Viral greentext skewers effective altruism: 10^50 unborn people as the perfect constituency
banteg · x · 2026-09-18
A widely shared greentext post retraces one person's journey from embracing effective altruism (buy mosquito nets, save lives, feel powerful) to longtermism: if future people matter, so do their grandchildren, and people 500 million years out. Open the calculator, and humanity's cosmic potential adds up to 10^50 unborn people. The punchline: none of them exist yet, none can say no, and none can falsify your assumptions — making them "the perfect constituency." A popular satire of EA-style longtermism circulating in the AI-safety/AGI community.
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