LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Society tends to neglect the future in favor of the present. Positive change is the result of long, hard work by thinkers and activists. We can be pivotal in steering the future onto a better trajectory.” – Dr. William MacAskill, philosopher, author and professor with the Global Priorities Institute, University of Oxford in the United Kingdom (September 2022)
William MacAskill is a proponent of what’s known as longtermism – the view that the deep future is something we have to address now. Although most cultures, particularly in the west, provide a great many commemorations of distant ancestors – statues, portraits, buildings – we are much less willing to consider our far-off descendants. “In societies undergoing rapid change, we feel more disconnected from the distant future because we struggle to conceive what it will be like,” stated William MacAskill.