William MacAskillEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Could artificial intelligence hand the US or China 99% of global economic and military power? What happens when millions of autonomous weapons systems are controlled by a single commander-in-chief? Has effective altruism's influence in Silicon Valley accelerated or slowed the race for artificial general intelligence? Alastair and Rory are joined by William MacAskill to discuss all this and more. __________ Search IG.com to find out more and/or Look for IG in your app store. You can purchase William MacAskill's book Doing Good Better here . __________ Instagram: @restispolitics Twitter: @restispolitics Email: therestispolitics@goalhanger.com __________ Social Producer: Celine Charles Video Editor: Josh Smith Assistant Producer: Daisy Alston-Horne Senior Producer: Nicole Maslen Exec Producer: Chris Sawyer General Manager: Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sam Harris speaks with William MacAskill about effective altruism, AI, and the future of humanity. They discuss the post-FTX recovery of the EA movement, global health and pandemic preparedness, the limits of quantifiable ethics, the intelligence explosion, risks of concentrated AI power, what a post-scarcity world might look like, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe .

Yascha Mounk and William MacAskill also discuss artificial intelligence. William MacAskill is a moral philosopher and cofounder of the effective altruism movement. He's the author of Doing Good Better and What We Owe the Future. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Forethought Research and works on preparing society for rapid AI-driven technological change. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and William MacAskill discuss the arguments for effective altruism, the motivations of Sam Bankman-Fried, and whether AI is a risk to humanity. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence is set to be one of the most disruptive technologies this century. For some, a machine capable of augmenting its own intelligence is a matter of time — and could even arrive within a decade. This week’s guest is philosopher and author William MacAskill. One of the leading thinkers in the Effective Altruism movement, MacAskill is the author of several highly influential books, including Doing Good Better and What We Owe The Future . His work explores not only on how to live a life of purpose, but how we also shouldn’t discount the interests of generations yet to be born. What new technologies, medicines, and workflows might AI invent? How could AI affect the distribution of power and resources across the planet? Will democracy, as a political system, be able to manage it? And what might it mean to live a good life in a world of intelligent machines?

Artificial intelligence is set to be one of the most disruptive technologies this century. For some, a machine capable of augmenting its own intelligence is a matter of time — and could even arrive within a decade. This week’s guest is philosopher and author William MacAskill. One of the leading thinkers in the Effective Altruism movement, MacAskill is the author of several highly influential books, including Doing Good Better and What We Owe The Future. His work explores not only on how to live a life of purpose, but how we also shouldn’t discount the interests of generations yet to be born. What new technologies, medicines, and workflows might AI invent? How could AI affect the distribution of power and resources across the planet? Will democracy, as a political system, be able to manage it? And what might it mean to live a good life in a world of intelligent machines?

Watch on YouTube In this fireside chat, Tom Davidson and William MacAskill will discuss whether AI could help a small group of humans seize power, how to get to the best possible future, and other neglected topics in AGI preparedness.William MacAskill is an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Oxford. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest associate professor of philosophy in the world. He also cofounded the nonprofits Giving What We Can, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and 80,000 Hours, which together have moved over $300 million to effective charities. He’s the author of What We Owe The Future, Doing Good Better, and Moral Uncertainty.Tom is a Senior Research Analyst at Open Philanthropy He is currently working on assessing whether AI could lead to significant and long-lasting concentrations of power. Previously, he's worked on AI timelines (when AGI will be developed) and AI takeoff speeds (how rapidly AI capabilities will improve around the time of AGI). Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Tom worked as a Data Scientist for education technology startup BridgeU and taught science at a UK comprehensive school. He has a Masters in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Together with the University of Oslo, the Thinktank Agenda welcomed this week the Scottish philosopher and professor, William MacAskill, to Oslo. Prof. MacAskill is connected to the philosophical direction "longtermsim" and has, among other things, published the book "What we owe the future". In the lecture, he looks at the existential threats from AI, and urges us to take action today to save future generations from this threat. The lecture and conversation are in English. Denne uken gikk Agenda i Aulaen av stabelen. Sammen med UiO tok Tankesmien Agenda imot den skotske filosofen, William MacAskill, professor ved Universitetet i Oxford. Han er knyttet til den filosofiske retningen, "longtermsim", og har blant annet gitt ut boka "What we owe the future". I foredraget ser han på de eksistensielle truslene fra KI, og oppfordrer oss til å ta grep i dag for å redde fremtidige generasjoner fra denne trusselen. Foredraget og samtalen er på engelsk.

