Fight for the things that make you excited about the future.
The future will not get here fast enough unless we force it.17
I want to make sure there is a good future for humanity. We’re on a path to understanding the nature of the universe, the meaning of life. Why are we here; how did we get here?
I came to the conclusion that if we can advance the knowledge of the world—if we can do things that expand the scope and scale of consciousness—then we’re better able to ask the right questions and become more enlightened. That’s the only way forward.
I use scale and scope because we benefit from more consciousness and more variety in consciousness. If everyone is thinking about exactly the same things the same way, that may not create new knowledge.18 I’m motivated by curiosity more than anything.19
I almost had an existential crisis trying to figure out “What does it all mean? What’s the purpose of things?”
In college, I would wonder about the future and what areas were really going to have an important impact on the future of humanity as a whole. This wasn’t for a paper, just what I thought about in the shower. I came up with five areas.20
The three areas I thought would have the biggest positive impact on the future of humanity were the internet, the transition to sustainable energy, and space exploration—in particular the extension of life to multiple planets.21
The other two, artificial intelligence and rewriting genetics, were a little more uncertain in terms of net benefit. They could be a double-edged sword, and we’re not sure which edge is the worst.22
I didn’t ever expect to be involved in space exploration and expansion, but it seemed important to me even then. Eventually, with the capital from selling PayPal, I was able to work on all three.23
Q: What would you say is your most core skill?
I don’t worship anything, but I devote myself to the advancement of humanity using technology.
My core personal competence is technology. If something has to be designed or invented and you must ensure the value of the thing you create is greater than the cost of the inputs—that’s my core skill.24
I look at the future from the standpoint of probabilities. It’s a branching stream of probabilities, and actions we can take now affect those probabilities: Accelerate something, slow down another thing, or maybe introduce something new.25
You have to ask, What are we doing to move toward the paths likely to make for a good future? That is what I care about. We’re all projecting out to the future in some way, and if you think we’re going to end up in some terrible situation, that’s depressing.26
I’m interested in affecting the future in positive ways. I want to build wondrous new technologies where you feel awe when you see it: “How does that even happen? How is that possible?”27
I’m not trying to be some sort of savior; that’s not my goal. The importance of these things just seems obvious to me. If it seems like the obvious thing to do, I’m not sure why you would do anything else. We want to maximize the happiness of our population, propagate into the future as far as possible, and understand the nature of reality. Everything else follows from that.28
Remember the future.29