00:02:51 How Eric set out to write entertaining books about serious subjects.00:07:53 What Eric learned from Henry Miller and Ernest Hemingway? How much of an influence is travel for his discoveries?00:14:11 Has Eric found a way to recreate clusters of geniuses in his journeys?00:29:55 Why are philosophers from the last few hundred years so miserable? Is pondering about the ‘Big Questions’ risky and it makes it harder to enjoy life?00:40:24 Why philosophy is so hard to scale?00:50:37 What...

00:03:37 Why the Middle East seems ‘excel at conflict’ the last 70 years?00:14:03 How America managed to avoid ethnic strife (unlike the Middle East)?00:18:02 What is actually happening in Syria? What conflicts predates the war? How does ISIS fit into the Syrian War?00:33:33 Why the major world powers abuse the Syrian conflict as a proxy conflict? What does Russia in particular want?01:00:00 How can we rebuild Syria? Should we abolish sanctions? Do we need a new Marshall Plan for...

00:04:01 How Dubai feels during the Ramadan?00:08:37 Why Dubai now gives citizenship to foreigners and allows companies to own real estate and corporations now?00:16:29 Why Dubai’s regulations seem to actually help businesses and individuals instead of hampering progress constantly?00:24:41 Why (the talk about) socialism is so popular in the US and how it contrasts with Dubai?00:33:03 How Dubai’s social norms are liberalizing right now? Is the ‘Islamic enlightenment’ happing in Dubai right...

00:03:00 How should we act when we find other conscious life? How should we settle other planets?00:09:01 Is there a cosmic cross pollination process?00:11:01 Why are images of alien space ships always so grainy? Is there already an alien base on Mars?00:14:02 Did Aliens come to earth and upgrade us over time? Does time run differently in different parts of the universe?00:20:46 Do we live in a simulation?00:30:23 Should we all read a lot of science fiction? Why it is like a mind lab.00:37:34...

00:01:36 How Robert’s love for Mars and space got started?00:03:36 Why Robert’s proposal to explore Mars was so different than other ideas? His experience pitching a Mars landing to NASA.00:10:49 How Robert and Elon Musk discovered their joint interest for space exploration?00:14:30 The beauty of Starship and why it can enable the settlement of Mars?00:19:04 What was so interesting about the Orion spacecraft and the Mayflower concept?00:22:57 What are popular appearances of a Mars...

00:01:46 The genesis of Neyborly and its business model.00:11:41 Is ‘commercial real estate’ in a secular crisis? What are the reasons for that? Is it (still) to expensive?00:21:44 How did Neyborly fix the issue of long-term liabilities and short term income (that almost killed WeWork)?00:29:18 How did Neyborly solve the hard part of multi local marketing?00:42:03 How Neyborly is fostering a real community? Why is building a community so hard? 00:53:22 Did COVID and the tech industry change...

00:01:45 The genesis of Ben’s career as an entrepreneur and venture investor00:18:57 Are valuations too high for seed stage Venture Capital rounds right now?00:28:40 What are Ben’s best investments right now and what investments is Ben looking for?00:34:53 Is there a better way for entrepreneurs to match with a VC? What should they look for?00:44:59 How ben honed his skill at instant ‘lie detection’?01:04:28 Can science fiction be an investment guide? What are Ben’s favorite science fiction...

00:02:08 How Jeff’s journey to teaching entrepreneurship got started? How does he define entrepreneurship?00:12:02 Why it is crucial to emphasize risk taking in our society.00:18:48 Are the opportunities for entrepreneurs diminished? Is it the millennials’ generation ‘fault’ or is it the way we have run the economy? Is the ‘coddling of the American mind’ the problem?00:28:52 Is venture investment really such a positive force in risk taking in society? Has the nature of businesses changed? Are...

00:10:12 Why Europe chooses to be a late adopter (rather than an early adopter)?00:16:19 Are cryptocurrencies and the blockchain a threat to traditional banks?00:22:46 What impact will cheap/free education have on the world?00:30:12 Why India seems to be eternally high on potential but low on promises kept.00:38:02 The role of Hinduism and the caste system in India.00:57:15 What is the impact of the Bengali Renaissance on India and the world?01:10:03 What is the best way to protect minorities...

00:01:34 We were expecting the information and we got the enragement age. What Edwards thinks of our Social Media landscape?00:09:02 What are surprising ‘revenge effects’ of technology in recent history?00:14:28 How close were the Romans in developing the steam engine? What impact do social developments have on our progress?00:23:23 What impact does technology have on innovation?00:27:10 Are information overload and increasing specialization two sides of the same coin?00:39:36 Will we see the...

00:01:43 How Systems2 discovered a world of alternate data and how financial data companies in this space operate?00:12:23 Can there be a profitable Open Source investment community?00:25:53 How much time is spent developing algorithms or cleaning datasets in Matei’s work?00:34:11 What are surprising datasets that are relatively low cost?00:44:20 How good are predictions for individual actions? Does Facebook and Google everything about us?00:58:20 Why antagonism is a great way to learn about...

00:01:53 What drove Jim to start the Ice Warrior project where he trains polar explorers.00:09:16 How training for the Ice Warrior project actually works?00:15:21 What sort of personalities typically succeed when Jim runs them through his Arctic training exercises?00:25:30 The amazing logistics of Jim’s polar expeditions.00:35:30 Can you drive to the North Pole? What is the difference between the ‘Magnetic Pole’ and the real ‘North Pole’?00:40:06 Did Jim or an Ice Warrior member ever come...

