 What's up everyone? How's it going? It's good to see all you beautiful people out here today. What's up? What's up? Thank you For coming out. Thank you for zeal Center for the space greatly appreciate it. I'm really looking forward to this talk and It's nice to be back in Sioux Falls for those that don't know I'm a Sioux Falls native. I was born and raised here and then I went to Minneapolis for two years and then I moved out to Silicon Valley and now I host a show called simulation which features scientists entrepreneurs artists educators different thought leaders and we do live events we do a studio show and it's been a lot of fun learning from a lot of diverse people and synthesizing a bunch of knowledge across different fields, which will be kind of one of the Theses is of what we talk about today I hope that people leave inspired wanting to Pursue entrepreneurship pursue what is meaningful in their lives and ride the exponential technology curves that are that are transforming our world at crazy rates, so Let's get some energy can you get some energy? Yeah Yeah, yeah Okay, cool cool. All right so So there's a couple central axioms which are truths that I want to sort of These self-evident truths that I want to lay as a foundation for the rest of the talk Those axioms are one Ignorance is the root of malice so ignorance is the root of bad things to Education is the vaccine to ignorance and as we know we mold children into our world So how do we educate those children into our world to be as least ignorant and most knowledgeable as possible and Three big history is the best mental model of education So we're gonna talk about Why I believe big history is the vaccine to ignorance So what is big history? Big history can be summarized by the cosmos life the evolution of life and then the evolution of humanity and The the breakdown of this right now, right actually I'm gonna go over here and use my hands so when you synthesize all of knowledge into Some sort of a a story this story is continuously unfolding and your role is Somewhere in this story over here, of course and so What is your character's role in this unfolding story and why is it important to? build out this mental model of big history and then build on top of that for every single child that's moved moving forward and being born into our world so This this timeline of 13.7 billion years what the timeline itself from this Perspective is the the majority of time is actually here So there's somewhere around nine or so nine to ten billion years that are right here So it's a vast majority of the time and then this is sort of opened up Especially this side is only is looks like you know fifty thousand years So our time is a grain of sand on this entire on this entire spectrum of time But understanding the evolution of the cosmos understanding the evolution of life on earth and then understanding how humans have evolved on the planet is a key framework and mental model for children and for eradicating ignorance eradicating malice and figuring out how to best prosper together so How do you guys feel about this so far there's like in this? Okay, cool. Cool Cool cool. We're in we're on a conversational base So if you guys want to chime in say something go for it Yeah, cool stellar there's a yeah, yeah get it All right, so This sort of multidisciplinary synthesis it not only it not only is History in this term big history But it's also science. It's probing Reality with hypothesis is hypotheses and then testing those over time Over and over again making sure those are true that gravity is true that the molecular composition of water is true that the way that we uncover Different artifacts from civilization is true that they live that way they built language that way So we're using the tools of history. We're using the tools of science We're using the tools of sociology understanding the complex sort of cybernetic systems that exist in the last especially Several thousand years that have really taken civilization from a population of a couple million people to 7.7 billion complex individuals that all have their own families lives work culture and perspective So building off this overall picture is a huge huge importance in moving forward and education for as we Bring children into our world So I think this is the strongest mental model as you saw in the beginning chunk of of the evolution of the cosmos we saw Earth and how Crazy is it that? we somehow managed to get life on this planet and that we are Everyone that's ever lived and died Everything that's ever been built has been built on that rock orbiting the star that gives us life and That is such a profound sense of awakening and wonder too How can I possibly be so tribalist and stuck in my views that I would be willing to kill you for Money for greed for power for land for religion for any of those things when we're just sharing one rock as one tribe called earth How many of you feel that it's a divinity that we're here. Do you guys feel like it's divine that we're here? Yeah Here Yeah The sunset was gorgeous There was some cotton candy in there and it has been a glass couple of some sunrises and sunsets have been just amazing in Sioux Falls and There is some sort of something that's ethereal it's it's it's It's you can't really wrap it around Wrap it's like water. We're trying to grasp water the sense of divinity this and so whatever has given us this pleasure of Harvest of the evolution of life on this planet. We we take it with gratitude We take it with bliss we take it with how do I play my role in Stewardship for earth and in maximizing my own potential and collective potential So when you look at earth from here There's no borders The borders are Important, but they're also They're also completely manufactured by us just like the illusion of money is as well these sorts of They separate us Temporarily, but in the long term. I think we will be flourishing all together So there's something strange that potentially exists outside of earth How many of us have felt something potentially greater than ourselves? past ourselves Absolutely, yeah in the back over here. Yeah Yeah, this there's something deeper Beyond the three-dimensional physical reality that we live in that we're still trying to identify exactly what it is God consciousness all that is infinity. What is this? What are these potential powers that take play here on earth through us? All right, probably one of my favorite images of all time as well The reason why is because this is This is civilization. This is how we got to where we are at today And it took us a long time every single one of these individuals Built something