On beliefs
I believe that beliefs can change over time through new insights, so never, and I mean never, pin someone down on past views in current times.
Even the most unyielding racist, climate-crisis denier, elitist, anti-vaxxer has this right.
Who you are
You are NOT the average of the five people around you.
You are the average of the content that you consume.
Open your Youtube history right now and find out how average you are.
Making babies
In the future, people will look back on the current partner selection and baby-making process as barbaric.
Like smoking and seatbelts, people will say: “How dare you not match with your partner based on genome matching + genome manipulation before a pregnancy?”
The value of more time
The longer our lifespan because we’re solving ageing as a technical problem, the more valuable our life becomes. This situation will result in humans avoiding anything that’s statistically dangerous—Bye-bye stairs, horse riding, skiing, bike riding and anything thrilling.
How to live
I think humanity should become a subterranean species. There is so much space in the earth’s crust to build in. Move all housing, shopping, transportation, working, production and agriculture underground and leave the top layer for nature to flourish and be enjoyed by all.
On better times
The current global collective anxiety is just a bump in history that we’ll overcome through science. Trust me. Eventually, it will get better when we learn how to navigate these global high-speed information networks while operating prehistoric brain hardware and software ourselves.
Large problems enable solutions
Rapid overpopulation of the planet is not all bad (it most likely will peak at a population of 11B). However, this will force us to think creatively and develop best-in-class solutions for food production, nature preservation, space travel, pollution, energy production & storage. A great crisis forces great solutions.
How aliens will erase us
Aliens will not care for the earth because asteroids are easier to mine for resources. Therefore, our planet is only attractive to aliens from a research/bio-engineering/observation perspective. A global human wipe-out would most likely happen silent and unnoticed through the method of deploying a genetically engineered virus targetted for human DNA only. Energy efficiency is critical for spacefaring species; therefore, a targetted virus would be the most effective method.
How nations fail
I believe western nations are similar to the empires of Spain and Portugal from the 15th and 16th centuries, while the current countries of China and India are more like The Netherlands and England during that same period. The Spaniards and Portuguese amassed great wealth at first. However, this wealth and abundance made them lazy while spending all their gold and silver on products built by the money and growth-hungry Dutch and English upstart nations willing to produce for cheap and re-invest in innovations. As a result, the Portuguese and Spanish forgot how to work hard and innovate, so they lost their entrepreneurial drive and dominance in the world. Of course, history never exactly repeats itself, but you can learn from it.
Who I’d rather be
I’d rather be a paranoid optimist than a blind pessimist.