William MacAskill is a philosopher and author, born on March 24, 1987, in Scotland. He is best known for his work in the [[Effective Altruism (EA)]] effective altruism movement, which argues only evidence and reason should be used to make decisions about how to have the greatest positive impact in the world. MacAskill is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford and a research fellow at the Global Priorities Institute. In 2009, he co-founded 80,000 Hours, an organization that provides career advice for people who want to have a positive impact on the world. He also co-founded Giving What We Can, a community of people who pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to effective charities. ## Controversial views MacAskill and his cohorts believe that all human efforts should focus on eliminating existential risk that might wipe out the human race. Their more narrow philosophy of [[Longtermism]] advocates for ignoring the problems of the world today because the people alive today -- collectively -- are practically worthless next to the trillions of happy human simulations powered by other planets throughout the stars that we could possibly have in the future: if we avoid those pesky existential risks today. ## Associated with - [[Sam Bankman-Fried]] - [[Nick Bostrom]]