into our world of value that we are now reaping the benefits of today that we are now privileged in using today Shelter food water energy All ubiquitous. They're everywhere. It's everywhere. Look at this light in here Look at all the water the food that we have on every corner It's incredible. It's humbling Expressing the gratitude for the humans that went through all the sacrifices that they have in order to bring us here is one of the most profound ways that we can Join a communion a communion with of of evolution with each other of understanding how we actually got here and how we were able to Prosper moving forward as you see some we got some we got some great fire use here We have some great agriculture here. We have some great Use of animals and use of tools here and here as well Shelter being built. So the sort of techniques and mental models that were evolved over time again What were they teaching their children? What are we teaching our children now? Who innovated these things? Who was the who were the ones that decided to make a wheel and The wheels are still on the cars today. They're here thousands of years later What will be made today that will still be here thousands of years later? thinking about the innovations that were made is Inspires us to think about what innovations we can make today and how we can design Civilization to maximize flourishing So as you look at some of these ancestors here, isn't it also interesting to think about My my mother is here in the audience today Who who were her parents? Who were their parents? What about their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents? Hundreds hundreds thousands of years of lineage. Who are they? Where does this ancestry go? Who are your parents and their parents? Great great great great grandparents that slowly built families that Over time produced you into the world and how can we be grateful for them and How can we better build out a mental model that shows them respect that we understand? What they went through and built to get us here. I like to think of I like to think of meaning as the zone So when you're doing something that you lose track of time that you're so Focused on the objective that you're doing and that you just love what you're doing That that feeling right there is Meaning to me And I think the more that I see people that are at this sort of zone where the work that they're doing is not So so hard that they can't achieve it and that it's not too easy Where it's just child's play for them But where it's just at the peak of how difficult they can actually operate and manage something and and build it And they love what they do with that process of building and creating that that is meaning How many of you guys build something that you love every single day and what about the others? Why not? most days not every day is fun. Yeah, and What what sort of what sort of changes would need to happen in our lives in order to make it so that every day as Much as possible even through those challenges where we saw as growth We saw that as continuously leveling up and pursuing what is meaningful There's only a certain amount of time as we saw With the big history Breakdown We're all we were all the way at this end at the very very end our little period of hopefully 80 years of time hopefully that We get about 25,000 days About 2.5 billion seconds or 2.5 billion heartbeats. It's all we get in Being alive every day matters every minute matters Everything that we do with our time matters Pursuing what we find to be most meaningful and important to us another really important aspect to time is the idea of neural real estate or Just the a way that your brain is structured the architecture of your mind because when you're Expanding the mental models of children to understand Civilization in its deepest of nuance they build out a strong mental model their neural real estate is able to be built on top of really well and If we're choosing to frequently endeavor into what is most meaningful for us Building raising kids whatever that is that we keep focusing on that and building that versus Potentially being distracted and there's a lot of people that are aiming to distract us away from what is most meaningful in order for money to be made through the attention economy so Don't forget that every moment what we do with our time is so critical so so critical and And the way that we fill our mind with stimuli is so critical I have a running joke of of a beer gardens and Netflix and that's been something that is Fulfilling for certain people and that's very important to identify that these are not good versus bad I Like hustling on what I'm building and I think that if we can teach kids to focus on hustling on what they're building I think we'll see a lot more entrepreneurship and innovation in our world and Boom in the blink of an eye Here we are We are at the exponential technology age after so much time of Civilization we are just now Finally at the exponential technology age. We are all living in it And it's insane to think about because it Expands into every single field of humanity There's not one field that is not being touched in some way by exponential technologies by the internet by computing by artificial intelligence Every single field and when we think about it in terms of in terms of code We may be gain a way of perceiving reality that can help us understand things For example when I mentioned earlier that we get about Two and a half billion seconds we get about 25,000 days to live Do we get a control our heart? We own speaking terms. Yeah Yeah, do we get a control our heartbeat our heart beats and it beats and it beats throughout our entire life We can exercise you can increase the heart rate. We can meditate. We can potentially decrease the heart rate But our heart just keeps beating no matter how hard we try and we can see that as code We can see that when you get hungry you eat We can write these things as code So we start perceiving reality as oh the earth is 93 million miles from the Sun and it orbits the Sun every 365 point two five days point whatever it is ish. Yeah So when we start writing these things into code We sort of start seeing the world in a different way What are what is the code that governs our biology? the A's T C's and G's That we can rewrite our genetics That we can eradicate disease That we can reprogram stem cells to proliferate and make Clean meat instead of slaughtering animals we can grow it in bioreactors and That is just bio. That's just biology. That's just a code of biology Then there's the code of neurology. There's the code of your mind and There's the way that we are limited right now with our meat sticks pressing fingers on keyboards That the reason why this is being recorded is because there's a greater bandwidth in communication Even that just that last sentence there How much data can be stored in that last sentence plus via video then how slow can you actually just press? Your fingers on a keyboard trying to type what I just said and how much data is lost don't get the video component So as we connect computers even more intimately with our minds We enter a whole new world of bandwidth a whole new world of being able to connect to all information to all knowledge at Unprecedented rates for the good and the bad. There's a lot of ethical concerns around bio biotechnology around neuro technology around artificial intelligence And we need to work together to figure out those ethical quandaries and we need to teach kids to care about those ethical quandaries that we that face us another pertinent exponential technology is Quantum mechanics Quantum programming quantum computing quantum security understanding the most micro mechanisms of the universe and How does that funnel into energy and ubiquity and clean energy? It's time for us to completely transition over to sustainable Sources of energy for civilization and help inspire your children to care about that as well And the quantum world helps us with nuclear energy With figuring out how we can fuse atoms and produce more Energy than we put in and that's an abundant source an unlimited source just like the Sun is of energy becoming multi-planetary is Extremely important and we figure out how to launch rockets and reuse rockets in the space economy We'll be moving faster than ever like we are right now Putting satellites putting rovers into space building out the space economy and making consciousness multi-planetary to avoid a catastrophe like happened 66 million years ago with the dinosaurs Humans like to think they're in control We are in many ways in control of earth now Anthropocene the human controlled period, but we also are at the mercy of the cosmos Obliterating us and ourselves obliterating each other and we have to do our best to prevent that And that's what our ancestors would want So artificial intelligence is permeating through every single industry as well robotics is automating processes Even doing things like automating creativity. We didn't think that We would have artificial intelligence that can make music Now it makes music What's next what's next what do we do? What do we do? How do we train the kids to be robot-proof and Of course another one of the most important technologies that has yet to be listed blockchain and cryptocurrency building trust The code of trust the code of a decentralized digital ledger. That's immutable for everything That we want to write on it. That's the way we're going enough with the centralization of power Decentralize it to all people And enable all people to have an equality of opportunity to flourish with these different technologies This also is very deeply Reminds us of augmented reality and virtual reality and living in worlds that are Completely programmable and designed. We were talking about these variables your heart beating you get hungry You got to go eat the stars a certain distance from the planet the planet orbits a certain amount of time You'll get to program what realities you want to live in or live in other people's realities that they program How often will you come back to this base reality? Is this even base reality and as we were just mentioning Having equality of opportunity is so crucial These technologies are not only going to be made available to the wealthy over time They become democratized they become Decentralized over time more and more people are able to access these technologies It's up to us to make sure that that actually happens and that everyone around the world gets access to the technology and Enables them to maximize their potential Providing people with those economic degrees of freedom to move in whatever way they want that brings them meaning so building Building creating innovating Pursuing what is meaningful to you so so important all right some of you know that I've Been to four ten-day meditation retreats silent meditation retreats. No talking. No eye contact. No technology and All of this The snow and a snow globe is what we're doing every single day Just walking around the snow globe shaking. This is what we're doing all day long But when do we go? When do we close our eyes? When do we take a deep breath? When do we turn off the stimuli? When do we tune inward and what it what does that do for us? How does that change our physiology how does that change our creativity? How does that change our gratitude and our love? It profoundly changes those things and it's so important To be silent Even for five minutes a day close your eyes tune inward use a meditation app if you have to But just slow down and do that process and watch what happens Express gratitude during that time for your mother for your father for the food for the electricity for whatever you have Express gratitude for it there's a lot of time that I Have this crazy feeling of Re-commuting with the infinite when I'm in meditation. What does that even mean? I don't know trying to put words on it It's ridiculous But it's so profoundly interesting All right, I have something that I'm borrowing a little bit from Mark Twain here Mark Twain says that travel is fatal to prejudice bigotry and narrow-mindedness, which is true So is big history We all understand we're from the same rock Why am I going to be prejudiced? Why am I going to be bigoted that when I understand all of the nuance the multivariability I Become more compassionate. I have a stronger mental model that I build out of reality and Without that drive for nuance and multivariability and building out that mental model This cannot be acquired by vegetating an ego It can't be acquired by vegetating in a unidimensional mentality of reality Some of some of you potentially have seen the TEDx talk that I gave in San Francisco in October the binary trap is killing us We're falling into black or white on so many issues but when we look for the nuance and the multivariability and the The non-unidimensionality the multidimensionality We start seeing how all of this actually ties together and how we can have really good conversations together big history is the vaccine to ignorance and Let's build out this basic framework for all children and Let's continue augmenting it over time build the future Go and create go and build our society counts on you to innovate much love. Thank you. Thank you