Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others have stated that they think AI is an existential risk. I disagree. I don’t see a risk to humanity of a ‘Terminator’ scenario or anything of the sort. Ramez Naam Read Quote
I’ve always been fascinated by the brain. I wrote a lot about brain-tech in my first non-fiction book, ‘More Than Human.’ So when I decided to write science fiction, that was the technology I gravitated towards. Ramez Naam Read Quote
There are times that you have a plot in your head, but then you find that the characters don’t want to do that. When you’re looking at the story from the outside, you can create whatever twists and turns you want. But when you’re writing, you’re inside the characters’ heads, and you see that they may be motivated to do something different. Ramez Naam Read Quote
If you only write when the muse strikes, you won’t get anything done. You have to write consistently, when your schedule says you should. And that’s hard. Ramez Naam Read Quote
We’re going to lose more species, acidify the oceans more, do damage that it will take millions of years – if not longer – to unwind. Exactly how much damage will we do? How deep will those scars run? We don’t know yet. But we will turn the ship. Ramez Naam Read Quote
Americans mostly now believe the climate is changing. They believe that humans are causing it, and they believe that it is a risk. But in surveys, Americans are not willing to pay higher energy prices to tackle the problem. Ramez Naam Read Quote
You have to be able to generate usable energy without greenhouse gas emissions, and you have to be able to do it cheaply if you want people to choose that approach. That means new technologies. Ramez Naam Read Quote
Every state that addresses climate change emboldens the others, just as shifting public attitudes embolden politicians and, arguably, the court system. Ramez Naam Read Quote
Across energy, food, transportation, housing, and all of that, very little of our progress is going to be through getting people to voluntarily consume less. People resist that tremendously. What we have to do, if we want to succeed, is provide more of the clean, non-polluting, climate-safe options in all of these. Ramez Naam Read Quote