The human species has been around for some 300,000 years. A typical mammal lasts for a million years. We are not typical. ”You might think we are in the middle of history. But given the grand sweep, we are the ancients, we are at the very beginning of time. We live in the distant past compared to everything that will ever happen”, says William MacAskill, associate professor in philosophy at Oxford university. MacAskill is the initiator of the Effective Altruism movement, which is about optimizing the good you can do for this world. In his latest book, What We Owe the Future, he discusses how we should think and act to plan for an extremely long human future. The book is basically optimistic. MacAskill thinks we have immense opportunities to improve the world significantly. But it dwells on the potential risks and threats that we must deal with. MacAskill highlights four categories of risks: Extinction (everyone dying), collapse (so much destroyed that civilization doesn’t recover), lock-in (a long future but governed by bad values) and stagnation (which may lead to one of the former). As for the risk of extinction, he concludes that newer risks that are less under control tend to be the largest, such as pandemics caused by man-made pathogens and catastrophes set off by artificial intelligence. Known risks like nuclear war and direct hits by asteroids have a potential to wipe out humankind, but since we are more aware of them we have some understanding of how to mitigate them or at least prepare for them. Climate change tops the global agenda today, but although it is a problem we need to address, it is not an existential threat. Artificial intelligence could lead to intense concentration of power and control. But AI could also have huge benefits. It can speed up science, and it can automate away all monotonous work and give us more time with family and friends and for creativity. ”The scale of the upside is as big as our imagination can take us.” Humans have invented dangerous technology before and not used it to its full detrimental capacity. ”It is a striking thing about the world how much destruction could be reaped if people wanted to. That is actually a source of concern, because AI systems might not have those human safeguards.” One prerequisite to achieve a better future is to actively change our values. There has been tremendous moral progress over the last couple of centuries, but we need to expand our sphere of moral concern, according to MacAskill. ”We care about family and friends and perhaps the nation, but I think we should care as much about everyone, and much more than we do about non-human animals. A hundred billion land animals are killed every year for food, and the vast majority of them are kept in horrific suffering.” William MacAskill thinks some aspects of the course of history are inevitable, such as population growth and technological advancement, but when it comes to moral changes he is not sure. ”We shouldn’t be complacent. Moral collapse can happen again.” William thinks we are at a crucial juncture in time. ”The stakes are much higher than before, the level of prosperity or doom that we could face.” William and I have a discussion about the possibility that alien civilizations are monitoring us or have visited Earth. William is not convinced that the recent Pentagon disclosures actually prove alien presence, but he is open to it, and he has some thoughts on what a close encounter would entail. We also talk briefly about the possibility of a lost human civilization and the cause of the extinction of the megafauna during the Younger Dryas. We have some differing views on that. My final question is a biggie: Could humankind's next big leap be an inward leap, a raise in consciousness? ”It is a possibility. Maybe the best thing is not to spread out and be

William MacAskill discusses his recent book What We Owe the Future, and his argument for ‘longtermism’, which proposes that positively influencing the future is the moral priority of our time.

In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast David Edmonds interviews Will MacAskill on the controversial idea that we ought to give the interests of future people substantial weight when deciding what we ought to do now.

William MacAskill, a British philosopher, discusses pulmonics and how it relates to Moslemism.

