Philosophy

Arguably, though, it could be more comparable to the rise of Homo sapiens itself, or even to the origin of life on Earth.

Philosopher & Director of Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford

I used to keep a pair of lizards in an aquarium and fed them live crickets. At the time, I didn't think twice about it—I didn't believe crickets had any inner life at all. But now I wonder if I was actually creating the worst moments of their existence by feeding them to my lizards.

Canadian science communicator and former host of Daily Planet

It's becoming increasingly clear that we don't yet know how simple an organism can be and still be conscious. There's now quite good evidence that bees not only learn tasks but can watch another bee perform one and then learn it themselves. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, no one would have believed that possible.

Canadian science communicator and former host of Daily Planet

We're the only species on Earth that keeps pets, and that alone suggests there must be a good reason for it. It's hard to even imagine a world without pets. But we do need to be aware of all these issues—from abandoning animals to breeding them to extremes simply because they look 'cool' or different.

Canadian science communicator and former host of Daily Planet

Anyone who takes the DMT space seriously is forced to live a kind of parallel life. You slip back into 'normal life mode' and almost have to ignore the implications of what you saw. It shows you that this tawdry, flimsy domain we think is foundational to reality is actually nothing more than a theatre screen.

We assumed matter was fundamental when we probably should have prioritised consciousness. If we viewed consciousness as the prima materia of reality itself, I think we'd know a lot more about these intelligences and hidden agents than we do today, had we not gone down that strict materialist path all those years ago.

The world we see is always constructed by our brain. We never have direct access to the world in itself; we only have access to the model our brain is constructing. It works as a sort of 'best guess.' The brain isn't trying to find the absolute truth or create a perfect replica of the outside world's structure. It's trying to find a model that works—one that is adaptive and allows you to function.

DMT forces you to confront the fact that we know almost nothing about the true nature of reality. Whatever image you have of what's real or possible is obliterated in an instant. You're faced with a world that isn't just strange, but so utterly incomprehensible that it transcends imagination. It's a place that shouldn't exist within our consensus reality, yet there it is—undeniable.

Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown. And the reason this is so important is that trust isn't, at its essence, an asset or an attribute or a currency. It's a belief. It's what we believe about someone or something. That definition is slightly counterintuitive because, often, when people think about trust, they talk about knowing what to expect from someone or knowing what the outcomes will be. So, they're actually thinking about trust through the language of risk, thinking about it in terms of certainty. And that's not what trust is.

Author & Leading Expert on the Sharing Economy & Collaborative Consumption

Think about a rabbit sitting in a field. If that rabbit saw a hawk circling above and decided to wait for the back-propagation step before responding, it would be dead. It has been eliminated from the gene pool. The better you model the world, and the faster you can act on that model, the more likely your genes are to survive.

I think intelligence is best understood as an entity that has the ability to improve a metric through repeated exposure over time. By that definition, machine learning algorithms are learning systems — they get better with more data and more exposures. A dog is a learning system. A cat is a learning system — you teach it a trick, reward it a few times, and it just does it from there on. And humans, of course, are the ultimate example of a learning system.

Humanity has always been concerned with the end of the world!

Co-Founder of Skype & Estonian Entrepreneur & Technologist

Consequentialism is a philosophical approach to morality which says that actions themselves don't have intrinsic value, rather- the value of actions is determined by their consequences. We should therefore should be aware of the effects and side effects of actions when establishing their value.

Co-Founder of Skype & Estonian Entrepreneur & Technologist

By definition, existential risks are those which- by definition- could terminate the species, or permanently limit the long term potential of our civilisation. Martin Rees, the distinguished scientist, said that the difference between killing 90% of humanity, and 100% of humanity is not 10%. The difference is huge. By killing 100% of humanity, you are also killing all future generations.

Co-Founder of Skype & Estonian Entrepreneur & Technologist

There's an interesting over-representation of physicists within the existentialist community. Physicists, especially astronomers and cosmologists have had a glimpse of how vast the universe is, and the potential value of it, versus our planet.

Co-Founder of Skype & Estonian Entrepreneur & Technologist

Every child should free to be a child. Every child should be free to cry and laugh. Every child should be free to learn and grow. Every child should be free to play and enjoy his or her childhood. Freedom is the key to childhood, and we must protect that.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor