 Hello, welcome to the leaders room. We're sitting here at the leadership energy summit Asia 2016 and as always this is where the Eclipse leadership and governance center tries to bring you the best mind of not just Asia but from the world and It's an honor and privilege for me to today. I'm actually very excited today to be sitting here with a doctor professor Michio Kaku Author of many many books the great mind of this of our era and we're gonna be talking to him a little bit about the linkage between what he wrote in this book and leadership energy Good afternoon. Thank you very much. Dr. Michio for joining us today. Glad to be here We'll have about 15 minutes to engage in a short conversation So let me get right into it and then feel free to take it however you wish Well, you are scientists Right as we all know and you're sitting here and Leadership conference mm-hmm and many people say that leadership is an art So how do you feel about that? Well, some people think you have to be a born scientist a born genius in order to do science Nope, I don't think so. Take a look at Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, right? Some people say oh, they're geniuses. It's in their genes. I don't think so first of all Bill Gates did not discover or invent the PC neither did Steve Jobs Steve Jobs went to Xerox Park in Silicon Valley and there it was he saw somebody else Working on the PC the laser printer the mouse and the graphics interface which we call Windows and all of a sudden Steve Jobs said That's the future Now what happened to Xerox Park? They had everything they had a grand slam they invented the PC the laser printer in the mouse They didn't do anything with it because they said well, you can't copy paper. We're a Xerox company We make paper copies. You can't make paper copies with this PC thing So they did nothing Steve Jobs took it and ran with it to create the biggest corporation on the planet earth Now what's the lesson here? The lesson here is leadership is not genius Leadership is having a clear vision of the future and then the energy and Foreside and focus necessary to push it through all the bureaucracy and all the naysayers right same thing with Bill Gates Bill Gates did not invent windows windows also came from Xerox Park He didn't even create the operating system for the IVM PC But like a surfer he saw the wave He got on the wave. He rode the wave for all its worth. That's what leaders do leaders do not create waves Waves occur independent because of historical things inventions and what have you but They're the ones who say I have a vision and the vision is to ride Ride the wave and change society as a consequence, right? And so that's why I say that leadership is not genetic You're not born leaders It's an acquired taste you have to learn you have to see the opportunity and run with it for all its worth And that's what they did So what I'm hearing actually that's the probably the most scientific description of leadership I've heard in a long time have waves you have energy propelling us forward and a vision a clear vision of where you want to go Right, okay, great So I couldn't help walking around the conference and noticing that your book is very popular amongst the attendees People walking around with your books, maybe not for themselves and for their sons and daughters So maybe if I could ask you just to speak briefly about You know there's stories behind the book. Why did you choose to write this latest for the future of the mind and How do you hope to have it? Well, what are the two greatest mysteries in all of science in all of science? There are two great mysteries first is the origin of everything the Big Bang. That's what I do for a living That's my day job. I work on the Big Bang theory. I work on something called string theory However, the other great mystery is sitting on your shoulders right now Why do we think how do we think how did we get here? What is what is consciousness? What is the mind? You know every day you wake up in the morning and you see yourself and you wonder who's sitting there behind those eyes I mean, what is it that's animating this person called me now throughout history? People said it's too hard. It's a black box. You open it up. There's nothing there But a bunch of flesh right but now we have physics we can peer into the living brain with MRI machines And you see all these breakthroughs every month a new breakthrough being made in neuroscience You realize for example we can now record memories This was once considered straight out of fantasy. We can even begin the process of photographing a dream One day you'll wake up in the morning push a button and see the dream that you had last night, right? And we do this with MRI machines Mental illness. This is why President Barack Obama got interested in this whole subject Mental illness is mentioned in the Bible. It's one of the oldest afflictions of the human race But what is mental illness, right? We can now peer into the brain and see how mental illness operates For example schizophrenia one percent of the human race has schizophrenia But the left part of the brain generates voices. That's why you talk to yourself But you know you're talking to yourself because the front part of the brain knows that you're talking to yourself in Schizophrenics on an MRI scan you see them talking to themselves without their permission That is madness What is madness is nothing but the left brain generating voices like it always does But the front part of the brain the conscious brain unaware of that fact This is incredible every month a new breakthrough being made in terms of understanding how we think what is reason? What is consciousness and maybe one day we'll be able to record it and after you die Your memories feelings consciousness will survive and you will be immortal Yeah a form of immortality sure right yeah well I mean I studied under Richard Wolfson at Middlebury College He said something that that I talked to me even today You know he said people will hear the word physics and most people want to run away. Yeah, something I see it all the time at parties But what do you say is physics is life? Yeah So while we're here leadership energy conference Many people mistook leadership energy conference or something that has to do with oil and gas and the sustainable energy the future That's part of it. Yeah, so from a from your point of view when you heard of this conference leadership energy What do you what's your take on on the use? Well science is like every other human activity a lot of naysayers a lot of pessimism a lot of doubt But sometimes somebody cuts through that just cuts through that and says that's the way to go and all of a sudden a new Paradigm opens up a whole new landscape opens up But it takes one or two people to have the nerve to say that's the way to go that's leadership and again You're not born with it. It's an acquired taste But some people do have that capability in any subject not just physics not just sciences But in with regards to business and finance Sometimes you have to go against the tide, right? Sometimes you have