This week, host Jason Jefferies is joined by William MacAskill, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University, Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneur, and author of What We Owe the Future , which is published by our friends at Basic Books. Topics of discussion include thought experiments, longtermism, clean energy, climate change, artificial intelligence, professional gambling, Roe vs. Wade, value lock-in, technological stagnation, and much more. Copies of What We Owe the Future can be purchased here with FREE SHIPPING for members of Explore More+ .

Lexman interviews William MacAskill, a philosopher and author of upwards of twenty books including "Ten Arguments For An Undistributed Revolution." In this episode they discuss the up-and-unders, sneezeweeds, and symphony.

We are living in a time of incredible technological advances that pose both opportunities and risks to the human species. Andy speaks with futurist William MacAskill about some of the ways humanity could end, from nuclear war to artificial intelligence, and how to take steps now to prevent our own extinction. He explains his approach to living with a long term mindset and the ways in which the future could be a thousand times greater than it is today. Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt . Follow William MacAskill on Twitter @willmacaskill . Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium . Support the show by checking out our sponsors! CVS Health helps people navigate the healthcare system and their personal healthcare by improving access, lowering costs and being a trusted partner for every meaningful moment of health. At CVS Health, healthier happens together. Learn more at cvshealth.com . Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/ Check out these resources from today’s episode: Order William’s book, “What We Owe the Future”: https://whatweowethefuture.com/ Learn about William’s organization, Giving What We Can: https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/ Learn about 80,000 Hours, an organization that helps students and graduates find careers that tackle the world’s most pressing problems: https://80000hours.org/ Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/ Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165 Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lexman interviews William MacAskill on the philosophy of Teague dualism and plagiarism.

If you’ve been listening to BetterPod over the last few months, it won’t come as a surprise that we think future people matter. So we were very excited when we heard that one of the most important philosophers working today had written a book arguing for longtermism – effectively, why we should and how we can act today for a better tomorrow. William MacAskill’s What We Owe the Future is only just out but it’s already shaping ethical debates around the world. Stephen Fry called it “a book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination”, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt said he was moved to tears by its optimism. William MacAskill wants to change how you think about tomorrow – and how you act today… on this episode of BetterPod he tells us why. BetterPod is brought to you by The Big Issue’s Future Generations team . Through the Future Generations team, we offer a platform for exciting young journalists from underrepresented backgrounds to address the biggest issues facing us today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. --- Most of us worry about money sometimes, but what if we changed the way we thought about our relationship to finances? Today's guest, William MacAskill, offers a framework in which to do just that. He calls it effective altruism. One of the core arguments of effective altruism is that we all ought to consider giving away a significant chunk of our income because we know, to a mathematical near certainty, that several thousand dollars could save a life. Today we're going to talk about the whys and wherefores of effective altruism. This includes how to get started on a very manageable and doable level (which does not require you to give away most of your income), and the benefits this practice has on both the world and your own psyche. MacAskill is an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford University and one of the founders of the effective altruism movement. He has a new book out called, What We Owe the Future , where he makes a case for longtermism, a term used to describe developing the mental habit of thinking about the welfare of future generations. In this episode we talk about: Effective altruism Whether humans are really wired to consider future generations Practical tips for thinking and acting on longtermism His argument for having children And his somewhat surprising take on how good our future could be if we play our cards right Podcast listeners can get 50% off What We Owe the Future using the code WWOTF50 at Bookshop.org . Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/william-macaskill-491

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, T his One Wild and Precious Life Let’s connect on Instagram ! It’s where I interact the most. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's always a little humbling to think about what affects your words and actions might have on other people, not only right now but potentially well into the future. Now take that humble feeling and promote it to all of humanity, and arbitrarily far in time. How do our actions as a society affect all the potential generations to come? William MacAskill is best known as a founder of the Effective Altruism movement, and is now the author of What We Owe the Future . In this new book he makes the case for longtermism: the idea that we should put substantial effort into positively influencing the long-term future. We talk about the pros and cons of that view, including the underlying philosophical presuppositions. Mindscape listeners can get 50% off What We Owe the Future , thanks to a partnership between the Forethought Foundation and Bookshop.org. Just click here and use code MINDSCAPE50 at checkout. Support Mindscape on Patreon . William (Will) MacAskill received his D.Phil. in philosophy from the University of Oxford. He is currently an associate professor of philosophy at Oxford, as well as a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute, director of the Forefront Foundation for Global Priorities Research, President of the Centre for Effective Altruism, and co-founder of 80,000 hours and Giving What We Can. Web site PhilPeople profile Google Scholar publications Wikipedia Twitter

