Ethics and the Future

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A 50-minute lesson

1. 5 min
   Opening. Ask the question and let the class answer without correcting them: What current technology do you think could cause suffering on a massive scale in the future?
2. 15 min
   Reading. Future Risks for Sentient Beings: An Introduction (16 min read) and Temporal Impartiality: What It Is and Why It Matters (8 min read). For younger classes, read the “For kids” layer: Factory farming did not exist a hundred years ago, and today it makes billions of animals suffer. In the future, new technologies could create even greater suffering that we cannot even imagine yet. Thinking about this now can help prevent it.
3. 15 min
   Discussion.

   • What current technology do you think could cause suffering on a massive scale in the future? (Future Risks for Sentient Beings: An Introduction)
   • Would you give the same weight to a pain you will feel 30 years from now as to a pain today? (Temporal Impartiality: What It Is and Why It Matters)
   • Which of your decisions affect people or animals who have not been born yet? (The Objection That Future Beings Are Merely Potential Beings)
   • What decision you make today will have an effect fifty years from now? (What Reasons Are There to Focus on the Long Term?)
4. 10 min
   Activity. Project the How Serious Is an S-Risk? tool for the class. Severity times probability: compare scenarios of future suffering. Ask each group to justify its choices.
5. 5 min
   Wrap-up. Each person writes one sentence about what changed in their thinking. Compare it with the volume summary: The future may contain far more sentient beings than the present, and far more suffering. This volume presents s-risks, temporal impartiality, longtermism, risk factors, broad and targeted strategies, and the role of politics and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Exercise sheet

1. What is the difference between s-risks and x-risks?

   1. X-risks are about the annihilation of humanity; s-risks are about astronomical suffering
   2. They are the same thing
   3. S-risks are about the economy

2. How is the seriousness of an s-risk measured?

   1. The severity of the scenario times its probability
   2. By the number of news stories
   3. By the date

3. What is temporal impartiality?

   1. Giving the same weight to a given suffering no matter when it happens
   2. Prioritizing the present
   3. Ignoring the past

4. What "double neglect" does the chapter criticize?

   1. Concern for the future that ignores animals, and concern for animals that ignores the future
   2. Ignoring the past and the present
   3. Ignoring the rich and the poor

5. The animal cause is, as a rule, already about...

   1. future beings who would be born to suffer
   2. only the animals alive today
   3. plants

6. Does denying a duty to produce new beings eliminate all duties toward future beings?

   1. Yes
   2. No
   3. Only for animals

7. The term longtermism can refer to...

   1. a goal or a practical focus
   2. only a diet
   3. a religion

8. What do people who reject the practical focus on the long term still have reasons to accept?

   1. The longtermist goal
   2. Nothing
   3. Speciesism

9. What does the chapter say about the claim that humanity is essential for preventing suffering?

   1. That it needs to be discussed, since human presence can also increase suffering
   2. That it is always true
   3. That it is irrelevant

10. Does focusing on s-risks rule out focusing on x-risks?

    1. Yes
    2. No, it can be a matter of degree
    3. Only for speciesists

The lesson plan and exercises are a study layer written for this site. The texts read are by Luciano Carlos Cunha.