So I would love it if you guys could introduce yourselves. Will I'll start with you. Who are you?

Why are you here? Sure. I'm Will McCaskill. I'm an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University.

I helped to set up what's known as the effect of altruism community, a community of people who try to do as much good as they can with at least a significant part of their time and their money.

I also recently wrote a book called What We O the Future, that's, I think, going to be the topic of conversation in the course of this podcast.

Bob, who are you?

I'm Robert Wright.

I'm mainly a journalist.

I've written some books, including a book called Non-Zero, which may be the one most

relevant to this discussion.

I also publish a newsletter called Non-Zero and have a podcast called Non-Zero.

In fact, I've written a little about Will's ideas in my newsletter, in the Non Zero newsletter. I asked Bob and Will to come on the show because

Will's new book, What We O The Future, is something you're likely to see on bookshelves in Silicon

Valley. The book is a case that we, the people of today, need to make the people of tomorrow,

and many, many tomorrows from now one of our top priorities.

The idea is already beginning to reshape the world of philanthropy.

Will's philosophy, known as long-termism, is hot among tech types, as is

effective altruism, the movement he helped found. Elon Musk tweeted about this book,

This is a close match for my philosophy. And Bob has written some very thoughtful critiques

of long-termism. So today on the show, we're going to do things a little differently.

We'll have a wide-ranging conversation about an increasingly influential worldview and where

it sometimes falls short. This is a little longer than our usual episodes, which I guess is

appropriate. I'm Lizzie O'Leary, and you're listening to What Next TBD, a show about technology,

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