“Increased trading activity allowed the metallurgists to accumulate wealth and very quickly, a societal gap developed with metallurgists at the top, followed by merchants in the middle, and farmers making up the lower class.”

Reproductive bottleneck at the advent of agriculture

“What I’m making my way towards suggesting here is that if somebody did almost all of their social interaction on Facebook, on their phone, they might start to get the idea that it’s not OK to feel sad. That people don’t like them, or care about them, because they’re negative sometimes. Like we’re all being denied a huge part of the human condition because a megabillionaire corporation is hardwiring people to think everybody is having more fun than they are and they will only be popular if they are fun and interesting all the time too. If the way people seek affection and connection is dysfunctional, so too will the people be.”

Jeff Hawkins: “Similarly, today it is tempting to imagine that intelligent machines will look like humans, perform human-like tasks, converse with humans, and have human-like desires and emotions. If you believe that intelligent machines will be like us, only much smarter, then they might evolve in ways we can’t predict and treat us badly. Such machines, out of a desire for self-preservation, autonomy or just misguided beliefs, could actively or inadvertently do great harm to humankind. I do not share these worries, because they are based on three misconceptions.”