Philosophy

Space is a pretty scary place. Here on Earth, we're surrounded by nature and a nice blue sky. You don't realise that 16km above you, things start to go black…. 100km it's an inhospitable vacuum that will kill you in less than 60 seconds. Think how far we've come as humanity- we're a living species who have managed to escape our own planet.

British Astronaut & ISS Expedition Commander

As far as we know, space goes on for infinity, and yet is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. What is out there? We only understand about 5% of the universe, the rest is made-up of dark energy, dark matter and things we've yet to fully understand. Space triggers that innate curiosity in us about what's out there, where we came from, and the possibilities those answers could bring.

British Astronaut & ISS Expedition Commander

People ask me all the time what do you want to be known for? My answer is simple. I want people to say 'Shaquille O'Neal was a nice guy…' forget how much money I made, forget how many championships I won, or what type of businessman I am.

Hall of Fame NBA Center & 4-Time NBA Champion

Before you succeed, you must first learn to fail. If you keep repeating the same thing, you're always going to fail, you need to adjust. We have to look at failures and use them as an educational tool.

Hall of Fame NBA Center & 4-Time NBA Champion

I never started off with money, I started off with love. The love of being an entrepreneur. The love of being a lawyer. The love of being an athlete. When you start off with love, people will love and respect you and you will always be monetarily rewarded.

Hall of Fame NBA Center & 4-Time NBA Champion

To achieve greatness means to maximise your potential at the highest possible level, and the highest possible rate. I don't really consider myself the best, but the fact that people consider me the best I take as a great honour and as testament to the hard work and what I was able to achieve.

Hall of Fame NBA Center & 4-Time NBA Champion

I would have played basketball for $120,000 for 7 years rather than $120 million, because I loved to play basketball. I never said to myself that I would only play basketball if they pay me $100million – I played basketball because I loved basketball.

Hall of Fame NBA Center & 4-Time NBA Champion

For me, the key has been to become more and more humble over time in a way that I realise that I shouldn't be interfering with the magic and beauty of what an entrepreneur can do.

Prominent venture capitalist and early Tesla investor at Draper Fisher Jurvetson

There are all kinds of things where we can use technology to reflect our own humanity to better us.

Creator of AI baby "Baby X" & facial animation technology pioneer

The ultimate goal is to be in a state of flow with machines. Think about people working with horses, or herding cattle with a dog, they are examples of interactions with other intelligent creatures in a way which is fluid and allows us to achieve something we couldn't do ourselves.

Creator of AI baby "Baby X" & facial animation technology pioneer

We take ethics very seriously – and it's important to never fool the user. It must be clear that you are dealing with a digital person, not a real person, and at the same time you cannot create any dependency.

Creator of AI baby "Baby X" & facial animation technology pioneer

In the West, we say things like, 'human connection is very important' but in reality, human existence is connection and when we lack the right kind of webs of connection with each other, we cease to exist.

Connection is not a nice to have. When we lose the right kinds of connections with others, we start to feel we don't exist.

The most corrupting idea about power is that it gives you a set of techniques to enable you to get more of what you want, no questions asked. If we think about power in that way, our soul will get eroded.

I could have been born in the third century as a goat herder in Mongolia, or even as a goat. This is the realization that should open up a mental horizon where we can say, 'I know I'm going to die – maybe in the future, maybe in the next few minutes – and therefore every minute I'm here is precious.'

Terror Management Theory researcher & social psychologist

Without what Becker called 'cultural world views' we would be overwhelmed by existential terror. Beliefs about reality that we share foster psychological equanimity by giving us a sense of meaning and value.

Terror Management Theory researcher & social psychologist