Dr. David Eagleman

That group that you've already dismissed as an out group.

What if I told you this story about this person?

What if I introduced you to this person?

That kind of stuff.

And, you know, there's all kinds of social movements that have sprung up that allow people of different political opinions to come together in a room and talk with one another.

Again, it's not that anyone has to change their mind, but they can say, hey, you know what?

I really like that person.

I thought that was a cool person, a sweet person, a nice person.

And now I understand that somebody who I have seen with my own eyes has a different opinion on this than I do.

Is that wishful thinking to some degree?

I don't think so, because these things are happening all over the place.

Here's what I would say.

There's absolutely nothing new about echo chambers because it was always the case that your neighbors and your community and whatever, that's what you thought was reality.

I'm actually quite optimistic about the mere existence of the internet because at least we are exposed to the fact that there are lots of different points of view.

It used to be in places like the USSR, they controlled the media tightly so that everything you saw was a news approved story.

But now you see all the points of view.

Now, many of them might drive you crazy and whatever, but at least you know that there are people out there that believe in that.

And I think that's really useful.

If I had to decide between state control where there's a single story or seeing the whole messy spectrum of opinions, I'd rather see the latter.

Here's my prediction in 2026 is that there is a market opportunity for a new social media company to come along because everybody is aware of exactly this problem that you're pointing out.