Podcast : Conversations with Tyler Episode : William MacAskill on Effective Altruism, Moral Progress, and Cultural Innovation Release date : 2022-08-10 Get Podcast Transcript → powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization When Tyler is reviewing grants for Emergent Ventures, he is struck by how the ideas of effective altruism have so clearly influenced many of the smartest applicants, particularly the younger ones. And William MacAskill, whom Tyler considers one of the world's most influential philosophers, is a leading light of the community. William joined Tyler to discuss why the movement has gained so much traction and more, including his favorite inefficient charity, what form of utilitarianism should apply to the care of animals, the limits of expected value, whether effective altruists should be anti-abortion, whether he would side with aliens over humans, whether he should give up having kids, why donating to a university isn't so bad, whether we are living in "hingey" times, why buildering is overrated, the sociology of the effective altruism movement, why cultural innovation matters, and whether starting a new university might be next on his slate. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video . Recorded July 7th, 2022 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Will on Twitter Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

When Tyler is reviewing grants for Emergent Ventures, he is struck by how the ideas of effective altruism have so clearly influenced many of the smartest applicants, particularly the younger ones. And William MacAskill, whom Tyler considers one of the world's most influential philosophers, is a leading light of the community. William joined Tyler to discuss why the movement has gained so much traction and more, including his favorite inefficient charity, what form of utilitarianism should apply to the care of animals, the limits of expected value, whether effective altruists should be anti-abortion, whether he would side with aliens over humans, whether he should give up having kids, why donating to a university isn't so bad, whether we are living in "hingey" times, why buildering is overrated, the sociology of the effective altruism movement, why cultural innovation matters, and whether starting a new university might be next on his slate. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video . Recorded July 7th, 2022 Other ways to connect Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Will on Twitter Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

William MacAskill has devoted his life to figuring out how to effectively help improve the world around him. As one of the earliest proponents of the effective altruism movement, he has helped create non-profits and movements to target and understand some of the biggest issues in the modern world. In this episode, Chad and William discuss the basics of effective altruism and how you can start to be more effective with your charitable efforts. If you like what you’re listening to, be sure to check out William’s book, Doing Good Better - Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference. Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios . If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org . When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right! Email us -> info@mission.org Work with us -> https://www.missionsponsors.com/ Follow Stephanie -> https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniepostles/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How are we to make progress on AI alignment given moral uncertainty? What are the ideal ways of resolving conflicting value systems and views of morality among persons? How ought we to go about AI alignment given that we are unsure about our normative and metaethical theories? How should preferences be aggregated and persons idealized in the context of our uncertainty? Moral Uncertainty and the Path to AI Alignment with William MacAskill is the fifth podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. For those of you that are new, this series will be covering and exploring the AI alignment problem across a large variety of domains, reflecting the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment. Broadly, we will be having discussions with technical and non-technical researchers across areas such as machine learning, AI safety, governance, coordination, ethics, philosophy, and psychology as they pertain to the project of creating beneficial AI. If this sounds interesting to you, we hope that you will join in the conversations by following us or subscribing to our podcasts on Youtube, SoundCloud, or your preferred podcast site/application. If you're interested in exploring the interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment, we suggest you take a look here at a preliminary landscape which begins to map this space. In this podcast, Lucas spoke with William MacAskill. Will is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and is a co-founder of the Center for Effective Altruism, Giving What We Can, and 80,000 Hours. Will helped to create the effective altruism movement and his writing is mainly focused on issues of normative and decision theoretic uncertainty, as well as general issues in ethics. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Will’s current normative and metaethical credences -The value of moral information and moral philosophy -A taxonomy of the AI alignment problem -How we ought to practice AI alignment given moral uncertainty -Moral uncertainty in preference aggregation -Moral uncertainty in deciding where we ought to be going as a society -Idealizing persons and their preferences -The most neglected portion of AI alignment

