People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

As people, we feel our moral obligation weaken with physical as well as emotional distance from individuals in need. For example, you’re more likely to help someone dying of hunger at your feet than someone dying of hunger in another country. How does this human trait of morality dependent on distance shape our world?


The distance factor is absolutely necessary to human sanity and functionality. Our time, energy, and resources are finite. No one person can do everything. In order to accomplish anything, we must decide which issues matter the most to us personally and then work on aspects of those within our reach. it doesn't mean we are limited to small problems; we can choose to work on big things like climate change or world hunger. It doesn't mean we have to stay put; we can network or travel to reach problems of interest that are far away from our starting point. It just means that we have to make choices about what to do with the resources we have.

Nobody can be morally responsible for everything, because other people have free will and make their own choices, sometimes very bad ones. You are only responsible for what YOU do. Other people fucking up far away cannot be your problem, because they need to take responsibility for their own choices.

However, some people incline toward greater scope. People with high existential intelligence gravitate toward big questions. People with high naturalistic intelligence may feel distressed by climate change or environmental damage and need to work on those. And the higher up the pyramid of moral development or spiritual enlightenment, the more likely someone will care a lot about "humanity" as a whole and want to work on large-scale problems threatening humans. Beyond the standard levels is a theorized cosmic or transcendental level, which is where you find principles like "Don't destroy the biosphere or a planet" and "Don't impair other people's soul paths." Trying to explain why those are vitally important ethical principles to people who aren't on that level is an exercise in frustration.

One reason is because spacetime is an illusion created by incarnation. It's not real, but it can function as if it were real within the bounds of the material plane. When you're in a body, it can only be in one "place" at a "time" and other "places" can seem "far away." But when you are also aware of other layers of reality, then you have ulterior resources. You may understand that distance is just a perspective, not a reality, so it has less influence over your thinking. You may know that all souls come into life with a set of goals, so the roughly half of the global population living in poverty doesn't look like a bunch of useless mouths to feed but like a crying waste of human resources. You are still limited by finite resources, but much less so by finite mindset.

Think about what you can do well. Think about what you care about. Put them together. Go fix something. But don't burn yourself out trying to fix everything, and don't let people should on you.