Effective altruism is this century's biggest idea
The Economist's leader argues that effective altruism, an ethical doctrine born at Oxford, has moved from academia to the corridors of power with remarkable speed. Its adherents populate Silicon Valley and lead top AI companies, while the Trump administration brands it 'defective altruism' and 'dystopian.' The movement is admirable, the article concludes, but dangerous.
Thought precedes deed as lightning precedes thunder, wrote the poet Heinrich Heine.