Research history

Current published edition

Discounting the Future

As recorded by 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z. This is a dated public record of drafts, changes, sources and review declarations. A page, checksum or merged pull request does not establish a scientific result or independent review.

Edition: edition:2026-10-27-initial
Edition checksum: 63af9ab52aa86652f81ea1fac0b7c40aaad46cd8623865918d41ec347f9b2cd3
Projection checksum: 08a373e3b85d7ed44d36bc472444b5773f7cbd1dde11f60e0053b3ba4884b65c
Period: 2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z inclusive to 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z exclusive.
Starting baseline: Unknown before the recorded capture. Present states are not backdated to January.

JSON retains the complete pinned edition. CSV covers every recorded event in this edition; view filters do not change either download.

Recorded activity and qualification

43Stable records
45Subject versions
43Recorded events
0Review declarations
0Subjects with qualifying source review
0Peer-reviewed manuscripts
0Qualifying research results
1Editorial correction artifacts
2Changed claim subjects
23Open problems
0Partially resolved problems
0Solved problems
0Problems under review
0Unresolved challenges

Qualification follows the exact recorded public declarations. The ledger cannot establish identity, independence, source reading or truth by itself. Editorial corrections, proposed methods and software checks are separate from qualifying research results.

Coverage and limits

40 source entries are covered by this edition. Claim-level records cover only their selected wording and context; they do not qualify a whole manuscript. Source-derived case labels describe the published summaries, not Charitology fieldwork or charity ratings.

This initial capture establishes current draft coverage, not a known January baseline or an earlier status history.
The one PR-backed artifact is an editorial correction to two claim subjects; it is not a scientific result, independent review or problem resolution.
Source-derived case descriptions and manuscript bylines do not establish performed Charitology fieldwork or documented complete human authorship.
Public GitHub observations describe only the named objects at their recorded inspection time. An empty returned review list is not proof about reviews elsewhere.

Entry links open the present site. The separate pinned source text retains this edition’s exact archived bytes.

Discounting the Future · Research problem · version 1

Source review: draftProblem: open

problem:discounting-the-future

No current qualifying whole-entry source/framing review is recorded.

Effective problem state: open
Last recorded state: open
Current support: baseline
Last recorded disposition: No scientific disposition is recorded.

Qualification follows the exact recorded public declarations. The ledger cannot establish identity, independence, source reading or truth by itself.

Versions and exact subjects

Version entries 1–1

Version 1: Discounting the Future

Current subject in this edition

Subject checksum: 8e1d5aaf29db2c5927c4633b156c99a37928354332b9261756cb017a1517e9a5
Version checksum: 695ce8da32651f4eb467db584c699374263d274b9ff92c7b82e0252ed42bb1f3
Authorship declaration: unknown; completeness unknown.

bounty

Unfunded. The Question Bounties program will attach prizes once it is funded.

conditions

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    "id": "short-horizon"
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]

number

progress

A clear map of the positions, what each implies for allocation, and which facts would change the answer.

statement

How much should future people count, and how should giving weigh present suffering against risks to the future?

Exact archived Markdown body

Inert source text, including its original formatting. It is not executed as page markup.

## Why it matters

If humanity has a long future, vastly more people may live after us than are alive now. How much they count changes nearly every allocation decision. Short funding cycles may leave that choice implicit; see [the Short Horizon hypothesis](/diagnosis/short-horizon/).

## Where to start

Philosophers distinguish pure time preference (valuing the future less simply because it is later) from uncertainty about whether help will arrive. Separating the two is the first step. The [Future generations](/tools/values-compass/) framework in the Values Compass is a rough starting point.

Pinned source capture

src/content/problems/discounting-the-future.md · whole entry
4b9551d130ff277314a85627e8820186ada78cb98f975c5fb6eb47595e91e4e8 · 1039 UTF-8 bytes · commit 8df2d0ddbc6d91b9841c6bbb94dbde1fc7c00137

Exact version fields and declaration references

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      "sources": [],
      "statement": "How much should future people count, and how should giving weigh present suffering against risks to the future?",
      "title": "Discounting the Future"
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Timeline in recorded order

Public occurrence time and ledger recording time are different. A coverage baseline records what was present at capture; it does not invent an earlier history.

Events 1–1

Coverage baseline

Recorded order: 18; sequence 1 for this record.
Public occurrence: Undated / no earlier occurrence asserted · undated
Recorded in ledger: 2026-10-27T08:31:31.000Z

Initial capture of current source wording; no earlier independent review or historical event time is asserted.

Observed baseline: version 1; problem open.

Exact event fields

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Review declarations

No public review declaration is recorded for this subject in this edition.

Dated public metadata observations

These observations record only the displayed metadata at inspection. A merge, closed issue or empty review list does not establish research or independent review.

github-pull-request · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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github-pull-request · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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github-review-list · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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github-issue · 2026-10-27T08:20:16.587Z

Observed public object

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