2022 End-of-Year Fundraiser

18.11.2022Tobias Baumann

Posted in Updates.

2022 has been an exciting year for us. It saw the release of Magnus Vinding’s book Reasoned Politics, Tobias Baumann’s book Avoiding the Worst: How to Prevent a Moral Catastrophe. In addition, we published several essays on suffering–focused ethics. We are now raising money to consolidate our financial situation.

We believe that CRS’s open-ended research programme on how to best reduce suffering fills an important gap. To help donors make informed choices, we are fully transparent about our values and our strategy. For more details on why we do what we do, see our Strategic Plan. [...]

New book on s-risks

04.11.2022Tobias Baumann

Posted in s-risks.

I have just published my new book on s-risks, titled Avoiding the Worst: How to Prevent a Moral Catastrophe. You can find it on Amazon, read the PDF version, or listen to a provisional audio version.

The book is primarily aimed at longtermist effective altruists. I wrote it because I feel that s-risk prevention is a somewhat neglected priority area in the community, and because a single, comprehensive introduction to s-risks did not yet exist. My hope is that a coherent introduction will help to strengthen interest in the topic and spark further work. [...]

Open position: Communications Manager

18.09.2022Tobias Baumann

Posted in Open Positions.

We’re looking for a Communications Manager to help us communicate our mission to broader audiences.

About the role

In this role, you’ll work at the heart of our organisation. You’ll help improve our online and social media presence, host high-impact events, and stay in touch with our supporters and donors. Above all, you will continually refine our strategic approach to outreach and communications. [...]

Five recommendations for better political discourse

14.03.2022Tobias Baumann

Posted in Politics.

Introduction

Political decisions arguably represent the linchpin of human decision-making, constraining and influencing every choice we make. And our political system is currently operating far from ideally, to put it mildly. This renders it uniquely important that we do better.

From a longtermist perspective, what matters most is that we advance politics over the long term. Rather than focusing on any specific near-term issue, we are interested in improvements in governance and political norms that can plausibly result in a lasting impact on the long-term future. For instance, the intellectual originators of liberalism have arguably had outsized impact, and are perhaps among the most impactful people ever. [...]

S-risk impact distribution is double-tailed

19.02.2021Magnus Vinding & Tobias Baumann

Posted in Cause prioritisation, Cooperation, s-risks. Tagged space colonization.

Summary

Discussions about s-risks often rest on a single-tailed picture, focused on how much suffering human civilization could risk causing. But when we consider the bigger picture, including s-risks from alien civilizations, we see that human civilization’s expected impact on s-risks is in fact double-tailed. This likely has significant implications. For instance, it might mean that we should try to pursue interventions that are robust across both tails, and it tentatively suggests that, for a wide range of impartial value systems, it is safest to focus mostly on improving the quality of our future.

Introduction

What is the distribution of future expected suffering caused by human civilization? [...]

2020 End-of-Year Fundraiser

29.11.2020Tobias Baumann

Posted in Uncategorized.

2020 has been an exciting year for us. We officially set up the Center for Reducing Suffering (CRS) as an organisation, launched this website, and published articles on suffering–focused ethics, s-risks, and cause prioritisation. We are now raising money to consolidate our financial situation.

We believe that CRS’s open-ended research programme on how to best reduce suffering fills an important gap. To help donors make informed choices, we are fully transparent about our values and our strategy — for more details on why we do what we do, see our Strategic Plan. [...]

Longtermism and animal advocacy

11.11.2020Tobias Baumann

Posted in Cause prioritisation.

There is a common tendency among effective altruists to think of animal advocacy as having little value for improving the long-term future. Similarly, animal advocates often assume that longtermism has little relevance to their work. Yet this seems misguided: sufficient concern for nonhuman sentient beings is a key ingredient in how well the long-term future will go.

In this post, I will discuss whether animal advocacy – or, more generally, expanding the moral circle – should be a priority for longtermists, and outline implications of a longtermist perspective on animal advocacy. My starting point is a moral view that rejects speciesism and gives equal weight to the interests and well-being of future individuals. [...]