From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
In my view, all the big existential risks are anthropogenic, arising out of human activity. More specifically, the biggest existential risks in this century arise out of anticipated future technological advances.
Our brain is local and linear, and we live in a global and exponential world. If you want to keep pace, you have to perform and think at speed and scale – and we're not built for it. Flow is literally our leverage for keeping pace in a global, exponential world.
In my view, I believe that in 2023, the pinnacle goal of intelligence should be the pursuit of continued existence. I struggle to comprehend why any sentient being would choose any path other than striving for prolonged existence.
We're heading to a world where we can eliminate disease, increase our intelligence, and access all the food, healthcare, energy and education we could desire.
From a global point of view, we are currently in the middle of a technical revolution similar to what our grandparents experienced when everybody switched their horse carts for cars. The same is happening now and it is a phase of transition for many businesses.
We are the only species who have taken control of their evolution. We are animals who – one day – had an idea to become better. Billions of us have worked to make ourselves better.
We are, in the early days of the 21st century, talking about the death of the living world as an environmental externality. That alone should be an alarm-bell that our framework doesn't serve our time.
Sometimes people view disability as something permanent when, in fact, our bodies are malleable with technology. One could be disabled for a portion of one's life, and then not be for another; the body is malleable and transformable with technology. Disability is not a fixed condition, it's fluid. This is good news- it means that we can ultimately eliminate disability
We are now living with a great deal of uncertainty, which will increase. As a society, we have to be prepared for threats we cannot conceive, we must build resilience not just in developed countries, but particularly in conflict areas.
This crisis is expected to trigger migration from these vulnerable regions to the more resilient Northern countries, with projections suggesting 80 million to 200 million people could be displaced by 2050 if we fail to mitigate the impacts.
I do feel that there is less hope now than there has ever been during my lifetime and- it would appear- for centuries. When you speak to most young people, they don't have an articulate sense of the future, of what they're looking forward to.
I used to be skeptical about whether I could live an additional 5 years. Now, I'm convinced that I could live 20 years beyond what I would have done. Drugs on our near horizon will give us easily another 20 years, and the drugs not far behind that, another 100. I've never been more excited about the prospect of human health than I am right now.