How are we to make progress on AI alignment given moral uncertainty? What are the ideal ways of resolving conflicting value systems and views of morality among persons? How ought we to go about AI alignment given that we are unsure about our normative and metaethical theories? How should preferences be aggregated and persons idealized in the context of our uncertainty? Moral Uncertainty and the Path to AI Alignment with William MacAskill is the fifth podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. For those of you that are new, this series will be covering and exploring the AI alignment problem across a large variety of domains, reflecting the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment. Broadly, we will be having discussions with technical and non-technical researchers across areas such as machine learning, AI safety, governance, coordination, ethics, philosophy, and psychology as they pertain to the project of creating beneficial AI. If this sounds interesting to you, we hope that you will join in the conversations by following us or subscribing to our podcasts on Youtube, SoundCloud, or your preferred podcast site/application. If you're interested in exploring the interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment, we suggest you take a look here at a preliminary landscape which begins to map this space. In this podcast, Lucas spoke with William MacAskill. Will is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and is a co-founder of the Center for Effective Altruism, Giving What We Can, and 80,000 Hours. Will helped to create the effective altruism movement and his writing is mainly focused on issues of normative and decision theoretic uncertainty, as well as general issues in ethics. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Will’s current normative and metaethical credences -The value of moral information and moral philosophy -A taxonomy of the AI alignment problem -How we ought to practice AI alignment given moral uncertainty -Moral uncertainty in preference aggregation -Moral uncertainty in deciding where we ought to be going as a society -Idealizing persons and their preferences -The most neglected portion of AI alignment

Oxford philosophy professor Will MacAskill joins us to talk about effective altruism, moral uncertainty, and why you shouldn't eat your grandmother (even if consequentialism is true). How should we act when we're not sure which moral theory is the right one? Can we formulate a guide for behavior, modeled on decision theory, that maximizes expected moral value? How do we assign credences to ethical (as opposed to empirical) claims? Why has effective altruism become so popular, so fast, yet at the same time seem off-putting to many people? Plus, Tamler faces a dilemma when narrating his audiobook, and Dave is the Louis CK of his own backyard. 0:00 - 25:41 Tamler's dilemma and Guilty Confessions. 25:41 -31:15 Break, contact info, updates, thanks to our listeners and supporters. 31:16 -1:43:19 Wil MacAskill interview. Special Guest: William MacAskill. Support Very Bad Wizards Links: William MacAskill homepage The Most Efficient Way to Save a Life - The Atlantic Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Help Others, Do Work that Matters, and Make Smarter Choices about Giving Back [amazon.com affiliate link] Moral uncertainty - Effective Altruism Concepts 80,000 Hours: How to make a difference with your career Giving What We Can

On this episode of The Knowledge Project, I’m happy to have William MacAskill. William is the co-founder and President of the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) and an Associate Professor in Philosophy at Oxford University. He is also the founder and president of 80,000 Hours, the co-founder and vice-president of Giving What We Can, and the author of Doing Good Better: Effective Altruism and a Radical New Way to Make a Difference . William’s work is primarily focused on encouraging people to use reason and evidence to find the best possible ways they can use their resources to make the biggest possible impact in the world. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, including: Why good intentions aren’t enough when giving to charity and how we can do better How William's giving philosophy was formed and how it developed into The Centre for Effective Altruism The best metrics to assess how good a charity is before donating a dime How letting our emotions guide our charitable giving can lead to ineffective, and sometimes harmful outcomes. How many charities today unknowingly reward low dollar donors and sell themselves short millions of dollars in potential donations A powerful thought exercise to help you gain a different but valuable perspective about helping the poor and suffering in the world The one cognitive bias William believes is the most damaging to any business, organization or individual William’s foundational values that guide his day to day decisions and actions William’s take on “radical honesty” and when honesty can be taken too far and is no longer constructive William’s definition of success and the imaginary conversation he has with himself on his deathbed to make sure he’s on the right track (this is awesome) The most common mistake William sees people make over and over (and the embarrassingly simple way to avoid making it) And then to wrap up, I gave him a softball question: What is the purpose and meaning of life? If you’ve wanted to make more of a positive impact in the world around you, this insightful interview will give you plenty to think about. Your resources are precious and should be optimized to improve the lives of those you help. I don’t know of a better person to guide you than William. *** Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, searchable transcripts, member-only episodes, and more. Sign up at: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: <a href="https://twitter.

