The impossibility of endless growth has been accepted by systems engineers, geologists, geophysicists, and climate scientists who have closely examined our collision course with iron physical laws such as entropy, or the flow of energy in a closed system. In the words of a 2019 open letter signed by 15,000 scientists, avoiding the collapse and extinction scenarios that longtermists fear will require shifting away from “GDP growth and the pursuit of affluence toward sustaining ecosystems and improving human well-being.” A program that abstracts civilization so completely from these systems is not a serious one for thinking about the year 2122, never mind 3122. Longtermism is less a sober plan for securing the future than a fanciful scheme for locking in an eternal present that can never be.
What We Owe the Future rejects the scientific consensus that we have roughly a decade left to initiate the changes needed to preserve a living planet capable of supporting a complex civilization.
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