Toby Ord

Ord was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1979. He later attended the University of Melbourne, where he initially studied computer science. On completing his first degree, he switched to studying philosophy to pursue his interest in ethics, later stating: "At this stage I knew that I wanted to make a large positive difference in the world and it seemed that studying ethics would help."{{cite web| url=http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/member-profiles.php| title=Giving What We Can, Our Members| publisher=Giving What We Can| access-date=9 December 2012| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120327022841/http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/member-profiles.php| archive-date=27 March 2012| df=dmy-all}}

For his graduate studies, Ord moved to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a B.Phil., and a D.Phil. in philosophy. Having submitted his doctoral thesis, Beyond Action: Applying Consequentialism to Decision Making and Motivation, Ord was retained as a junior research fellow by Balliol College, Oxford.{{cite web | url=http://www.amirrorclear.net/academic/toby-ord-cv.pdf| title=Toby Ord CV | access-date=17 April 2024}}

Ord held the position of research fellow at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute from 2014 until 2019, and senior research fellow from 2019 until the institute's shutdown{{Cite web |date=2024-04-17 |title=Future of Humanity Institute |url=https://www.futureofhumanityinstitute.org/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417000845/https://www.futureofhumanityinstitute.org/ |archive-date=17 April 2024 }} in 2024. Ord describes his focus as "the big picture questions facing humanity."{{cite web| url=http://www.tobyord.com | title=Toby Ord| access-date=21 February 2020| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224085422/http://www.tobyord.com/| archive-date=24 December 2019| df=dmy-all}} He is a trustee of the Centre for Effective Altruism{{cite web| url=https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/team/ | title=Centre for Effective Altruism, Team| publisher=Centre for Effective Altruism| access-date=7 February 2020| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429003441/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/team/| archive-date=29 April 2019| df=dmy-all}} and of the non-profit organization 80,000 Hours, researching careers that have the largest positive social impact and providing career advice based on that research.{{cite web| url=https://80000hours.org/about/meet-the-team/ | title=80,000 Hours, Meet The Team| publisher=80,000 Hours| access-date=7 February 2020| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429003441/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/team/| archive-date=29 April 2019| df=dmy-all}}

Ord's work has been primarily in moral philosophy. In applied ethics, he has worked on bioethics, the demands of morality, and global priority setting. He has also made contributions in global health, as an advisor to the third edition of Disease Control Priorities Project.{{cite web|url=http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/blog/2014-05-13/toby-ord-and-dcp3|title = Toby Ord and DCP3|last = Hutchinson|first = Michelle|date = May 13, 2014|access-date = May 14, 2014|publisher = Giving What We Can}} In normative ethics, his research has focused on consequentialism and on moral uncertainty.

Ord's current main research interest is existential risk. His book on the topic The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity was published in March 2020. The New Yorker characterizes Ord's research motivation as follows:{{Cite magazine|last=Purtill|first=Corinne|title=How Close Is Humanity to the Edge?|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/how-close-is-humanity-to-the-edge|access-date=2020-11-27|magazine=The New Yorker|date=21 November 2020|language=en-us}}

A concern for existential risk seemed, to Ord, to be the next logical expansion of a broadening moral circle. If we can learn to value the lives of people in other places and circumstances equally to our own, then we can do the same for people situated at a different moment in time. Those future people, whose quality of life and very existence will be intimately affected by our choices today, matter as much as we do.

Ord has written papers on the viability and potentials for hypercomputation, models of computation that can provide outputs that are not Turing-computable such as a machine that could solve the halting problem.{{Cite web|url=https://arxiv.org/search/math?searchtype=author&query=Ord%2C+T|title = Search | arXiv e-print repository}}

At Oxford, Ord resolved to give a significant proportion of his income to the most cost-effective charities he could find. Following a number of enquiries from people interested in making a similar commitment, Ord decided to set up an organisation geared towards supporting like-minded donors.{{Cite web |title=Our history |url=https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/about-us/history |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=www.givingwhatwecan.org |language=en}} In 2009, Ord launched Giving What We Can, an international society whose members have each pledged to donate at least 10% of their income to the most cost-effective charities. The organisation is aligned with, and part of, the effective altruism movement. Giving What We Can seeks not only to encourage people to give more of their money to charity but also stresses the importance of giving to the most cost-effective ones,{{cite web | url=http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/resources/recommended-charities.php | title=Putting Charities to the Test | author= Tina Rosenberg | date= 5 December 2012 | work=The New York Times | access-date=22 June 2014}} arguing that "you can often do 100x more good with your dollar by donating to the best charities."{{cite web | url=http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/resources/recommended-charities.php | title=Giving What We Can, Recommended Charities | publisher=Giving What We Can | access-date=9 December 2012}}{{Cite web |title=What are the best charities to donate to in 2024? |url=https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/best-charities-to-donate-to-2024 |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=www.givingwhatwecan.org |language=en}} By July 2024, Giving What We Can had grown to over 9,000 members, who have already donated $253 million to effective charities.{{cite web| url=https://www.givingwhatwecan.org | title=Giving What We Can| publisher=Giving What We Can| access-date=18 February 2020| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207024238/https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/| archive-date=7 February 2020| df=dmy-all}}

