Daniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction | Lex Fridman Podcast #191

Daniel Schmachtenberger is a philosopher and founding member of The Consilience Project. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Daniel’s Website: https://civilizationemerging.com/
The Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/

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OUTLINE:
0:00 – Introduction
1:31 – Aliens and UFOs
20:15 – Collective intelligence of human civilization
28:12 – Consciousness
39:33 – How much computation does the human brain perform?
43:12 – Humans vs ants
50:30 – Humans are apex predators
57:34 – Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Desire
1:17:31 – We can never completely understand reality
1:20:54 – Self-terminating systems
1:31:18 – Catastrophic risk
2:01:30 – Adding more love to the world
2:28:55 – How to build a better world
2:46:07 – Meaning of life
2:53:49 – Death
2:59:29 – The role of government in society
3:16:54 – Exponential growth of technology
4:02:35 – Lessons from my father
4:08:11 – Even suffering is filled with beauty

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