Among the extensive collection of "Essays on Longtermism", we find very little space for the question of cultural evolution and none for the idea of the civilizing process, already outlined by Norbert Elias and recently revived by Steven Pinker. This is especially surprising in the context of a collection of reflections inspired by adherence to altruism as the basis of a social movement.
A longterm vision inspired by altruism would logically consider the innate phenomenon of altruism in human behavior as a long-term cultural trend related to prosociality. Prosociality implies fostering human cooperation as the unequivocal priority mechanism for increasing well-being. It is an undeniable reality that, while all other social animals are forced to compete for scarce resources (a zero-sum game), Homo sapiens, through cooperation and technology, can increase economic resources indefinitely. What long-term plan could be more obvious than promoting the social conditions today (developing cultural resources) for the gradual increase of the human capacity for cooperation in the future? And what clearer connection could there be with altruism, which, of all prosocial options, is the one that best guarantees efficient cooperation?
A speculative exercise should be undertaken regarding the development of efficient social formulas based on altruism that can start from the present moment (of which the EA movement is a part) and that can reach the distant future that the long-term issue deals with.
A movement aspiring to an economic system based on altruism must consider human development as a process of moral evolution (cultural evolution) that is essentially a process of controlling aggression and fostering cooperation. There is nothing miraculous or mythical about the benevolent behavior from which altruistic economics originates. Benevolence is a type of innate prosociality that rewards the individual who experiences empathetic feelings. It can be experienced when we play with our young children... but also, more artificially, when we read a well-written moralistic novel (Dickens or Dostoevsky). The cultivation of benevolence can reach very sophisticated levels throughout cultural evolution. The so-called "compassionate religions" were a strategy that led to certain achievements... but whose limitations we all know today. Anyway, until now, there has been no rationalist social movement focused on cultivating benevolence with a view to incentivizing altruistic motivation.
It seems unlikely that the altruistic motivation generated by contemporary society, as it exists today, can change the world. Altruistic commitment is demanding, and the emotional rewards of benevolence as they are currently offered do not appear sufficient to incentivize it. It would be wonderful if the altruistic act itself motivated a large number of agents, but what we know about altruism to date is that its expansion usually requires the development of benevolence as a lifestyle and as a stimulus for the altruistic act.
If we consider the historical experience of moral evolution and the cultural possibilities of cultivating benevolence as a way of life, we can find keys that would facilitate an increase in altruistic motivation. A long-term vision (a radiant future) can be very guiding, since the goal to be achieved would have to be proportionate to the means to achieve it (unlike what happens with socialism).
The resemblance of this type of cultural evolutionary process (promoting a lifestyle based on cultivating benevolence to motivate altruistic action) to the "compassionate religions" of the past should not worry us, because every evolutionary process is, by necessity, "copy plus modification," and because the most sensible definitions of the religious phenomenon do not consider the supernatural element necessary (GEERTZ´S: "A system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic")
In order to develop altruism through improved behavior aided by emotionally motivating beliefs (internalized morality, moral autonomy), we now have a universe of motivational strategies of all kinds -from psychotherapy, from old religious traditions, from arts...- that can be selected through trial and error. Above all, the goal is to create an influential minority that facilitates the moral progress of conventional society as a whole. A minority as small as EA's today—one person for every half million—cannot be very influential... even assuming that the EA community had a solid and coherent ideological content.
