Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello everyone. And welcome to the 96 episode of the Atlas society asks. My name is Jennifer Anji Grossman. My friends call me JAG. I'm the CEO of the Atlas society. We're the leading non-profit organization. Introducing young people to the ideas of Iran in fun, creative ways, like our graphic novels and animated videos. Today, we are joined by Peter Diamandis, a man who needs no introduction, but before I even get to that, I want to remind all of you, uh, who are watching this on zoom on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn YouTube. Use the comment section, typing your questions, keep them short, and we will get to as many of them as we can. So as founder of the X prize foundation, Peter Diamandis has worked tirelessly to harness the competitive spirit to fund and solve global challenges from space exploration to carbon removal. Uh, a prize recently funded by Elon Musk in addition to founding several ventures in space, tourism communication and the medical innovation space.
Speaker 0 00:01:19 And of course, funding many more through his bold capital partners. Diamandis is the co-founder of the singularity university out of which he started abundance 360 this year, round mastermind and executive program. Peter is the New York times selling author of four books. Course there is abundance. The future is better than you think there is bold how to go big, create wealth and impact the world. There is, uh, this is I think my personal favorite, the future is faster than you think highly recommend, especially, uh, the audible is very good. And, um, this latest one that he co-authored with Rob Hariri and Tony Robbins life for us, how new breakthroughs in precision medicine can transform the quality of your life and those you love, uh, Peter, his entrepreneurial accomplishments, his audacity and his data driven optimism made him the natural choice to receive the Atlas societies, lifetime achievement award in the fall of 2020, where he also courageously came out to support us at a time when, uh, most people were not doing events. Um, he's also the subject of one of our most popular drama life videos. My name is Peter Diamandis. Peter, welcome. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:02:51 A pleasure to be here. Uh, first of all, it's a pleasure to spend time with you and your brilliance and thank you for that. And second to talk about, you know, the greatest power in the universe, the power of entrepreneurship capitalism, and just the belief that you can change the world because we can and ultimately, um, make the world a better place in the process.
Speaker 0 00:03:13 Yeah. And, and I think it's that power of mindset, which is so critical and so pivotal and where we're going to get to that because you can have all of the IQ points, you could have all of the connections, but, uh, you know, as we saw, I mean, today is actually March 16th. It's the two year anniversary two year, um, of the, of two years of when the lockdowns were imposed here in the United States. And, um, of course, many places around the world and, you know, talking about mindset, uh, it was a time of real fear. It was a time of, of despair and loneliness and isolation. Um, so not to minimize the, uh, the devastation and the suffering, you were able to help. So many, I, I being a part of your abundance, 360 community was really a lifeline for me. And the message that you chose to put out there early and aggressively was, um, you know, this is the worst of times, but it's also the best of times. So, uh, maybe you could tell us a little bit about how, um, yeah, looking back, what are some of the good things that came out of the difficult experience in the past two years?
Speaker 1 00:04:35 So, uh, first of all, to hit the point you made your mindset is the most important thing you have, right? It is. If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, um, the most successful leaders on the planet, and you said, what enabled them? Was it the capital they had? Was that the technology they had, or was it their mindset? I would say, hands down, it's their mindset. You can take away everything from them. And if they had kept their mindset, they would rebuild some significant portion of whatever was taken away. Uh, and so I think one of the things we don't do, and this is what I found so incredibly powerful about, you know, uh, Atlas, shrugged, and Fountainhead and multitude of books that I had a chance to, uh, to devour and enjoy was they shaped your mindset. Your mindset is the most precious thing you have.
Speaker 1 00:05:24 And if that's the truth, the question is where do you get your mindset? Is it who you happen to hang out with? Was it who happened to be your teacher who happened to be your parents or your siblings? Cause that's typically it. And, uh, if our mindset is the most important thing we have, we should be actively asking the question, what mindset do I want and how am I going to shape it? And I think, uh, you know, in the random universe, that was one of the most important elements. Like I, I want this mindset and I'm going to shape it by reading these stories and embodying these characters. Now, when COVID hit two years ago, um, what was clear to me was it was beyond a, you know, a SARS Colby to viral pandemic. It was a pandemic of fear because everybody had no idea what was going on and the markets were crashing and, you know, I like everyone else was like, where am I going to get some disinfectant so far, whatever the case might be, but what was not obvious and what I started writing about.
Speaker 1 00:06:29 And I think what you're referring to is, um, this is a, this, this event, this disaster, this unique, um, societal situation is a Clarion call reaching out to millions of scientists and physicians and nurses and engineers, not just millions, tens of millions out there. And while we see the immediate challenge, we don't see is the, the echoes of people refocusing their time, refocusing their energy, refocusing their capital, and what then happened months later, a tsunami of solutions coming in, right? So whether it was masks or ventilators or vaccines, going from an idea to, you know, we went from receiving the, the, uh, RNA sequence of the SARS cov two virus in, uh, in January to having a vaccine, at least buying a Madonna designed within 24 hours. And then within a year, it was put into production and receiving emergency use authorization, which is stunning.
