The Big Think Interview

“You can debate all sorts of things about how the texture of American life has changed. What you can't debate is the sheer, objective, existential fact that Americans are more alone than ever.”

“When you think about this interconnection of all these tiny causes and effects which add up to the way the world unfolds, it becomes impossible to imagine that we have complete control.”

"I'd prefer to think about a different axis, which is, should government be more or less effective? Should government work faster or slower?"

“Even if there are beliefs that we hold that are true, if we prevent people challenging those beliefs, we will lose our understanding of why they're true.”

“We are beginning to take our first steps out into the cosmic ocean… and the water seems inviting.”

“The fear of panic has killed more people than most disasters themselves.”

"We are all in orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. How big is this collection of stars? Somewhere between 200 and 400 billion suns in the Milky Way galaxy, about 100,000 light years across."

“The very same time that’s making you anxious is actually your most valuable asset. You can always create more energy and more money—but you can never create more time.”

"You need to embrace these systems and try out what's going on because if you don't understand it, you really can't hope to help your organization adapt and stay in front of this momentous, world-changing technology."

"I think happiness is not a smiling face, it's more a smiling soul."

"There is interesting ethical questions about how we should actually conduct ourselves in [a space colonization] exploration phase."

"There's a long history of people claiming planets which look Earth-like, Earth 2.0, Earth twins."

"Being aware of your mindsets is the difference between living a conscious life, where you're making choices in accord with what you actually want and going where you actually wanna go, versus being on autopilot and having those mindsets subconsciously drive all of your decisions."

“I think the key point is that doesn't mean game over. That doesn't mean we're flipped into a world, and to a point of no return.”

"What would a totalitarian society that is not well disposed to our own do if it had God-like power? We don't wanna find out."

"These days, no national news network is trusted by more than half of American adults. And that's a problem."

"Quantum mechanics and quantum entanglement are becoming very real. We're beginning to be able to access this tremendously complicated configuration space to do useful things."

"Everything that we care about, everything we experience, everything we know, we know it through our conscious awareness of it."

"The truth is that the skills that go into both motivation and manipulation are almost the same skills. The same level of persuasion, the same level of influence, the same level of charisma and dynamic creative thinking drives us to both be manipulated and be motivated."