine. Longtermism argues that prioritising the long-term future of humanity has exponential ethical and existential boons. Flipside, if we don’t choose the longtermism route, the repercussions are well devastating.
Will MacAskill is one of the world’s leading moral philosophers and I travel to Oxford UK, where he runs the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Global Priorities Institute and the Forethought Foundation, to talk through these massive moral issues. Will also explains that right now is the most important time in humanity’s history. Our generation singularly has the power and responsibility to determine two diametrically different paths for humanity. This excites me; I hope it does you, too.
Learn more about Will MacAskill’s work
Purchase his new book What We Owe the Future: A Million year view
If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.
Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life
Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.
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BONUS EPISODE 1: Tips and guided meditation for travel
Wild with Sarah Wilson, season 3 announcement
EMILY ATKIN: The best case ever for climate rage!
DAN BUETTNER: The Blue Zones guy shows us the trick to adding 10 years to our lives
ABBIE CHATFIELD: Millennial feminism, a mind blowing introduction.
FEARNE COTTON: A chat with the British ‘It’ girl’ about the struggle for happiness
THE LADY IN RED: special episode
DAVID WHYTE: The insta-calm of poetry and asking beautiful questions
SAUL GRIFFITH: Biden’s renegade climate advisor from Wollongong drops the best ever climate bomb!
OLIVER BURKEMAN: 4000 weeks…it’s all we got in this lifetime, folks!
Ask Me Anything...about climate change
CLARE DUBOIS: How victim consciousness is destroying the planet (fire up, people!)
TIMOTHY MORTON: My favourite hobby is making sure people don’t feel like dying
TARA JUNE WINCH: Being Aussie is a mental health crisis
DR JUD BREWER: On curiosity as the fix for anxiety
DR JILL BOLTE TAYLOR: The neuroscientist shows Sarah how to live blissfully in the right brain
Ask Me Anything - Part 2
Ask Me Anything - Part 1
TIM BROWN: Sarah’s meditation teacher joins the show
JAMES HOLLIS: The Jungian take on 2021
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