Speaker 1 00:07:46 Um, for those who don't know how long this normally takes, it can be a five to 10 year journey. Um, and it was stunning how fast it went. So I think, uh, the human race, when it needs to can really focus and sometimes we need an existential threat. You know, I keep praying for an asteroid to be, you know, coming straight at us, but with, you know, a few years notice and like the notice period part there. Uh, and, uh, and so we do really well, uh, when we need to, we're not caught up in the bullshit of politics and blaming other individuals.
Speaker 0 00:08:25 Uh, yeah, I mean, also there is the fact that there was an unprecedented, um, infusion of capital investment in
Speaker 1 00:08:34 Absolutely. Yeah. The white house and Congress and private investors, you know, just, uh, stood up and said, this is important to do. And, you know, we can think about this for many different ways. One of the, uh, one of the pandemics out there right now, uh, is lack of education, uh, or human aging. I like to think of aging as a disease that we can stop, you know, and potentially reverse. Um, and you know, I, you know, this about me JAG. I say the world's biggest problems are the world's biggest business opportunities, right? When you become a billionaire help, a billion people, and that's a, a beautiful, uh, coincidence of, of drives.
Speaker 0 00:09:19 Yeah. And you also mentioned that some of the biggest, um, opportunities are the rising billion, you know, and you talk about all of the, uh, the unbanked, the people that are in Africa that, uh, in, uh, you know, China and India, that, uh, that are not yet really in the commercial consuming economy and, um, that it's in your rational self-interest to, uh, to find a way to meet their needs. And it will make you a very wealthy person.
Speaker 1 00:09:54 Uh, I, I think so in such a important way, it used to be that where you were born, a color of your skin, your gender determined, everything, you know, if you were born in the wrong village, there was no library. Uh, there were no books, there's no school, it was an oppressive, uh, uh, government. You were screwed, no matter how brilliant you are. Um, and today we're living in a world where, you know, when I talk about abundance, one of the books that you held up, one of the key phrases I wrote that I love is, you know, so thank you bene, um, one of the key phrases I like to say is that abundance is not about creating a world of luxury. It's about creating a world of possibility, right? Um, it's where every man, woman and child has the ability to gain access to all the world's information which we do for free, you know, massive computational power or access to AI on the cloud access to all the entertainment and even educational content you could want. It's amazing. We're living during the most amazing time ever in human history.
Speaker 0 00:10:59 So I'm going back to my Vanna role here, but one of the things that struck me was how you described that your first three books, abundance, bold, and the future is faster than you think you described them as the exponential mindset trilogy. So in what ways do they tell different parts of the same kind of overarching narrative?
Speaker 1 00:11:26 Sure. So abundance, um, was a realization that came out of the early days of singularity university. Um, and it was the idea that technology is a force that takes whatever was scarce and makes it abundant over and over and over again. I'll give you a few examples, right? So we used to kill whales on the, on the ocean to get whale oil, uh, to light our nights. So we ravaged mountain sides to get cold. Then we drilled kilometers and the floor, uh, today we're living in a world that is bathed and 8,000 times more energy from the sun than we consume as a species in a year. One hour of sunlight gets us all the energy that human species needs for a year. It's incredible. Um, it's there, it's just not in a usable form, but that's what technology is doing. It's in the efficiency of solar cells and battery and other storage mechanisms, and we've got fusion coming.
Speaker 1 00:12:18 So we're heading towards a, you know, a massive squander bill, abundance of energy. Um, you know, what would you think of as more, uh, scarce, uh, than a perfect, you know, 6, 7, 8, 10 carat diamond. Um, and well, it turns out that technology can make those perfect diamonds, not as simulacrum, actual diamonds without, without, you know, in absolutely perfect. There's a company called the diamond Foundry that our friend, uh, runs that in one end of a machine comes methane, water, electricity out. The other end comes perfect diamonds. And so this is true for food, water, healthcare education, all of these fields are, are going to become more abundant, meaning they'll be digitized, there'll be dematerialized, there'll be demonetized and democratized. So that was abundance. It's an ethos that we're truly uplifting society and have the ability to uplift society. Bold was a playbook. Uh, it was written as a playbook for entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1 00:13:25 Like all these technologies are making you incredibly capable. What do you want to do with it? And thank you. And, um, it was, uh, for me the best thing about it as I I've had thousands of entrepreneurs and E uh, you know, in person or emails or conversations say that the book inspired them and gave them a means to implement. And a lot of it is helping people connect with their massive transformative purpose, your MTP, like, why do you exist on the planet? What do you hear? What's the impact you're going to have? And then what are your moonshots? What do you want to do with your, your intellect, your capital, your mindset, your relationships, um, it's like, it's great to wake up in the morning and have a passion and a purpose that is makes your future bigger than your past. Right? I think that's one of the most important things, especially in my, my conversations around age reversal.
