Bryan Johnson argues that climate change, conflict, and automation all stem from the same root cause: how humans make decisions. He proposes measuring brain activity at scale could let people understand themselves better and make wiser choices, shifting the focus from fixing external problems to understanding ourselves.
After I sold Braintree Venmo, my primary focus was contemplating what one thing I could do in the world that would have the largest impact. I spent a few years reading voraciously and speaking to everyone I could talk to about what to do and why. And most people of course are familiar with the things that are pressing in the world. Climate change, nation state conflict and terrorism and social people and automation. Similar and familiar topics. As I looked at those various things, I thought one thing they all have in common is the brain. It's humans making decisions about this or that. We don't have a climate change problem, we have a human brain problem. It really comes back to the human brain, what could be done. And I came upon the idea that if we could build an interface that was actually scalable to measure the brain, then it would be possible we'd enter an era of data enlightenment that we might be able to understand ourselves, which might help us make better decisions individually and collectively.
