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Lex Fridman PodcastDaniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction | Lex Fridman Podcast #191
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Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- June 14, 2021
- Duration
- 4h 15m
- Channel
- Lex Fridman Podcast
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
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/ 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/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 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 SOCIAL:
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- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
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- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
SPEAKERS
Lex Fridman
hostDaniel Schmachtenberger
guestNarrator
otherNarrator
other
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Lex Fridman and Daniel Schmachtenberger, Daniel Schmachtenberger: Steering Civilization Away from Self-Destruction | Lex Fridman Podcast #191 explores Daniel Schmachtenberger on Saving Civilization from Exponential Self‑Destruction Lex Fridman and Daniel Schmachtenberger explore how exponential technologies, fragile global systems, and primitive social structures together create a self-terminating trajectory for civilization. They contrast physical technology’s explosive growth with the stagnation of our “social technology” — governance, economics, media, and education — and argue we must rapidly upgrade the latter to safely steer the former. Daniel proposes principles for better sense‑making, participatory governance, and cultural conditioning, centered on empathy, compersion (joy in others’ joy), and long‑term thinking. Throughout, they weave in aliens, consciousness, cellular automata, markets, and personal meaning, grounding civilizational questions in both systems thinking and intimate human experience.
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