Speaker 1 00:14:26 Um, and then the future is faster than you think it was just like, holy shit, it's moving fast. We're seeing an acceleration of the rate of acceleration. And, um, in that story, I look at in a book, look at 10 industries and how they're going to be reinvented. Um, my favorite industry that is broken is we reinvented as like insurance, like, you know, fire insurance pays you after your house burns down, right. Life insurance pays your next of kin after you're dead. Uh, health insurance pays after, uh, you've gone ill. So let's flip those models to having insurance actually prevent those maladies from occurring in the first place. So it's a lot of, some of the things I'm working on now.
Speaker 0 00:15:13 Yes. And so we're also going to put those links to the books and all of the social media feeds, but, uh, also the link to the abundance 360 community because, uh, I, as I mentioned, being a part of that, um, in 2020 really helped me. And we have an opportunity to actually talk to some of the people like the guys that founded, uh, lemonade, which is, is a very innovative, um, innovative company and kind of, yeah. Paradigm shift in how to approach, you know, risk mitigation. Uh, but for those who aren't as familiar with these terms, um, maybe we can personalize it. Uh, if you could share with the audience, what your MTP, uh, your massively transformative purpose and, and your, your moonshot.
Speaker 1 00:16:10 Sure. So, uh, first of all, in a massive transformative purpose is something that can be all consuming, uh, and it really needs to be something that you own and that you're proud of, and that you share with your family and friends and people know who you are, and it doesn't have to be for your entire life, but it should be something that you're going to stick with for some period of time. And so my current MTP is to inspire and guide entrepreneurs to create a hopeful, compelling, and abundant future for humanity. So I get my kicks out of helping entrepreneurs and really saying, you know, you can go 10 times bigger than you are that, you know, what you're doing is extraordinary, but helping them see how they can create hope, which I think humans, uh, fundamentally need a compelling future. So people see their future bigger than their past. And, uh, and finally, uh, an abundant future where in people are, are seeing a bigger opportunity for themselves. And so, um, you know, my moonshots have been multiple and, uh, I typically I'm working on one or two for periods of time. My first moonshot was opening up private space flight, uh, and did that with the Ansari X prize, um, and our $10 million competition there. And then, uh,
Speaker 0 00:17:35 Just to interrupt for a second, not your book, but another one, this is the story of it, which, uh, it's, uh, Julian, Guthrie's how to make a spaceship. It's kind of as close to a biography of Peter as you can get, but it also kind of tells that behind. I
Speaker 1 00:17:49 Was so proud of that book. Julian did a beautiful job, um, and tell us a behind the scenes story of this epic eight year journey, uh, to fund a, an as crazy $10 million prize and, and the multiple pitfalls, and actually having it one and launching the space industry anyway, um, uh, you know, my moonshots today, um, focused very much on age reversal, uh, and it's, you know, can I bring to bear the resources and the capabilities to help reverse the human age 20 years? Now, my first and foremost is I want to add 20 or 30 healthy years on your life, but in addition to that, can we get you from 80 to 60 or 60 to 40, right. Um, and that is, uh, a conversation for the first time ever is sanely being had. Um, and people are beginning to get excited about that. And there, it's huge, interesting a study done out of Oxford and London school of business. I think Harvard as well was, uh, said for every single year of life, healthy life added to the global economy is worth $38 trillion. So, um, you know, I think adding a healthy lot of the healthy years to people's lives globally uplifts society. Um, and so anyway, that for me is the super exciting,
Speaker 0 00:19:19 So we're going to get two questions. I can see them piling up and, um, and we are going to get to them, but I have just a couple of more, some that I think that would be helpful, uh, in terms of explaining some of these concepts, um, the, in the abundance 360 community, and in your books, you talk about emerging technologies that demonetize, dematerialize and democratize, and I have done that. I still sometimes struggle with with those concepts. And so maybe some examples for the uninitiated
Speaker 1 00:19:54 Yeah. Happily. So whenever you digitize something, uh, the story, uh, goes back to, um, uh, the circa 1996, when a guy named Steven Sasson at Kodak labs, uh, came up with the first digital camera. And, uh, the first digital camera didn't use film, uh, didn't use film development. It basically was a early version of B cameras we have today, but this one took 0.01 megapixel images, and the images were recorded on a tape drive. Uh, when he showed this to the board of Kodak, they said, you're crazy. That's a toy for kids. We make beautiful high resolution images and they ignored, um, the digital camera concept. They had the first, uh, mover advantage, the patents, everything, and Kodak basically did not develop the technology. Uh, it eventually was developed and, you know, some 20 plus years later it drove them into bankruptcy. Um, when the digital camera, you know, basically got rid of, of most of all film and film cameras.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 So when you digitize something, you dematerialize it. So on my cell phone, I don't have a physical camera. I have a dematerialized camera. I also have a dematerialized GPS and video camera and books and everything, anything becomes ones and zeros becomes dematerialized. Um, and when you do that, the cost of replicating something or transmitting something that's ones and zeros is effectively zero. So it's demonetized. And once it's demonetized, it's available to everyone on the planet with a, a smart device, and then it's democratized. So we have, you know, as many handsets as humans on the planet today, uh, and you know, a child in the middle of Tanzania on with a, with a feature phone or a smartphone has access to all the world's knowledge, you know, more than the president of a country did 30 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago, um, and access to huge amount of educational content and health content. So it really is what I, you know, when I talk about the rising billion, it's the, the billion plus individuals being empowered by these technologies and ultimately making the world a much safer place and a much better place.