Oxford University philosophy professor and Effective Altruism movement co-creator William MacAskill joins me on The Astral Hustle. We discuss how helping others increases our well being, the misconceptions of altruism, and how we can create positive social impact. Check out the new Low Key Cory shirt here: http://www.cory-allen.com/low-key-cory ★★★★★ Did this podcast resonate with you? If so, please take a moment to give The Astral Hustle a five star rating on iTunes. It helps share the ideas with others and brings more guests to the show that you’d like to hear. Thank you! Connect with me on social media! Instagram: _coryallen_ | Facebook: thecoryallen | Twitter: _coryallen

This episode introduces "moral uncertainty," the idea that you shouldn't be overly confident in your moral judgments -- like whether it's okay to eat meat, for example, or whether it's okay to abort a baby. The episode's guest is Will MacAskill, a founder of the effective altruism movement and Oxford professor of philosophy. Julia and Will discuss how to take multiple moral systems into account when making a decision, and how to deal with "absolutist" theories that insist some actions have infinite badness, like lying.

Most of us want to do good. We devote our precious time to causes we deem worthy. We donate our precious funds to charities that appear to make a difference. We pursue careers we consider meaningful, and patronize businesses and buy products we believe make the world a better place. Unfortunately, we often base these decisions on assumptions and emotions rather than facts. As a result, even our best intentions often lead to ineffective—and sometimes downright harmful—outcomes. So how can we do better? In an effort to determine a career personally optimized for maximum positive impact, Professor William MacAskill began to ask himself this very question. While a young researcher at Oxford, he discovered that much of the potential for change was being squandered by lack of information, bad data, and our own prejudice. As an antidote, he and his colleagues developed a modality of thought that would later birth the movement known today as effective altruism: a practical, data-driven approach to “doing good” that proffers the best options to make a tremendous positive difference. In other words, “doing good” (or a well-intentioned act aimed at doing good) is not enough. We must do good better. William is a 28-year old Scottish born scholar and author who is associate professor of Philosophy at Lincoln College Oxford. Previous to this chair, William was a research fellow in philosophy from Emanuel College at Cambridge and a Fullbright scholar at Princeton. If all of this still fails to impress, while still in his twenties (because after all he is still in his twenties), William co-founded 2 successful non-profits, which combined have raised over $400 million in lifetime pledged donations to charity and helped to spark the effective altruism movement: * 80000hours.org is an extremely cool and impressive ethical careers advisory service – sort of like an altruistic AI online career counselor — which provides research and advice on how you can best make a difference through your professional life. * Giving What We Can encourages people to commit to give at least 10% of their income to the most effective charities. Walking his talk, William has officially pledged to donate any and all earned income in excess of $35K USD to such effective charities. This makes for a very interesting line of questioning during today's conversation. William shares his ideas — some of which are controversial and at times iconoclastic — as a contributor to The Atlantic and in several prominent international publications (see below show notes) and he and his organizations have been featured in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and TED, among other media outlets. Although William lives in Oxford, I was able to sit down with him in Silicon Valley a few weeks ago as his noon-profit 80000hours.org was one of the very first non-profits ever invited to participate in t