How we can understand morality and values on a spectrum of well-being.

Combining his experience in neuroscience and philosophy, Sam highlights the importance of changing people’s ethical commitments, explaining that "Nearly every other important goal, from combating climate change, to fighting terrorism, to curing cancer, to saving the whales falls within its purview.” This is a rational, scientific framing of actions and mindsets to pave a path for effective altruism in the 21st century.

The book is meant to lay groundwork for further discussion and progress. Sam has said that this was an edit of his dissertation for a PhD in neuroscience at UCLA. The mission here is determining which patterns of thought and behavior we should collectively be aiming towards. Atheism is a central theme: Sam slams religion broadly, the Catholic church and Islam specifically, and an apologetics book brutally, saying "to read it is to witness nothing less than an intellectual suicide.” He was more of an edgelord back in 2010, but is essentially trying to disprove the notion that religion offers the best framework for our guiding principles, and instead to show that ethics and moral truths can, and must, stand on their own.