Speaker 0 00:22:26 And is it the scale of the democratized market that makes up for let's say whatever. Yeah. That's I think maybe where I was getting triggered.
Speaker 1 00:22:39 Yeah. So, you know, when you D monetize something, uh, for sure, um, your, what you're effectively doing is you're killing the revenues on that product. Uh, what makes up for it are two factors. The smaller factor is the democratization. The bigger factor is business models. It's reinventing the business models that are now enabled on top of that very low cost. So, um, you know, ultimately, uh, you know, if you can take what you've built as an entrepreneur and turn it into a platform where other folks can make money on top of what you're doing for me, that's one of the most powerful things you can do. Um, you know, the, the number of, of companies that are built on top of digital photography for photo-sharing apps or whatever the case might be are massive, much larger than the original market for printing, um, film. The challenge becomes that the company that's being disrupted, uh, rarely is the company that the promise land, because there's, they're too stuck focused on what they're losing versus on what's now possible.
Speaker 0 00:23:53 All right, we're not going to get a chance to cover all of the many technologies and very exciting companies that you talked about, particularly in the future is faster than you think. But I did want to talk about one because at our most recent gala, we used a flying Tesla as a narrative vehicle to give our guests tour of all the things that the Atlas society was doing. And we chose it kind of tongue in cheek, uh, in part, because our honoree last year, Peter teal had nine years ago, nine years ago, famously complained. You know, we wanted flying cars instead, we got 140 characters, but in the future is faster than you think you actually used the, uh, the case of flying cars to illustrate the point about how converging technologies are leading to new breakthrough. So I'd love for you to share a little bit about what's going on there.
Speaker 1 00:24:54 So, uh, I opened the story with that with a conference. I was keynoting, uh, here in LA, uh, for it was called Uber elevate. This was Uber's flying card division that a friend of mine was running. And so it used to be, so when I talk about exponential technologies, what I'm talking about is massive increase in computation, uh, sensors networks, AI robotics, 3d printing, synthetic biology, augmented virtual reality, blockchain. You know, you can go into nanotechnology and quantum computers and other, but it's a list of technologies that as the amount of computer power is increasing, the power of these technologies are increasing as well. And it used to be that you could be an expert in any one or two of those. And that was enough to differentiate you as an entrepreneur or as a company, but that's not the case anymore today. What the real action is, is the convergence of 2, 3, 4, or more of these coming together.
Speaker 1 00:25:55 And as these technologies are coming together, they're enabling brand new business models. And so the Evie tall stands for electric, vertical takeoff, or landing, um, vehicles, uh, also known as flying cars, uh, are a beautiful example of these converging technologies. What's converging you material sciences to make them, uh, lighter. Uh, the what's called the direct electric propulsion DEP, which is, um, the electric motors making these possible. Again, that's material science. That's also sensors. It's also the AI for controlling these multi copters, so that you're stable. And if something goes wrong, you have lots of graceful aboard opportunities. Uh, you got GPS, of course, you've got a high bandwidth network communications and all of these things coming together create these new business models. And the business model here is rather than owning a flying car. It's a Uber I's version where it's on demand. So a JAG, I live in Santa Monica, uh, you're in Malibu.
Speaker 0 00:27:02 I am, I could be there in five minutes if I had a flying car.
Speaker 1 00:27:06 Yeah. And that's the, that's the thing, right? So we had the last couple events at Cal Amigos, uh, also known as Malibu cafe. I love, love, love that place. Uh, Garrett Gerson, who owns it's, uh, a dear friend. And when I go there for the weekend, it will take me sometimes, uh, 45 minutes to an hour to get there. But if there's something on the, on the PCH that hits traffic can be dead and you're stuck, and you've been there done that. Right. And so, but I'm a pilot when I fly out of Santa Monica. Um, like you said, um, over Calla Migos or over Malibu in five minutes. And so all of a sudden, um, what's interesting is that these flying cars are going to reinvent, uh, business models and markets. So the old adage, you know, location, location, location, if all of a sudden, uh, Cal Amigos or, or Topanga, or a Malibu is five minutes away and not 45 minutes or an hour away, it changes my desirability and therefore the relevant, you know, real estate value.