to say no No, that's not the way to go and this is the way to go because you have a clear vision and you have the energy to Make it true. Okay. That's how you see leadership energy a little bit I think most of our audience here are more or less familiar with the word leadership Perhaps less familiar with what energy since I'm sitting here with the physicists Maybe in layman term as layman is scientifically possible. Yeah, you define what what energy? Well, energy is the ability to do work. Okay period That's all hold energy is we can measure it because we can measure work We measure velocity we measure motion bingo. That's energy now apply that energy to human society The ability to make things work to make things move that is the definition of energy Now apply it to the social sciences the ability to get things done The ability to move other people the ability to assemble all these random facts and say that's the way to go and make people move In that direction that's leadership and it all comes from a definition the ability to do work And you see it all the time in leaders in leadership and maybe there is something Quantifiable maybe there is something, you know behind it is something common currency behind it with you know We call leadership energy Sometimes people say what is greatness? What makes somebody great? I say that what makes somebody's great is the fact that they change the whole field just because they're in it Take a look at Darwin When Darwin entered the field of you know natural philosophy natural history he changed the landscape In other words you define Darwin by saying that he changed the whole field that he was in That's leadership. You understand in other words somebody can come in and say I'm a leader Okay, well who's the dispute you're right, but if he changes the whole political and social terrain Just by being in it That is leadership now in politics sometimes people call that charisma But I don't think so it's more than just charisma It's more than a politician walking in a room and everyone says look who just walked in the room No, it's more than that the ability to do work to get things moving Right, that's what energy is all about and that's why when when people have this leadership ability It's more than somebody saying okay, you're the leader for today tomorrow. You're the leader No, no, it's not that it's somebody who can change the field just by being in it You can't just create you can't appoint energy that you actually have to in a way extract and So what's next for you? well, I work in string theory and we want to do experiments on the biggest Explosion in history and that's the creation of the universe. We have the large a drone collider outside Geneva Switzerland But it's too small It's the biggest machine of science ever built by human hands Right 27 miles in circumference. You can put the city of Geneva inside the machine Well, it's a small version of yeah, yeah But when I was in high school I built an atom smasher a small version of an atom smasher that now we have a big version outside Geneva, Switzerland But the same principle we smash atoms to recreate the beginning of time That's why we do it. So let's predict the future a little bit, right? So I guess, you know, then the people will following your your thoughts are Wondering, so what's you know, what could be your next book? well, I'm a futurist right and futurists believe that that instead of moaning and groaning and predicting the future you create the future Okay, so I'm a physicist my friends are inventing the future For example, I know the people who invented the transistor which created the computer I know the person who invented the laser physicists invented the x-ray machine. We invented television We invented radio radar microwaves. We invented the MRI scan. We created the space program So if you understand physics you understand the 20th century We physicists invented the 20th century think of all the great inventions of the 20th century Starting with the atomic bomb going all the way to the microchip all of it traced back to the mind of a physicist and see that's leadership You change things just by being in it you change the whole political landscape or the Technological landscape just by being in it and now we're trying to go even further. We want to go before the Big Bang We want to understand where the universe itself came from So our universe is a bubble of some sort. It's expanding. We live on the skin of the bubble That's the Big Bang theory string theory says there are other bubbles out there Other universes that these universes collide and peel off baby universes. That's called the Big Bang That's the bang. There are the banks out there. Yeah, there are the banks happening It's like a bubble bath of banks taking place and again as a whole new paradigm change That we physicists believe not just one universe, but a multiverse a multiverse of universes Well, you know I could have conversations like this with you all day Let's bring it back just the final question for the audience out there who may be non-physicists Mm-hmm, and they're but they aspire to be leaders Mm-hmm any messages from your perspective being a futurist being a physicist for the Up-and-coming the young leaders out there first you got to do your homework. Okay, you just can't say one day Hey, I'm gonna be a leader. Okay, you gotta pay your dues You gotta do your homework, but once you understand something then you got a dream Then you got a dream not about what is but what could be you got a dream about worlds that don't exist Worlds that you create because they don't exist yet, right? And then you have once you have that vision the clear vision of where you want to go then you need energy Energy to carry it through now look at the history of all the great leaders of the past They've all had the same thing First you got to know the laws of warfare the laws of science the laws of whatever Then you have to put it all together to have that vision that flash of insight That's what society should be like and then the energy to carry it through Okay, we insert a sub question My final question. So how do you get that? Well, you have to say to yourself. I believe in myself you have to say to yourself. Here's a vision I have I believe in it like I said with Steve Jobs when he saw the PC He saw the laser printer. He said that's my vision a PC on every desk Windows interface linking the whole world that was his vision and then he believed in it And once you believe in it, you have the energy to carry it through Okay, so many people don't believe in it. They see they have this vision, but they can't be right I mean, who am I to challenge the great my high mucky muck's out there their energy dissipates See, so you have to believe in your vision. You have to say here's my vision I believe in it This is the way to go and I'm gonna bet my bottom dollar that this is the way things are gonna happen That's right Many people out there will be very jealous of me right now sitting here with you Thanks so much for your time and thank you for coming to our leadership And it's all in my books