315: Jamie Metzl | Hacking Darwin & Imagining a Better Future

Dec 28, 2020 | Interviews, Podcast

 


 

Audio Version:

Jamie Metzl is a technology and healthcare futurist, geopolitics expert, and the author of “Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity.” He is the smartest, craziest, and most interesting guy that I’ve ever interviewed — really, he’s who I hope to be when I grow up — and he paints a vision of the future that is both more informed and more hopeful than most.

Jamie previously served in the U.S. National Security Council, State Department, Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as a Human Rights Officer for the United Nations in Cambodia, and in February 2019, he was appointed to the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on developing global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing. This dude knows his stuff, he knows how to have fun, and I can’t think of a better way to end the very weird year than by imagining a better future.

In This Conversation We Cover:

  • [04:35] How Jamie’s life was shaped by hearing his dad’s story of fleeng Nazi Europe
  • [13:00] Nature, nurture, and fate
  • [17:40] What does a Human Rights Officer do?
  • [20:35] What are you trying to accomplish working with all of these different governmental and non-governmental organisations?
  • [28:20] What was your motivation behind writing “The Depths of the Sea,” a historical novel?
  • [31:28] Why write “Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity?”
  • [35:15] Why do people get freaked out when AI is mentioned and are their fears warranted?
  • [38:20] What are your thoughts on putting technology inside of the human body?
  • [52:18] Rapid fire round

Resources:

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Ciao! We’re Rob & Kim. Over the past two-decades we’ve lived by one motto, “Excuses are over. it’s time to live!”

In August of 2021, we put our motto to the test, sold everything and moved our family to Italy.

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