Description
This paper offers a critique of the perspective of the really long-term future, hereby referred to as longtermism (MacAskill 2022) as it has come to function in contemporary discourse in international relations. By focusing on the long-term future, the temporal move of longtermism is eschatological; casting time as a linear unidirectional movement towards the eventual rupture of the superintelligence, and the ensuing upending of humanity. I argue that the eschatological time in longtermism is fundamentally conservative, preserving of the elites of the status quo. Furthermore, I argue that the conservative political project of longtermism only becomes intelligible through a temporal lens; only by focusing on how individuals associated with longtermism use imageries of time to reproduce and enhance power in the moment can we fully appreciate the political project of the movement. Longtermism has become increasingly more important as representatives of the movement are gaining influence both at world-leading research institutions, and in the wording of the coming Summit of the future in the United Nations. This paper represents a first attempt at understanding the kind of political project that becomes possible through the perspective of the really long-term.