Speaker 0 00:28:14 All right, we are going to get to these questions, but I just had to ask you a couple, uh, a couple more, um, because as a writer, someone who, uh, I guess my massively transformative purpose would be to, um, to spread the message of, of course, the great writer iron land and her characters and her, uh, her, her stories and, and their themes. Um, you in your, uh, book dedicate this last book, uh, you dedicated to all those who have mentored and coached me during, um, my life. And, um, when we did your drama life video, and we encapsulated your life story down into three minutes, I was just, uh, really touched by, um, the relationship that you had with your parents, which is clearly, uh, a very close one, but also there were some, uh, you know, divergences, I guess, because you know, what you wanted to do, and there was just no, no stopping you. And what, what your parents want you to do. I did, I do think you came to a, uh, an interesting and probably very productive, compromise, but, uh, you, you, you dedicate the monument, you dedicate it to your parents.
Speaker 1 00:29:42 Yeah. I mean, I grew up, my parents were both immigrants from, from Greece, from the island of Lesbos. And, um, I grew up in a family where it was expected. I'd become a doctor because my father was an OB GYN position. My mom could have been, she ran his office and I was enamored by space. It was Apollo. And that scientific documentary called star Trek that showed me where the future was going. And that was everything for me. And, uh, at, during the day in conversation with my parents or when I was in school, I was going to be a doctor, but at night, my one secret desires, I would go into space. And, um, and so, you know, uh, many years ago I wrote, uh, something called Peter's laws that you've seen. And, uh, one of them was given a choice, take both. And so I pursued both of those as, um, as, uh, my, my desires and focused on space for 30 years have come back to medicine, obviously through my investments in the companies I'm building and longevity and health care. But yeah, no, there's a lot of incredible people who have mentored me from, you know, I include iron Rand as a mentor in, in her writings. Um, and, uh, uh, you know, just a list of men and women who, uh, helped shape the way I think. And, and it really was important for me to realize the gifts I got from each of them.
Speaker 0 00:31:15 Well, uh, this audience in particular would for, for those who didn't go to the gala, um, or watch it on online, uh, maybe you just share, because it's a really interesting story, how you got introduced to Rand and, and, uh, the role that the book played, particularly on that, on the first flight.
Speaker 1 00:31:39 Yeah. So I was, um, uh, when I was at MIT as an undergrad, I started a space organization called students for the exploration and development of space S EDS. A few years later, Jeff Bezos would become, uh, the president of the Princeton chapter, which is how I met him. And, um, uh, I was hanging out with a group of friends in DC, uh, and I had one friend Morris Hornick come up to me and said, I have a very important book you have to read. And I was like, okay. And you said, um, but you can't read it yet. You have to read another book by the same author first. So, uh, he had me read Fountainhead first and which I immensely enjoyed. And then he had me read Atlas shrugged, and Alice shrugged became sort of my touchstone, which I would read every couple of years just to reground and refocus myself.
Speaker 1 00:32:40 And I'd probably read it, I don't know, six or seven times over the years. And, um, when it came time for the original Ansari X prize for space flight, which was occurring in 2004, uh, Burt Rutan had built this ship and was vying for the $10 million prize. We had, uh, Burt very kindly, uh, allowed myself and the X prize to put some ballast weight on the ship to go into space. And so the question is, what was I going to put on, on spaceship, uh, spaceship one on this, on this historic, um, trip. And I ended up putting, uh, two books. Uh, one book was, uh, the spirit of St. Louis, which was Lindbergh's autobiography. That was the, you know, causative, uh, you know, drive. I checked three books, I'm sorry. Uh, the spirit of St. Louis by Lindbergh. The second one was when my favorite science fiction authors, uh, and it was man who sold the moon by Robert Heinlein. And then, and then the third was, uh, was Atlas shrugged by and Rand. And, uh, those were my way of saying what was important to me.
Speaker 0 00:34:02 All right. Well, we'll take a few questions now. Um, and James, the Archon on Instagram is asking about, do you think we'll have a colony on the moon, if not Mars by 2050, or any thoughts that you have about the futures of the space colonization?
