Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue. The throughline of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal. Towards these ends, he’s had particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science.

Motivated by the belief that advancing collective intelligence and capacity is foundational to the integrity of any civilization, and necessary to address the unique risks we currently face given the intersection of globalization and exponential technology, he has spoken publicly on many of these topics, hoping to popularize and deepen important conversations and engage more people in working towards their solutions.

0:00 0:55 Intro
0:55 11:45 What is Game Theory?
11:45 18:13 Human Nature
18:13 27:30 How Technology Conditions Humanity WOW
27:30 43:00 Is Tech moving Too Fast for Humans to Adapt to it? Excellent
43:00 52:20 Perverse Incentives
53:20 1:01:50 The Mostly False Progress Narrative
1:01:50 1:09:04 Why Modern Humans Feel Empty Very Good, but not knew
1:09:04 1:31:08 Who will pass on their genes?
1:31:08 1:47:38 Why should we care about the Meta Crisis? Fantastic
1:47:38 1:59:54 What is a healthy culture & healthy progress?
1:59:54 2:25:15 Spiritual Beliefs & Compassion
2:25:15 2:48:20 Authentic Positive Progress & Regulation
2:48:20 2:52:21 Can AI be Regulated?
2:52:21 3:03:00 After AI, what will be the purpose of Humans?
3:04:30 3:24:08 Is Democracy Over?
3:24:08 3:33:50 Curiosity vs. Cognitive Bias
3:33:50 3:38:42 Life Perspective