#191 – Daniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction

Daniel Schmachtenberger is a philosopher interested understanding the rise and fall of societies and individuals. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Ground News: https://ground.news/lex – NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/lex to get free product tour – Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off – Magic Spoon: https://magicspoon.com/lex and use code LEX to get $5 off – BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Daniel’s Website: https://civilizationemerging.com/ The Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/ PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (08:05) – Aliens and UFOs (26:50) – Collective intelligence of human civilization (34:46) – Consciousness (46:08) – How much computation does the human brain perform? (49:47) – Humans vs ants (57:04) – Humans are apex predators (1:04:08) – Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Desire (1:24:05) – We can never completely understand reality (1:27:29) – Self-terminating systems (1:37:52) – Catastrophic risk (2:08:04) – Adding more love to the world (2:35:29) – How to build a better world (2:52:41) – Meaning of life (3:00:23) – Death (3:06:04) – The role of government in society (3:23:29) – Exponential growth of technology (4:09:10) – Lessons from my father (4:14:46) – Even suffering is filled with beauty