Cleave the Sparrow

And if you come from Silicon Valley, like Max Merchant and the other tech bros, there’s a certain ideology you probably ascribe to, called longtermism. LONGTERMISTS START with a reasonable premise: Let’s do the most good, for the most people—a fraught but classic utilitarian framing. Only here’s the twist. Longtermists believe in a future of countless digital beings, spread out across the Milky Way and galaxies far beyond. Their conservative estimate, over the next billion years or so, is that these digital humans can reach a total population of 10 to the 58th power—that’s a one with fifty-eight zeros. It’s a number so enormous, it makes our seventy quintillion planets estimate feel like the sad, sparse attendance at a Jamaican singing bowl concert. And for longtermists, it’s the big numbers that matter most.

The story's plot is a nihilist Rube Goldberg machine, BUT it is a fine excuse for a tour of interesting philosophical and scientific baubles. Every bite-sized chapter has a little digression, a little "did you know about such-and-such fun topic such as, the uncertainty principle, quantum bayesianism, rationalism in its current silicon-valley-centric incarnation, and even Sperry's split brain experiments. For a certain type of young male (I don't believe it is a coincidence that the main character is, while not *explicitly* an incel, is suffering from an unrequited love life.) I am sure this book scratches an itch and provides some chuckles. (It seems to be doing very well on Amazon.) And I plowed through it in a day because the prose is very strong and yes, amusing. But ultimately my life is not changed.