Note: Funding Information: We acknowledge the hundreds of researchers and engineers worldwide who have contributed to the ngEHT and have helped to define the direction of this collaboration. In particular, we are grateful to the members of the History Philosophy Culture (HPC) Working Group, and the attendees of the 1st HPC Workshop and Responsible Siting Workshop, as well as to J. Nguyen for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. N.C.M.M. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the funding received under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 101065772 (PhilDarkEnergy) and the ERC Starting Grant agreement no. 101076402 (COSMO-MASTER). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. A.C.T, N.C.M.M, S.S.D., P.G. and M.D.J. acknowledge the Black Hole Initiative, a project funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. It was also made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these foundations. S.S.D. and M.D.J. acknowledge support from National Science Foundation grant AST-1935980, and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant GBMF10423. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.