#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