#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:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Daniel’s Website: https://civilizationemerging.com/
The Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/

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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