Matthew MacDougall

Exactly.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Since forever. As far back as I can remember, I've been interested in the human brain. I mean, I was a thoughtful kid and a bit of an outsider. And you sit there thinking about what the most important things in the world are. in your little tiny adolescent brain.

Since forever. As far back as I can remember, I've been interested in the human brain. I mean, I was a thoughtful kid and a bit of an outsider. And you sit there thinking about what the most important things in the world are. in your little tiny adolescent brain.

Since forever. As far back as I can remember, I've been interested in the human brain. I mean, I was a thoughtful kid and a bit of an outsider. And you sit there thinking about what the most important things in the world are. in your little tiny adolescent brain.

And the answer that I came to that I converged on was that all of the things you can possibly conceive of as things that are important for human beings to care about are literally contained in the skull, both the perception of them and their relative values. the solutions to all our problems and all of our problems are all contained in the skull. And if we knew more about how that worked,

And the answer that I came to that I converged on was that all of the things you can possibly conceive of as things that are important for human beings to care about are literally contained in the skull, both the perception of them and their relative values. the solutions to all our problems and all of our problems are all contained in the skull. And if we knew more about how that worked,

And the answer that I came to that I converged on was that all of the things you can possibly conceive of as things that are important for human beings to care about are literally contained in the skull, both the perception of them and their relative values. the solutions to all our problems and all of our problems are all contained in the skull. And if we knew more about how that worked,

how the brain encodes information and generates desires and generates agony and suffering, we could do more about it. You think about all the really great triumphs in human history. You think about all the really horrific tragedies. You think about the Holocaust. You think about any prison full of human stories. And all of those problems boil down to neurochemistry.

how the brain encodes information and generates desires and generates agony and suffering, we could do more about it. You think about all the really great triumphs in human history. You think about all the really horrific tragedies. You think about the Holocaust. You think about any prison full of human stories. And all of those problems boil down to neurochemistry.

how the brain encodes information and generates desires and generates agony and suffering, we could do more about it. You think about all the really great triumphs in human history. You think about all the really horrific tragedies. You think about the Holocaust. You think about any prison full of human stories. And all of those problems boil down to neurochemistry.

So if you get a little bit of control over that, you provide people the option to do better. In the way I read history, the way people have dealt with having better tools is that they most often in the end do better with huge asterisks. But I think it's an interesting, worthy, and noble pursuit to give people more options, more tools.

So if you get a little bit of control over that, you provide people the option to do better. In the way I read history, the way people have dealt with having better tools is that they most often in the end do better with huge asterisks. But I think it's an interesting, worthy, and noble pursuit to give people more options, more tools.

So if you get a little bit of control over that, you provide people the option to do better. In the way I read history, the way people have dealt with having better tools is that they most often in the end do better with huge asterisks. But I think it's an interesting, worthy, and noble pursuit to give people more options, more tools.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of that has to do with how well people like that can organize those around them.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of that has to do with how well people like that can organize those around them.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of that has to do with how well people like that can organize those around them.

Yeah. And so I always find it interesting to look to primatology, look to our closest non-human relatives for clues as to how humans are going to behave and what particular humans are able to achieve. And so you look at... chimpanzees and bonobos. They're similar, but different in their social structures, particularly.

Yeah. And so I always find it interesting to look to primatology, look to our closest non-human relatives for clues as to how humans are going to behave and what particular humans are able to achieve. And so you look at... chimpanzees and bonobos. They're similar, but different in their social structures, particularly.