Science

Humans can be parasitized by actual brain worms, but also by idea pathogens that cause them to behave in profoundly maladaptive ways.

Evolutionary Psychologist & Author Known for Consumer Behavior Research

Dogs, chipmunks, squirrels, fish and dolphins do not have a meta-cognitive understanding of themselves. A dog can feel sad (we think) but cannot have a meta-cognitive understanding of the fact they feel sad and what to therefore do about.

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

There is no such thing as a body in the deeper reality, nor is there such thing as a universe – these are simply constructs for species-specific modalities of experience.

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

The laws of cause and effect which govern our universe don't care about our beliefs – so we'd better find out what those laws are and try and align our beliefs to them to eliminate guesswork. The consequences if we don't? we'll get sick, we'll starve, our machines will break down.

Cognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature

Truth is an aspiration which none of us can ever know that we have attained. Nobody has a pipeline to the truth; nobody is imbued with divine revelation. We seek truth through institutions like science, journalism, governance, justice systems and record keeping. These are the bodies that make us collectively more suited to attain the truth.

Cognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature

The story of modernity is a story of scientific advance – but in reality, with every step forward, we're taking half a step backward in terms of making ourselves more fragile.

British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

Just think; our bodies are not just one single individual…. We're collections of 30-40 trillion cells that work collaboratively to create you or me. Life began 4 billion years ago on this planet as very simple prokaryotic life forms evolved into more complex individual eukaryotic life forms, multicellular life and then eventually tissues and organs.

Founder of X Prize Foundation & Singularity University

We're heading to a world where all our energy is derived from the sun and from renewables, a world where we will have a squanderable abundance of energy. There's 6,000 times more energy hitting the surface of the Earth than we consume as a species.

Founder of X Prize Foundation & Singularity University

If stem cells prove safe for use in the brain, you might use them to repair brain damage, but you might use them to increase or enhance brain function.

If morality is the science of the good, ethics is the study of that science, and bioethics is the study of that science as it relates to biosphere.

Many people think the role of bioethics is to go and see what the scientists or doctors are doing and tell them to stop because they are acting, by hypothesis, unethically. However I often find when I go and see what the scientists are doing, they are doing wonderful things and I'm very inclined to say 'great guys, keep going!'

Right now, biological evolution is not the main engine of change in the human condition. Instead, social and technological development, which occur on shorter timescales, are the predominant change-makers.

Philosopher & Director of Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford

The discovery of an effective HIV vaccine is the nirvana for all our efforts to prevent AIDS.

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We are scientifically naked in front of this threat. We do not have the diagnostics to quickly detect an MDR or XDR case. Once detected, we do not have the drugs to effectively treat the patient at reasonable cost, and we do not have a TB vaccine.

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We could partly predict where people will come from for future events.

Mobile phones can really revolutionize the study of human behavior.

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