From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
From cell to civilisation took about 4 billion years, which is a long time—a third of the age of the universe. If it takes billions of years to produce complex living things at our level, maybe there aren't many places that could sustain an unbroken chain of life for that long.
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. The better you model the world, and the faster you can act on that model, the more likely your genes are to survive.
To confront cancer is to encounter a parallel species, one perhaps more adapted to survival than we are. This image- of cancer as our desperate, malevolent, contemporary doppelganger- is so haunting because it is at least partly true.
Similar to the 'use it or lose it' principle that applies to muscles, our brains engage in a nightly routine that stimulates thoughts and ideas not typically relied upon during the day. This built-in process keeps our thinking adaptive and nimble, fostering divergent thoughts and offering an evolutionary advantage.
Here's the simple truth everyone should know: 'race' doesn't exist. In 1950, UNESCO held a commission with the world's top evolutionary biologists, ethnologists and cultural anthropologists examining the scientific evidence for this so-called concept of 'race'. Their conclusion was clear: race doesn't exist – there's no evidence to support it.
If we want to build or maintain function, we need to apply a stimulus. And then, as much as we can, we need to provide the environment that allows us to best adapt to that stimulus.
Asserting that one is healthy without being fit is a tough proposition. The hard truth is that a lack of fitness tends to correlate with subpar health, and this isn't a bold claim on my part – it's a conclusion that is well-supported by objective research.
Our ultimate goal is to use this comprehensive analysis to identify the most crucial health improvement strategies for each individual. In essence, we aim to convert complex data into simple, strategic solutions.
The thing that makes us so unique is that we, unlike most every other species, have no niche. A niche is an opportunity which a species exploits- and our niche is niche switching. We move from one niche to another, even without major changes to our physical biology.
Birds are not born with an innate genetically determined knowledge of constellations. What they do has been brilliantly shown in an experiment by Stephen Emlen.
Transport, natural disasters, the distribution of resources, globalisation – engineers and inventors have the traits and skillset to solve the problems the world faces today. And therefore have the potential to impact the world and economy. The economy can be boosted by exporting tangible technology that is in global demand. This is the hands of engineers.
It's a roll of the dice whenever one of these novel viruses emerges; sometimes they will be severe and contagious enough to cause a problem, and this one is.