The Case for Effective Altruism

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2024

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Effective altruism — the brand of philanthropy where you try to do the most good for the greatest number of people with the resources you have — has gotten a bad rap lately due to its association with Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto wunderkind who was once hailed as the movement's poster child. But is the bad press fair? Today, we explore that question by revisiting our conversation with Will MacAskill, Oxford professor of philosophy, leading figure in the movement, and author of "What We Owe the Future." (This episode first aired in October 2022.) 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use code PODCAST at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ 📩 Sign up for Rufus's weekly newsletter here

Transcript

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0:00.0	LinkedIn presents. Oh, Today's show is about effective altruism. That's the brand of philanthropy where you try to do the most good for the greatest number of people with the resources you have.
0:41.0	You probably heard about it a lot if you followed the rise and
0:44.8	fall of crypto wonderkind Sam Bankman freed because before he was convicted of
0:50.0	stealing billions of dollars from his customers and sentenced to 25 years in prison,
0:55.0	Sam was the movement's poster boy.
0:58.0	Sam claimed that he was earning to give,
1:01.0	that he was focused on making as much money as humanly possible
1:04.8	because he planned to give 99% of it away.
1:08.4	And he wasn't planning to donate at all to traditional nonprofits like the Gates Foundation
1:12.4	that are focused on here and now issues like to traditional nonprofits like the Gates Foundation
1:12.5	that are focused on here and now issues
1:14.6	like reducing extreme hunger.
1:16.8	Sam favored the long-termist arm of the movement
1:20.3	whose adherents believe that it is more rational to try and save a million
1:24.5	future lives from a hypothetical threat like super intelligent AI than it is to pull
1:29.8	one person out of poverty today.
1:33.0	In the aftermath of Sam's arrest and conviction,
1:36.0	many critics took his criminality as evidence
1:39.0	that the movement he claimed inspired everything he did
1:42.0	was guilty by association.
1:44.0	The Washington Post editorial board accused him of using effective altruism as, quote,
1:48.7	a cover running an allegedly fraudulent business in service of a goal that in light of his alleged ethical
	...

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