Today, Forethought and I are releasing an essay series called Better Futures, here.[1] It's been something like eight years in the making, so I’m pretty happy it's finally out! It asks: when looking to the future, should we focus on surviving, or on flourishing?

In practice at least, future-oriented altruists tend to focus on ensuring we survive (or are not permanently disempowered by some valueless AIs). But maybe we should focus on future flourishing, instead.

Why?

Well, even if we survive, we probably just get a future that's a small fraction as good as it could have been. We could, instead, try to help guide society to be on track to a truly wonderful future.

That is, I think there's more at stake when it comes to flourishing than when it comes to survival. So maybe that should be our main focus.

The whole essay series [...]

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

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First published:
August 4th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GFfKR65vHtorSKWQf/should-we-aim-for-flourishing-over-mere-survival-the-better

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Graph showing relationship between survival and flourishing, with value loss indicators.

Graph showing value scale from 0 to 1 with labeled points.

Circular diagram showing potential futures: survival (green) versus extinction risks (orange/red).

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“Should we aim for flourishing over mere survival? The Better Futures series.” by wdmacaskill

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Should we aim for flourishing over mere survival? The Better Futures series.” by wdmacaskill