A short podcast episode by Brian Johnson reflecting on ideas from Yuval Noah Harari about investing equally in artificial intelligence and human consciousness. Johnson emphasizes prioritizing personal well-being and consciousness over immediate external metrics (like the stock market or email), cites Harari and Byron Katie, and prompts listeners to invest in themselves daily.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. In our last plus one we met one of my heroes, Mrs. Christy Keenest. I smile with joy and in awe every time I imagine her fifth grade students coming back into the classroom after their mile run to sit down and watch a new plus one or PNTV high fives. Christy, we appreciate you and please walk through a cloning machine about 50 million times. That should do the trick. Thank you very much. Now we also briefly touched Yon Yuval Noah Harari's perspective on the subject of education. Today I want to revisit some more wisdom from his new book. As we discussed, Yuval shines a spotlight on 21 of the biggest challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. With the rise of artificial intelligence, information technology and biotechnology, things are changing at an incomprehensible speed and it's only going to speed up, not slow down. He tells us, and I quote, the danger is that that if we invest too much in developing AI and too little in developing human consciousness, the very sophisticated artificial intelligence of computers might only serve to empower the stupidity of humans. He also tells us, I quote, again, to avoid such outcomes, for every dollar and every minute we invest in improving artificial intelligence, we'd be wise to invest a dollar and a minute in advancing human consciousness. Unfortunately, at present we are not doing much in the way of research into human consciousness and ways to develop it. We are researching and developing human abilities mainly according to the immediate needs of the economic and political system rather than according to our own long term needs as conscious beings. My boss wants me to answer emails as quickly as possible, but he has little interest in my ability to taste and appreciate the food I am eating. Consequently, I check my emails even during meals, which means I lose the ability to pay attention to my own sensations. The economic system pressures me to expand and diversify my investment portfolio, but it gives me zero incentive to expand and diversify my compassion. So I strive to understand the mysteries of the stock exchange while making far less effort to understand the deep causes of suffering. Now let's focus on the end of that passage. Which are you most interested in understanding? The fluctuations in the stock market or the fluctuations in your own well being and by extension, the well being of those around you and the world at large? I remember a coaching session where an optimizer and I had fun making the distinction that rather than waking up and immediately checking the stock market, he may want to consider waking up and checking in on how his ultimate stock was doing. That stock being his own consciousness, of course. Now seriously, when you wake up, what do you do? Do you check in on the most precious asset you'll ever have? Again, I repeat, that would be you and your well being. Or do you immediately check in on the world, whether that's the stock market or the news or your email inbox? Byron Katie comes to mind. She tells us, I quote, the greatest stock market you can invest in is yourself. Finding this truth is better than finding a gold mine. Amen to that. Today's +1 how can you invest in yourself a little more today? Here's to celebrating and tapping into our gold mines.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