Ord himself decided initially to cap his income at £20,000 per year, and to give away everything he earned above that to well-researched charities. A year later, he revised this figure down to £18,000.{{cite web | url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204528204577010061347756838?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052970204528204577010061347756838.html | title=Small sacrifice, big return | author= Javier Espinoza| date=28 November 2011 | publisher=The Wall Street Journal | access-date=22 June 2014}} This threshold rises annually with inflation.{{cite web | url=https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/post/2021/05/how-much-money-should-we-donate-to-charity/ | title= How much money should we donate to charity? | author= Luke Freeman | date=28 May 2021 | publisher=Giving What We Can | access-date=28 May 2021}} As of December 2019, he had donated £106,000, or 28 percent of his income.{{cite web| url=https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/2/20982600/charity-10-percent-tithe-giving-what-we-can-toby-ord | title=This man has donated at least 10% of his salary to charity for 10 years running | publisher=Vox | access-date=21 February 2020| url-status=live| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191221073933/http://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/2/20982600/charity-10-percent-tithe-giving-what-we-can-toby-ord | archive-date = 2019-12-21 | df=dmy-all}} Over the course of his career, he expects his donations to total around £1 million.{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11950843 | title=Toby Ord: Why I'm giving £1m to charity | date=13 December 2010 | publisher=BBC | access-date=23 February 2020}}

Ord lives in Oxford with his wife, Bernadette Young, a medical doctor.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/dec/24/toby-ord-bernadette-young-joy-of-giving/print | title=The Saturday interview: Toby Ord and Bernadette Young on the joy of giving | author= Susanna Rustin | date=24 December 2011 | work=The Guardian | access-date=22 June 2014}}

• 2020 – The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, Toby Ord, {{ISBN|0316484911}}
• 2020 – Moral Uncertainty, William MacAskill, Krister Byvist, & Toby Ord, {{ISBN|0198722273}}

• 2019 – {{cite journal |first=Toby |last=Ord |title=An upper bound for the background rate of human extinction |journal=Scientific Reports|year=2019 |volume=9 |issue= 1|pages= 11054|doi= 10.1038/s41598-019-47540-7|pmid=31363134 |pmc=6667434 |bibcode=2019NatSR...911054S }}
• 2018 – {{cite arXiv |first1=Anders |last1=Sandberg |first2=Eric |last2=Drexler |first3=Toby |last3=Ord |title=Dissolving the Fermi Paradox |year=2018 |class=physics.pop-ph |eprint=1806.02404}}
• 2015 – {{cite journal |first=Toby |last=Ord |title=Moral Trade |journal=Ethics |volume=126 |url=}}
• 2014 – {{cite report |first1=Nick |last1=Beckstead |first2=Toby |last2=Ord |title=Managing Existential Risk from Emerging Technologies |url= |date= |publisher=Government Office for Science}}
• 2014 – {{cite book |last=Ord |first=Toby |editor-last=Perry |editor-first=J |title=God, The Good, and Utilitarianism: Perspectives on Peter Singer |publisher=CUP |chapter=Global poverty and the demands of morality |date=6 February 2014 |chapter-url= |isbn=978-1107050754}}
• 2013 – {{cite report |first=Toby |date= |last=Ord |title=The Moral Imperative toward Cost-Effectiveness in Global Health |url=}}
• 2010 – {{cite journal |first1=Toby |last1=Ord |first2=Rafaela |last2=Hillerbrand |first3=Anders |last3=Sandberg |title=Probing the improbable: methodological challenges for risks with low probabilities and high stakes |journal=Journal of Risk Research |year=2008 |volume=13 |url= |arxiv=0810.5515 |bibcode=2008arXiv0810.5515O}}
• 2006 – {{cite journal |first1=Nick |last1=Bostrom |author-link1=Nick Bostrom |first2=Toby |last2=Ord |title=The reversal test: eliminating status quo bias in applied ethics |journal=Ethics |year=2006 |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=656–79 |url= |doi=10.1086/505233 |pmid=17039628 |s2cid=12861892}}

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• Reversal test
• Nick Bostrom
• William MacAskill

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://www.tobyord.com/}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Future of Humanity Institute}}

{{Effective altruism}}

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Category:1979 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Australian philosophers

Category:Academics of the University of Oxford

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:Analytic philosophers

Category:Consequentialists

Category:People associated with effective altruism

Category:People from Melbourne

Category:Utilitarians

Category:University of Melbourne alumni