From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
If you go to any rave, or any football event, you will find people chanting in a rhythm- human beings do that. We have this sense to participate and organise- Music lets you rediscover your humanity, and your connection to humanity. When you listen to Mozart with other people, you feel that somehow- we're all in this together….
Everyone needs encouragement and everyone needs hope. I have an open policy with my foundation insofar as I don't put restrictions on who can come to my camps – I want anyone who needs it, to have access.
Bias means your mind, your experiences, and your knowledge is too narrow to take in and truly appreciate the person standing in front of you. We have to hold all humans in respect.
It is essential that the public knows how deeply science and technology affect their lives. A lot of the decisions that will impact our future are underpinned by science, and whilst sometimes these decisions are made by governments – who are elected and hopefully transparent – many are made by corporations who are not generally accountable to the public.
I need to tell my story until there are no more stories like mine. More than 97% of my friends, with whom I shared this journey, died. My mission was to be voice for all those who died on my journey, and who kept on dying.
You can go and build a schoolhouse in any village or community, but it will do nothing without impassioned and brilliant teachers. In many ways, the teacher is more important than the building because a good teacher can teach anywhere.
At the risk of being glib, in the United States, most of the narcissistic sociopaths are also devoutly religious...
It's only the latest iteration of post-1980s capitalism which has disconnected us so much from the common good, our collective interest in care and compassion. Before that, capitalism wasn't really like that – and if you think about the style of capitalism we observe in continental Europe and Asia – there's been a much higher emphasis on community.
We have reason to be optimistic, but until the public get angry enough about homelessness with politicians rather than the homeless, nothing will change. Politicians respond to public opinions that they believe are electorally significant.
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.
Increasingly heavy-handed purges of crime will simply move perpetrators into different industries, increase the severity of crime, or create extremist groups. There is very little more dangerous in the world than individuals with nothing to lose.
Poverty is a result of history first of all. Mankind was always 'poor' according to our development standards. Growth has been very high in the last two centuries, but only in the west for a while, and now