Speaker 1 00:34:20 So, first and foremost, I put the, um, the probability high, but not from government efforts. I think it is going to be, uh, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and private entrepreneurs who are going to enable this. I don't think governments have the risk appetite, uh, or congressional funding bodies have the budget appetite, uh, Starship, which is under development right now, um, is an extraordinary vehicle. Um, like I said, I've known Yolanda for 22, 23 years, and it is his MTP to make humanity multi-planetary species and he will spend every dollar he has to make that happen. Uh, so Starship is, uh, hopefully be operational within the next year. And I can imagine it landing on the moon in the next two to three years. Um, uh, it's not once it's in orbit, the ability for it to go and do a lunar landing mission is not that much more difficult. So his original goals were 20, 24, maybe that's optimistic, maybe it's 25 or 26. Uh, but that vehicle was able to bring a sizable down mass with it, including people and return. So, um, it's the going to be the workhorse. It's going to be the equivalent of the, uh, Nina Pinta and Santa Maria. Uh, and then, uh, you know, Mars, not again, not too far behind that. Can we see it by, uh, 20, 50, a thousand percent by 2040 most, probably 2035? I hope so.
Speaker 0 00:36:03 Alright. Okay. Uh, Anna Wakeman on Facebook is asking, what do you think is the biggest obstacle to the anti-aging movement?
Speaker 1 00:36:13 So I think the biggest obstacle is people not believing it's possible having a stigma associated with it. I mean, clearly anti-aging, and I don't like the term anti-aging, uh, more age reversal or longevity, but, uh, you know, it pokes a stick into a lot of challenges, the institution, uh, of retirement institution, of marriage, institution of religions. Um, you know, if till death do us part means a hundred years, it's going to be, it's going to be a challenge for sure.
Speaker 0 00:36:54 Yeah. Well, wonder what, how we'll, we'll disrupt. Uh, we'll have to maybe go back to, uh, a Highline model.
Speaker 1 00:37:01 Yes, I have.
Speaker 0 00:37:05 Uh, okay. Let's see. Um, are really in GT on Instagram asks technology's advancing. Yes. Doesn't it seem like we're entering a post scarcity era where government policies have made it harder for goods to get to people. So I understand that.
Speaker 1 00:37:29 So let's see post scarcity means, you know, is, is abundance. It's like things are no longer scarce. And we have to realize how incredible the world is that we can get, you know, ripe fruits anytime of the year, almost any place on the planet. Um, you know, governor, I, I think anytime there's a problem, uh, I don't care if it's, if it's, uh, a government problem or societal or, you know, this is where entrepreneurs come in and solve problems. You know, I define an entrepreneur as a person, a guy or gal who finds a juicy problem and solves it. And so I think I don't, I don't know of that many challenges, which cannot eventually be overcome. Um, you know, the end, uh, sort of the end extension of abundance. There's a great book by a guy named Jeremy Rifkin called zero marginal society. Uh, and at, in the final result, I don't know if this is 25 years from now or 50 years from now, but it's in that time horizon, I have a nano bot.
Speaker 1 00:38:41 I have a molecular robot that is able to rearrange atoms, and I have it in my hand. I let him borrow some AMS from my, my skin. And I make a few copies. I give, uh, I give Jack here, uh, an antibiotic and a few to give to her friends. And then if you want something, um, you drop it in the soil and you say, can you make me an electric, uh, you know, Ferrari or something? And it gets the designs, uh, from the, you know, the web and a open source copy. It might ask you for a kilogram of, of titanium or magnesium or whatever it needs. Uh, but this is the realization that everything is made of atoms. And it's the, at the end of the day, the cost of something is the raw materials, the information and the, and the energy for assembling it. So, I mean, that's the end extreme of, of abundance in the interim. We've got politics, we've got challenges, we've got things to solve.
Speaker 0 00:39:51 Okay. Another question is the singularity near.
Speaker 1 00:39:56 Hmm. So Ray Kurzweil,
Speaker 1 00:40:01 Ray Kurzweil, who is a, uh, a dear friend. I see him as a mentor of mine. We co-founded singularity university. So you don't have, yeah, here it is. And his book is right over here at the singularity is near, uh, came out in 2006. And it was the book that inspired me to reach out to Ray, to create singular university and the singular, the concept of the singularity, borrows the terminology from, uh, uh, from physics. And, um, and it's the notion that the speed of innovation is accelerating and constantly accelerating. And our ability to see what's next is going to become harder and harder and harder until we reached this effective event horizon where the speed is so fast, that it is impossible to predict what comes next. And, uh, the prediction is that the singularity will occur in the 2040s, right. 20 odd years from now.
