We've built two great contagion machines. Firstly, international travel which has enabled vast numbers of people to fly over great distances. Secondly, the internet – and in particular, the way the internet has evolved... it became a machine for disseminating contagious ideas.

Success should simply mean enjoying what you do and feeling purposeful. If you have all the money in the world but spend every day miserably staring at a computer screen, feeling bored, uninspired, not learning or contributing meaningfully, then no amount of money makes you successful.

A revealing statistic is that 80% of ten-year-olds in these countries struggle with basic comprehension, even though they can technically read individual words. This lack of understanding severely hinders their future productivity.

My understanding of humanity was changed more by working in the space industry than space travel itself. It opened up my eyes to what international collaboration can really achieve. The space industry and scientific community seem to transcend all that. You realise that you're involved in this incredible international space station that's been occupied for 20 years and which simply couldn't have succeeded if it wasn't for everyone collaborating together.

The microbiome is taking up space, so it is not letting the viruses and the bad bacteria come, adhere to the tissue and then grow. To conclude these are the two mechanisms. It's very simple.

From the data I've collected, about 2% of humanity is qualified to be an entrepreneur. If we got to a point where the full 2% pursued entrepreneurship as a viable way to live their lives? The amount of problems we would solve in human-society would be astounding.

Distraction is one of those epidemics that we didn't realise existed until quite recently. At a societal level, it's inevitable that our distraction will be impacting our ability to communicate with each other, and will lead to a lowering of focus and attention across our whole population.

I urge everyone to channel their inner teenager. Think back to those fearless days brimming with creativity and ambition. As we age, societal rewards for 'playing it safe' can stifle our innovative spirit.

Size continues to be important, but is no longer the main factor shielding the powerful from the challenges of newcomers and new arrivals.

I think this is something that would have been a lot less controversial just a few decades ago, when people still remembered that, yes, the material side of war is obviously important, but it's only ever one aspect of it. And so, I'd say the big difference here is that we have to recognise that if we ignore or downplay the human side, we could lose.

We run the very real risk now, not of going back to the 1970s, but of going back to the 1930s or 40s with economic and financial collapse, massive pandemic, and real-world wars.

It's amusing when you ask people, well name someone who became rich as a hedge fund client?