Why Watchmen's Ozymandias is the perfect lens for understanding effective altruism
vishalmisra · x · 2026-09-25
In a thread, the author argues that Watchmen—Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986-87 DC comic series (also adapted into a 2009 film)—offers a useful lens on effective altruism. Not that it "caused" EA, he clarifies, but that the character Ozymandias embodies its core tensions: existential risk, utilitarian arithmetic, and the extraordinary confidence that a small group understands the future well enough to make decisions for everyone.
Related event: Columbia Professor Uses Watchmen's Ozymandias to Explain Effective Altruism(2 posts)→
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