Warning: This Episode Gets Really Weird About How Much Good You Can Do
About this episode
Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of GiveWell and co-CEO of Open Philanthropy, makes the case for taking the far future seriously. In a conversation Klein warns 'gets really weird,' Karnofsky lays out long-termism: the idea that this century could determine the trajectory of civilization, through risks like misaligned artificial intelligence, engineered pandemics, and the advent of 'digital people' — emulated human minds. They discuss his 'Most Important Century' essay series, why he funds causes from farm animal welfare to AI safety research, the role of forecasting and 'applied epistemology' in philanthropy, and how ordinary people should think about doing good when the stakes might be astronomically larger than they appear.