00:02:26 What is really the difference between an incubator, accelerator and a seed stage fund? How does FoundersSpace.com work with entrepreneurs?00:07:10 How Steve uses his experiences as a motivational speaker to help startups? 00:11:49 Can major innovation ever come from ‘Big Corporations’? How should it be done? Should we break up large Internet monopoly companies?00:21:08 Is there a ‘mid-stage’ funding desert for most startups? Can and should it be addressed?00:26:12 Steve’s favorite...

00:01:38 What’s the current state of consciousness research? Why there is a surprising amount of progress?00:09:10 Is the rise of the Homo Sapiens connected to the changes in consciousness?00:11:43 How does the ‘attention schema’ work that Michael puts forward?00:15:22 How will machine intelligence adopt consciousness?00:21:28 What will it take to give self-driving cars consciousness?00:27:37 Is consciousness and Free Will an illusion? Does it matter for Prof. Graziano’s research?00:40:41...

00:01:37 Are we headed for deflation/ inflation or stagflation? How does Peter read the tea leaves?00:08:33 Is regulation ultimately to blame for inflation?00:13:57 Is the Federal Reserve to blame for the current crisis?00:23:56 How does ‘yield curve’ work? Why is it so important?00:30:34 How can we improve government policy (and Federal Reserve policy) to increase economic growth?00:34:43 Can we really withdraw from the policy of ‘cheap money’ that most other countries in the world...

00:03:33 How Mark Burgess started to develop CF Engine.00:11:22 What is the genesis of ‘Promise theory‘? What problems does it solve?00:30:51 How Mark moved between academic disciplines over the years?00:34:51 What is ‘Smart Spacetime‘?00:44:29 Does the universe have a direction? What creates that direction?00:55:26 Are emotions necessary for an artificial intelligence?01:07:07 How can a machine memory mimic the human brain?01:16:57 Can ‘Promise Theory’ be used to describe ‘Intelligent...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Peter Sølling and I talk about: 00:01:43 the genesis of Peter’s Optimal Altruism project00:15:13 What set of technologies does Peter expect going into the Singularity? And in what order?00:25:01 Have we just lived through a lost decade in technology adoption?00:34:01 How could ‘free energy’ change life on earth?00:48:49 Does Free Will exist? Will it be affected by the Singularity?01:04:57 The amazing story of the 12th Planet by Zechariah Sitchin...

00:01:47 How the world has changed since Jim Rogers first published Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist?00:06:23 Are looking at another stock market crash? When will it happen? Will technology (and productivity growth) be around to save us?00:12:53 Are we headed for a drop of 50-80% in stock prices?00:15:24 Is the Fed responsible for the bubble?00:18:07 Are we headed for inflation or deflation according to Jim? Is the dollar gonna suffer?00:26:26 Is Asia the future? What indicators show...

In this episode of he Judgment Call Podcast Jonny Price and I talk about: 00:03:38 Why Crowdfunding is so hot right now? Why was the ban on ‘consumer financing’ in place for almost 100 years?00:11:02 What is the rate of return (IRR) for WeFunder investments? How can you hedge your bets with Crowdfunding?00:24:11 Have we missed out on innovations during the last 20 years because Crowdfunding wasn’t available? Will it raise the amount of entrepreneurial activity?00:29:30 Are we in a ‘seed...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Steven B. Smith and I talk about: 00:02:01 How Steven’s latest book about the Virtue of Patriotism has been received? What does patriotism actually mean? Is patriotism just an emotion? Does patriotism imply a sense of superiority?00:16:34 Should we start our own customized virtual countries? Is the nation state outdated and too many assumptions are ‘baked into the cake’ of the existing nation state?00:33:29 Do we live in the best possible...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Patricia Fara and I talk about: 00:02:05 What was the most important discovery when Patricia wrote her first book about 4,000 years of scientific development.00:07:34 The surprising story how modern capitalism emerged from religion.00:09:35 Is the scientific revolution real? Was is just part of a much bigger ongoing process? Was there a specific event that spawned the ‘cult of technology’?00:16:42 Why science is less influenced by certain...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast – Aubrey de Grey and I talk about: 00:02:16 How Aubrey de Grey got into the ‘longevity research‘ in the first place?00:07:01 How Aubrey got the confidence to put a precise year to the ‘end of aging’.00:12:01 What were the biggest obstacles to overcome in persuading the public that ‘aging can be ended’00:13:30 Was setting up a money price for the extension of the lifespan of mice a good idea?00:21:10 Why the longevity industry is burgeoning at...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Jeff Brickle and I talk about: 00:07:32 Jeff’s experience joining the Pentecostal church including the experience of ‘speaking in tongues’00:13:25 The role of the ‘Holy Ghost’/ ‘Holy Spirit’ in Christian religion and the Pentecostal church in particular00:24:34 What does it actually mean ‘Jesus Christ died for our sins’?00:34:53 How the interpretation of the bible still adjusts to today’s understanding00:40:42 The role of John in the New...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast Arnaud Collery and I talk about: 00:01:47 How Arnaud already had (full) careers as a leadership coach, inspirational speaker, actor, comedian, investment banker and philosopher at his young age.00:10:26 Why ‘walking between worlds’ is such a cumbersome endeavor.00:17:01 Why Europeans treat risk taking so much different than the US?00:21:14 How Arnauld defines happiness?00:28:32 Do we need traumatic experiences in our life to find our...

In this episode of the Judgment Call Podcast George Dyson and I talk about: 00:01:45 The Genesis story of George’s writing about the history of technology and science.00:07:10 The amazing story of the Orion spacecraft.00:14:50 Is the Big Stagnation real? Are we just measuring our success incorrectly?00:21:30 How much did von Neumann and his contemporaries know about ‘giving birth’ to intelligent machines at their time?00:26:40 Why is humanity so interested in technology? Are we already...