meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Tech Won't Save Us

Don’t Fall for the Longtermism Sales Pitch w/ Émile P. Torres

Tech Won't Save Us

Paris Marx

Silicon Valley, Books, Technology, Arts, Future, Tech Criticism, Socialism, Paris Marx, News, Criticism, Tech News, Politics

4.8626 Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2022

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paris Marx is joined by Émile P. Torres to discuss the ongoing effort to sell effective altruism and longtermism to the public, and why they’re philosophies that won’t solve the real problems we face. Émile P. Torres is a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hannover and the author of the forthcoming book Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. Follow Émile on Twitter at @xriskology. Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and w...

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

They've already, you know, established connections with major governing bodies or agencies like

0:06.6

the United Nations. They've, you know, fostered connections with tech billionaires like Elon Musk

0:12.3

and so on. As a result, they're in a position to change the world in really significant, very non-trivial ways. And yet, again, that theoretical

0:24.8

foundation is just pretty weak. And I think that's a big problem. Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us. I'm your host, Paris Marks, and this week my guest is Emil Torres.

0:50.7

Emil is a PhD candidate at Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany, and the author of the

0:56.3

forthcoming book, Human Extinction, A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation. Now, you might

1:01.6

remember Emil from our previous episode back in May, episode 116, called The Dangerous Ideology

1:07.0

of the Tech Elite, where we talked about long-termism. This particularly concerning worldview

1:12.7

held by a lot of people who are quite powerful in the tech industry that we really need

1:17.8

to be focused on the very long-term future of humanity, and that comes often at the expense

1:24.3

of taking actions that would address real material problems in the present.

1:29.2

So instead of really going after climate change or trying to address human poverty and

1:33.9

suffering and hunger, we should be focused on colonizing the cosmos so that we can extend

1:39.2

the light of consciousness for millions and millions of years, for example.

1:43.3

You may have also noticed that these ideas have been getting a lot more attention in the past

1:48.6

few months because William McCaskill published a recent book called What We O O The Future.

1:54.9

And that has been very effectively sold and marketed around the world, or at least in Europe and North America, to the degree

2:02.6

that many major publications have published articles and interviews with McCaskill effectively

2:08.1

endorsing this idea that he is putting forward and that he is presenting in a very approachable

2:15.4

manner in the book, you know, without some of the aspects of this ideology

2:20.8

or of this worldview, that would really quickly turn people off and show people what it is at its

2:26.8

core. And so as a result of that, I wanted to have Emil back on the program so that we could

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Paris Marx, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Paris Marx and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.