Not a sneer, nor directly related to LW/Rationalism/SSC, but perhaps still interesting to the folks of the sneer.
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/the-dangerous-ideology-of-the-tech-elite-w-phil-torres/id1507621076
A podcast about Longtermism (the ideology) and the risks of it, and how it empowers SV billionaires to ignore all current problems in the world.
E: alternative link for people who have trouble using the apple system: https://techwontsave.us/episode/116_the_dangerous_ideology_of_the_tech_elite_w_phil_torres
I appreciate the work that this podcast does (it’s near the top of my podcast app, by which I mean like literally near the top of my screen, but I put podcasts that I access frequently there so I guess that’s a compliment), because it’s frustrating to see even many leftists thinking we can just sit around and wait for technology to usher in utopia. Even if it weren’t for the urgency of climate change, the utter infeasibility of many techno-utopian proposals, the suffering of many millions of people right now, etc. the core question for me is “do you really think the people with economic power and social control are going to just give it up?” Late-stage capitalist ideology has really done a number on people’s ability to understand or even see power.
Longtermism just sounds absurd. Everyone knows that there’s no sense in planning beyond the end of the current financial quarter.
Hadn’t heard of this podcast before (there’s so many of them these days!), but it looks solid, so a I’ll give this episode a listen!