The following is a conversation with Daniel Schmachtenberger, a founding member of the Consilience Project that is aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. He is interested in understanding how we humans can be the best version of ourselves as individuals and as collectives at all scales. Quick mention of our sponsors, Ground News, NetSuite, Four Sigmatic, Magic Spoon, and BetterHelp. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| We took a long walk the day before our conversation. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| But more than that, there's a simple magic to two strangers meeting for the first time and sharing ideas, becoming fast friends, and creating something that is far greater than the sum of our parts. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| If aliens were observing Earth through the entire history, just watching us, and we're tasked with summarizing what happened until now, what do you think they would say? What do you think they would write up in that summary? Like it has to be pretty short, less than a page. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| And then if they've watched throughout all of history, they saw the burning of Alexandria. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| There's a giant commotion that destroys a lot of things. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| And if we are going to, we're going to need some major progress rapidly in the social technologies that can guide and bind and direct the physical technologies so that we are safe vessels for the amount of power we're getting. Actually, Hitchhiker's Guide has an estimation about how much of a risk this particular thing poses to the rest of the galaxy. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| The fundamental nature of their behavior from a game theory perspective hasn't really changed. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| I know, I think Bostrom had a new article not that long ago on why that might not be the case, that the Drake equation might not be the kind of end story on it. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| As you had guests on your show discussing Tic Tac and all the ones that have visited. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| But in another sense, it could be it really could be something truly exciting that science should turn its eye towards. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| What we're interested in is the ones that we don't have better explanations for and then not just immediately jumping to a theory of what it is, but holding it as unidentified and being being curious and earnest. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| And I find this interesting enough that I think it would be silly to just dismiss it. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Now one could say, okay, well, could it be a hologram? Or would it show up on radar if radar is also seeing it? And so I don't know. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| These are like crappy drones that just floated or even like space to the level of like space junk because it is so close to our human technology. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| Just as you were saying, as per your answer for alien summarizing Earth, the starting assumption is they have similar perception systems, they have similar cognitive capabilities, and that very well may not be the case. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| So there, I've heard some things and again, like I said, I'm not going to stand behind any of these because I haven't done the level of study to have high confidence. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| So it's actually ripples through space time that they generate. Why is it that you couldn't use that, it travels the speed of light, travels at a speed which is a very weird thing to say when you're morphing space time, you could argue it's faster than the speed of light. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| I think you just jumped up the Kardashev scale so far that you're not just harnessing the power of a star, but harnessing the power of mutually rotating black holes. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| And even more than that, in the list of possible solutions of how to improve human civilization, orbiting black holes is not on the first page for you. |||||||| HIDDEN IN PREVIEW MODE ||||||| That's a little bit scary. I don't know what's scarier actually.

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