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4 interviews · 10 quotes
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In this interview, I speak to Robert Sapolsky about the foundational relationship between the idea of free will and human civilisation. We discuss how science demonstrates that free will is nothing more…
Rebecca Heiss, PhD, is an evolutionary biologist and stress physiologist who empowers the current and next generation of leaders to live more, fear(less) lives. Through her deep understanding of how evolution has…
In this interview I speak to Victor Vescovo - one of only two people ever to have stood at Earth’s highest peak, descended to its deepest trench, and looked back at the…
I speak to Nobel Prize Winner, Professor Alvin Roth on 'Moral Economics', exploring repugnant transactions — exchanges willing parties want but others would ban. Drawing on kidney exchange, vaccine challenge trials, surrogacy,…
From the archive
No one chooses their level of creativity. Understanding the neurological underpinnings of our reactions to art doesn't detract from the beauty and awe these creations inspire.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
When you examine how these myriad factors intertwine, from genetics and evolution to the proteins synthesized mere minutes ago, you see a continuous arc. In my view, there's no room in this intricate web for free will.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
We can be sexually aroused by a mere text message, tapping into a primal sensory system in a bizarre way. We can feel empathy for someone on the other side of the globe. We can perpetrate violence, like dropping a bomb from 30,000 feet, without ever seeing the victim's face.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
Intelligence and self-deception appear to have co-evolved, with the belief that we are fully in control of our destinies serving as a mental safeguard, despite its inaccuracy.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
Consider a car with malfunctioning brakes; it's unsafe to let it on the street, as it could cause harm. You'd need to confine it, but you wouldn't punish it or moralize its malfunction. Instead, you'd seek to understand why its brakes failed. This approach mirrors how we should handle human criminality.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
We must start by eliminating a culture that falsely implies the existence of agency where there is none and condones differential treatment of individuals based on a misguided notion of self-control.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
Consider a car with malfunctioning brakes; it's unsafe to let it on the street, as it could cause harm. You'd need to confine it, but you wouldn't punish it or moralize its malfunction. Instead, you'd seek to understand why its brakes failed.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
We must start by eliminating a culture that falsely implies the existence of agency where there is none and condones differential treatment of individuals based on a misguided notion of self-control.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
When you examine how these myriad factors intertwine, from genetics and evolution to the proteins synthesized mere minutes ago, you see a continuous arc. In my view, there's no room in this intricate web for free will.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
Intelligence and self-deception appear to have co-evolved, with the belief that we are fully in control of our destinies serving as a mental safeguard, despite its inaccuracy.
— Robert SapolskyNeuroscientist & primatologist known for stress research and public engagement
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