Speaker 1 00:41:08 And, um, I don't know about you, but I can feel the speed at which things are moving right. Were the amount of capital flowing into the global economy is massive. We've had more IPO's and more unicorns and more venture, you know, this year than twice what it was last year. Um, and, and, uh, the cost of tech dropping precipitously. So it really is accelerating. So I do, I do believe that we will hit something like the singularity, um, the implications of it are interesting. Uh, and is it going to change anything I do, or you do? I don't think so. Um, but we need to appreciate the extraordinary world we're in compared to like, bitching about it all the time. But anyway,
Speaker 0 00:42:03 I completely agree with that. Um, but at the same time, do you have some concerns, uh, when you're talking about this positive trends of technology, getting cheaper, um, uh, these huge capital inflows into, um, investing in these new ventures and you cover in your book, some of, you know, the possible global existential threats, uh, to accelerate it exponential change, do you worry at all about, um, other kinds of maybe policy threats? Uh, when we hear from some kind of, um, extreme politicians, we need to have a wealth tax that, uh, it's, it's greed and it's people making too much money. I mean, all of the people that you talk about in your book aren't necessarily like Elon Musk is an example. I mean, he's, um, he's not taking his money and, you know, floating around the world in a yacht he's, he's pouring his, his capital back into these. So do you,
Speaker 1 00:43:17 I mean, so, yeah, so listen, I, I, uh, there's no question, of course, I'm human and I have my own set of like, holy shit, where'd that come from? Right. Whether it's, what's going on with Putin and Ukraine, uh, or, um, uh, just, you know, sort of a political, um, manipulation of society, uh, you know, um, I describe myself as a libertarian capitalist, right? Which is, you know, I think the best way to make, you know, to create wealth is by making the world a better place. And the process is, you know, uplifting everybody. Um, uh, do I, you know, my concerned about nuclear weapons that we have, of course, am I concerned about AI? Not as much as others are. I think AI is one most important tools we're going to have for solving the world's problems. Am I concerned about it to some degree?
Speaker 1 00:44:13 Sure. You know, is there going to be, uh, a toddler phase in AI where it doesn't know how strong it is and, and it screws up? Um, perhaps, uh, you know, when I think about contextualized in the world, uh, I think about it, the following, I say, you know, between 1900 and today, uh, I think very few people wouldn't say that the world has gotten substantially better over the last 120 years, a massive reduction in global poverty, increasing access to food, one or water, energy, healthcare, education, all of these things. Right. Um, but still over that period of time, you know, we had world war one and world war II and the Spanish flu in the Vietnam war. And, uh, you know, 50 to a hundred million people needlessly dying from that. But yet we've had this massive, you know, these perturbations, but it's been up and to the right, uh, you know, hopefully we don't, uh, screw ourselves in the process, but I think our ability to become a multi-planetary species, our ability to, uh, deliver abundant, clean food, water, energy, healthcare education, um, and respect the planet. I think all of these things are achievable. Um, and you know, I come back to it's really the, uh, the John Galt figures, it's the individual, uh, who, uh, has the ability to enable that, make that happen.
Speaker 0 00:45:55 So, um, and you have taken an active role in trying to encourage individuals to make that happen, to come up with a competitive ideas through the X prize. We talked a little bit about the Ansari X prize. And again, I encourage people to watch the drama life, uh, video that we did. Um, the cause it was, uh, it was a moonshot and it was also though a tale of, of perseverance when, when you will see the story of how many nos he had to enjoy. Um, but, uh, tell us a little bit more about some of the other X prizes. Uh, what are some of the current splendid prizes that have cited? What are some of the challenges you're thinking about tackling in the future?
Speaker 1 00:46:42 Love it, happy to, um, so some of the active prizes right now, we have a prize called feeding the next billion we're asking teams to create, uh, at scale, uh, fish and chicken from either stem cells. So these are cellular agriculture or plant-based, and this is a competition that is really about hitting not only, um, uh, costs and production figures, but where it has to actually taste better than the original product. So, you know, as we're creating abundance on the planet, more people are getting welfare, they're desiring a much higher level of, of higher protein. And we can't continue to just grow more pigs and cows and chickens, or demolish the oceans, which we've, you know, we've, we've gotten rid of 90% of the large fish out there. Uh, so we need a better way to do it. And so reinventing how we produce food, uh, I think is, is very real.
Speaker 1 00:47:49 And I think we can make food products that are healthier, uh, tastes better and are lower cost. Uh, we don't need to give up on, on those. So that's going on. Um, we have, uh, uh, an X prize active right now called the avatar X prize. And this is, uh, building a robotic avatar, uh, that, uh, you know, if I'm have my robotic avatar there in your living room JAG, uh, I can, uh, beam into it. And I feel like I'm there. I can reach out and shake your hand or give you a hug. Uh, and you feel like I'm there. Uh, and it sort of, uh, as a user, I'm putting on a VR helmet and a haptic suit and I'm de localizing myself, if you would. Uh, so that's ongoing, um, some of the prizes working on, uh, right now, I mentioned this $101 million prize for age reversal.
