This transcript is generated with the help of AI and is lightly edited for clarity.
REID:
Hi, I’m Reid Hoffman.
ARIA:
And I’m Aria Finger.
REID:
We want to know what happens, if in the future, everything breaks humanity’s way.
ARIA:
Typically, we ask our guests for their outlook on the best possible future. But now, every other week, I get to ask Reid for his take.
REID:
This is Possible.
ARIA:
Hey Reid, it was such a joy—like a journey for the mind—to talk to Bill Gates last week because we covered so much. But you have known Bill Gates for a long time. Is there one experience, funny or profound, that you’ve had with Bill that you think showcases how he sees the world?
REID:
Well, I think our discussion was a great tour de force of, you know, Bill and all of his amazing capabilities. I mean, there without notes, A to Z on, “okay, this is how we’re talking about, like, cows and methane and milk production. Okay, here’s how we’re talking about malaria and mosquitoes. Here’s how we’re talking about child mortality. Here’s how we’re talking about technology and clean water and toilets.” It was just, like, “oh, now we’re going on to fusion. Oh, now we’re going on to AI.” And just that kind of amazing. And one of the things that, that, you know, among Bill’s many superpowers is this ability to be both broad and deep in the subject of knowledge, in thinking about bringing an economic lens for understanding. Like, look, the, if we make it much cheaper to save children’s lives, we will save a lot more children’s lives.
REID:
You know, and so that intersection between a goal of humanity, a technology leverage, and then kind of the economic models — which is obviously, you know, one of the reasons why he also tends to do a lot of his work in Africa and other lower income countries because it’s like, well, here you can make the most difference for the most lives, right? With the application of capital. And so, you know, what I find profound and amazing about, you know, talking with Bill is literally you can go to any one of these subjects like at a drop of a hat and say, “so you know, what is going on with cows and methane production?” And go, “okay, well there’s these three different devices, [laugh], right? And these three different mechanisms that can work, and this one works this way, this one works this way, this one works this way.
REID:
This is the one we’re most helpful on. This is the thing you need to have happening.” And you’re like, I just asked you the question at a dinner party, [laugh], right? And you’re, I’m getting equivalent of an expert brief because it’s the current thing that’s — it’s, it’s like he loads it into mind and then he updates it as he reads and talks to experts in the world and, and all the rest. And that’s, you know, part of the reason that, that Bill is — the world is so much better because Bill is in it and doing this work.
ARIA:
Yeah. To your point, like the, the fact that he clearly is up to date and has the numbers just in his mind on everything he’s talking about. And then how, again, of course he wants to eradicate disease, but when he thinks about it, he thinks about how will that disease burden / enable those countries to then scale their economy and be self-sufficient. And so it’s again, one of these things where it’s not aid forever — it’s how do we create aid so that these countries can truly sort of move up and, you know, hopefully one day be in the global middle class, which was, which was so fantastic to hear. And so, you know, in every Possible episode we ask our guests where they see progress or momentum outside of their industry that inspires you. And we of course asked Bill — but you, like Bill, work across several sectors and industries. And so I’m going to turn the tables, you know, you’ve had a chance to see how inspiration or solutions in one area might benefit another. So where do you see developments in one field that you think are going to have beneficial applications in another?
REID:
So I will go to three answers to this question. One is kind of the most classic one that you know that I’m really focused on, which is how does software and AI make a big impact in the world? And it’s everything from, you know, kind of new products and services to transforming industries, to enabling individuals, to transforming society by having, you know, kind of a, a medical assistant, a tutor in every, on every smartphone, you know, and all of these things. Because it’s, it’s in, in broad brush, it’s, it’s the world of software — e.g. bits — affecting the world of atoms, [laugh], right? The world we live in. And it’s everything, you know, from, you know, kind of supply logistics to medicines and pharma to the various subjects we cover on our podcast possible altogether. The second area, also a general purpose technology is, I think, the — which we covered some in Bill’s episode — is the importance of energy.
REID:
Because basically, if you look at it, there’s infinite demand for clean energy at a certain price. Just as you might say in AI, there’s infinite demand for intelligence augmentation, for human amplification of, of, of intelligence powered by electricity. There’s also infinite demand for electricity, whether it’s, you know, heating and cooling. Whether it’s, you know, transport. Whether it’s, you know, kind of all of these things where energy fits in — including, for example, solving problems like getting carbon out of the industry, desalinize water to have clean water. You know, making all of these things work — they’re all energy problems. And so, as you solve key — you know, and you want to have multiple shots on coal. Fusion is obviously the, the, the kind of the gold medal shot, because if you can make that work, you can power a bunch of things. But, you know, solar and wind and, and biofuels and all the rest, because all of this makes a huge difference across once again, almost every industry benefits, almost every activity benefits with, you know, cheap green electricity in terms of how you operate.
REID:
And then the third — you know, more or less kind of in the words of Monty Python, you know, and now for something completely different — the question around how do we transform the senses in various ways? And so, now in some sense, it’s a software thing, but it’s a question of like, how do we see and hear the world? Because we understand it through these devices and these — and part of what we’re going to be learning through kind of visualization with glasses and AI through hearing, through kind of software driven hearing aids, which will make a big difference for as we age. And you know, like actually being socially connected as a I formerly mentioned. But I also think that kind of the, the philosophy of how we understand the world will get transformed in epistemology through these, these tools coming to our senses and understanding. Soso, so those are three, and you could describe the last industry as, you know, kind of our epistemology or philosophy — but just, you know, the human condition.
ARIA:
No, I love that. And it’s, it’s funny you brought up the energy point. One of the things that Bill said that really stuck with me is the clean water issue. He’s like, it’s not a clean water issue, it’s an energy issue. Full stop. If you can desalinize, if you can transport it, that solves that issue. So energy, you know, let’s do it.
REID:
Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network. It’s hosted by Aria Finger and me, Reid Hoffman. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Katie Sanders, Edie Allard, Sara Schleede, Adrien Behn, and Paloma Moreno Jiménez. Jenny Kaplan is our executive producer and editor.
ARIA:
Special thanks to Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Parth Patil, and Ben Relles.