Speaking for the future | Jonathan Sumption, Sophie Howe, Hilary Greaves
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Jonathan Sumption, Sophie Howe and Hilary Greaves discuss whether public policy should focus on future generations.
Can we legislate in the interests of the future?
Watch the full debate at iai.tv/video/s...
Concerns about limited global resources and climate change have led many to argue that public policy should focus on future generations as much, or more, than current issues. And we all think we should care about the lives of our descendants. But there are risks. The future is not predictable nor the outcome of current policy. China's one-child policy, draconian as it was, imagined it was making the country better for future generations. Yet now, it looks misguided as the dangers of a falling population become apparent.
Should current policy be focussed on long term consequences rather than immediate short term goals? Can we improve our long run future and reduce the risk of annihilation with altruistic decision making? Or is this dangerous rhetoric open to abuse by interested parties and the reality that we cannot know how to act on behalf of an unknown future populace?
#politicalphilosophy #futuregenerations #climatechange
Hilary Greaves is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and a a founding director of the Global Priorities Institute.
Lord Jonathan Sumption is an author, political commentator and one of the most decorated lawyers of his generation; he sat as a judge on the Supreme Court between 2012 and 2018, and appeared as a barrister for the Hutton Inquiry. Sophie Howe is a sustainable futures and wellbeing adviser who was the first to hold the role of Future Generations Commissioner in Wales.
Philip Collins hosts.
The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics. Subscribe today! iai.tv/subscri...
For debates and talks: iai.tv
For articles: iai.tv/articles
For courses: iai.tv/iai-aca...
What are your thoughts on legislating in the interest of future generations? Let us know in the comments!
Watch the full debate here: iai.tv/video/speaking-for-the-future?CZcams&+comment
Anything we do now which is Good for All, will be Good forever.
In the end, I say “No matter your faith can have its place in space”
“Surviving the universe is a true goal”
By Dallin Sprogis
6:30 we can expect that the solar system will not last forever. And we should work towards “surviving the universe as a true goal” yet out biggest challenge is to at lest out live the existence of the solar system. The science tells us that solar systems come and go. We need to adapt to Astrophysical changes.
Democracy = together.
Ok, now i know.. well, you too may know ...
Sophie Howe is the poster-girl for modern politics: The least self-aware one in the panel with the most speaking time and a multitude of logical flaws. Jonathan Sumption explained correctly that we are horrible to predict the future and how wrong we constantly are when choosing a future path (i.e. Diesel cars) and Sophie answers that EV’s are anyway wrong because the future is public transport. Guess what Sophie, when the decision for Diesel was made we also “knew” that this would be the “right” technology. Thinking you know what the future will bring is the very hubris which creates these huge mistakes. The future might just as well be even more individual transport (i.e. small ev pods controlled by AI). Political hubris on its own might not be so problematic but paired with Sophies idea of politicians which are willing to sacrifice their careers to do unpopular things is nothing less but a proto-fascist idea of being smarter and better than ones peers and “on the right side of history”. The answer here also came from Jonathan Sumption: There is not a single despot in the world which did not think he is on the right side of history! We bred a whole generation of uneducated and un-aware politicians which make up for a lack of intellect and education with over-confidence and hubris.
2:54 I view it as we are God of those future people. Without us, they will not exist and when they do exist, we’re going to set the conditions that they get to overcome.
So, the best we can probably do is, reflect on our own experiences and knowledge and think what conditions can we change that would have made you a better version of yourself today?
4:41 Oh yea, also want to say “today’s extreme is tomorrow’s mainstream”
Think about it carefully!
I can give the analogy that the solar system is like a hard disk drive in a computer system. The hard disk drive has a manufacturing life span in the term used as “Meantime before failure”. The solar system was to manufactured in the galaxy and has a meantime before failure too. So what can the science tell us or shows us how to act accordingly.
This is the right path. Yet need to think bigger as in the science tells us and state a better analogy like “the science tells us that solar systems come and go in a galaxy” and “surviving the universe is a true goal”.
See only thinking without a BOX involve both governments and people completely working together making affordable green options available
A society that is incapable of those three most basic tasks - cooperation, planning, sharing - is doomed to fail spectacularly.
I think it fundamentally wrong and an extreme form of intellectual arrogance to presume we should or can make decisions on behalf of people who will be born 100 years hence.
If they had stopped burning coal and oil 100 years ago, many species wouldn't have gone extinct by now and maybe there would now be some hope of avoiding climate apocalypse.
I would like to see that blonde woman cycling 10 miles a day, there and back, to get to work. Like she doesn’t use a car to travel, yeah right!
9:18 all conflicts trivial. If it is human policy to “survive the universe” then war or any kind of fighting is counterproductive. The point is to ensure that the tools that don’t exist will exist long after we have entered the history books for the future generations to develop the technology that helps us achieve the goal of surviving the universe and at lest first out live the existence of the solar system.