Effective Altruism: doing transhumanism better

Mollie Gleiberman

No 2023.03, IOB Working Papers from Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy (IOB)

Abstract: Effective Altruism (EA) is a Trojan horse for transhumanism, through which EA movement leaders and funders aim to naturalize transhumanism as the logical extension of the existing global aid and development sector. This paper traces transhumanism’s mainstreaming, first via its rebranding as a humanitarian effort to save lives, protect vulnerable populations, and ensure global flourishing (what I term ‘transhumanitarianism’), and later by embedding transhumanitarianism in EA (now under the rubric of ‘longtermism’). A key component of this strategy was inverting transhumanism’s techno-optimism to instead focus on safety and preventing existential risks (‘x-risk’) from emerging technologies like AI and biotechnology, while simultaneously advocating for the creation of these same technologies. The paper focuses on some components of this strategy: the use of inoculation, speculative ethics, anticipatory governance, and the mobilization of apocalyptic discourse as means for producing material outcomes in the form of policy and research agendas.

Keywords: Effective; Altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2023-04
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iob:wpaper:2023.03

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