Speaker 1 00:48:49 So last year, so one of the active prizes right now, we just launched is a hundred million dollar prize that Ilan funded, uh, for gigaton carbon removal, asking teams to basically, uh, demonstrate at the, at the multi mega ton level tech that can extract carbon. And we're open to all different models, direct air capture, mineralization, uh, ocean, whatever it might be, uh, but has to be scalable to the gigaton level. And so we have, uh, 1200 teams competing for that, um, about a year ago or so I started conversation with another Atlas society award winner, uh, who, you know, in love, well, chip Wilson and, uh, and chip, uh, is the anchor funder of our next prize, which is a $101 million, uh, age reversal, X prize. And so he wanted it to be bigger than Elon, a a hundred million dollar problem.
Speaker 0 00:49:51 So
Speaker 1 00:49:52 It's a hundred. Yeah. I thought he's kicked in a half of the money and I'm raising the other half right now. Um, and, uh, you know, super excited about, about that. Working on a wildfire detection and extinction prize, a prize to detect a wildfire at the moment of ignition and put it out within 10 minutes, right. While avoiding a barbecue grill, or I know a boy scout girl scout, campfire, uh, and then another prize working on is a, uh, coral reef restoration prize because it's a mess out there. So those are some of the prizes, um, have some other big, bold, crazy prizes I'm excited about. Uh, but it's like, you know, I like to think of it as the Neiman Marcus catalog for billionaires, what are the biggest problems that need solving? And can we inspire people to pursue them,
Speaker 0 00:50:49 Uh, as someone who lives amid the, uh, the mountains of Malibu and, uh, whose house burned down because of one of these fires. And, uh, once again, you know, the government solutions are not going to, at least here, uh, are not going to save your house. So, um, I'll be watching that, that prize very keenly. What about energy? You know, um, I mean, there's kind of the, the carbon capture, but, um, John Galt's perpetual,
Speaker 1 00:51:22 So you have no idea how prophetic your question is. Uh, so, um, uh, I'll, I'll mention this, uh, but everyone has to keep it secret, uh,
Speaker 0 00:51:37 Not being watched by.
Speaker 1 00:51:40 So it turns out back in the 1980s, there was a very famous set of experiments called the, uh, Fleischmann and pons experiments for cold for zero point energy or cold fusion. And it was the front page of the New York times and the price of palladium skyrocketed. And it was low energy. Nuclear reactions were another way of saying it. And when the experiments by, uh, uh, Fleischmann and pons were not replicated, they were discredited. And, uh, no one pursued it, no one followed it because there was this stigma associated with low energy nuclear reactions. Well, um, it was picked up by a group and funded. The research was funded within Google inspired by a particular group of Googlers. I'm not sure I'm at Liberty to say who, um, and they published in nature magazine, a series of articles basically saying, actually we think they're, this is a very viable, and there's a there there to be had. Uh, and what's going on is there is a government program to begin funding that research. And we're in very serious considerations right now with another group about a very large, uh, for lack of better term cold fusion X prize. And this would be the closest thing that John Goltz, uh, you know, energy machine, uh, but imagine being able to extract, uh, an almost unlimited amount of energy from the ether of space,
Speaker 0 00:53:32 That would be a game changer in so many ways, um, environmentally, politically, uh, economically. So we will be, we'll be watching we'll we're, uh, just about coming up to the top, I have many more questions, um, but really, you know, it's, it's endless. So I really want to recommend that everybody check out Peter's books, check out abundance 360, um, Peter, any final thoughts of things that are on your mind that we didn't get to?
Speaker 1 00:54:06 Oh, no. I just, I think I want people to have a sense of absolute excitement about the world we're living in. This is the most extraordinary time ever to be in live the most, the only time more exciting than today is maybe tomorrow. Um, and, you know, we, we tend to, uh, to idealize, uh, the past, uh, and, you know, if you were going to trade life with the billionaires that Robert Barron's a hundred years ago, it would shock. You know, I mean, despite the wealth you had, you know, the things we take for granted today are, would be miraculous, uh, for them. And so in a world, in which you have access to all of the computational power, all the knowledge, access to experts globally with the click of a mouse, uh, access to more capital than ever before, the question is, what do you want to do with it? What do you want to do with your life? What is it that would inspire you, uh, and would make the world a better place? And I think at the end of the day, that's the most important message I can, I can deliver. You can, you can make a dent in the universe. And, uh, and we all should.
Speaker 0 00:55:17 I think that's such an important message. Um, particularly you see so many people who are pessimistic and, uh, feel that things are on the wrong track and not to minimize things that are not going well. Um, I always liked to say that to be objective one must have perspective and think that means to also take into account all the good things that we have going for us and the trends for better yet to come. So thank you, Peter.
Speaker 1 00:55:49 My pleasure JAG. Good, good to see you. And, uh, looking forward to more conversations with you in this society.
Speaker 0 00:55:58 Excellent. All right. I will be following up with you. Thank you.
