In fact, one reason I am interested in developing things in virtual reality is that they're so fascinating. I can come up with problems that are harder than warfare to take up people's time.

Mobs and dictators were made for each other, and when mobs appear, dictators will soon flourish.

We should talk about the ultimate cause of war. It's a question we should never stop asking, because if we do, there's a chance, however remote, that we might miss an opportunity to reduce the occurrence of war.

The problem I have with socialist utopias is there's some kind of committees trying to soften outcomes for people. I think that imposes models of outcomes for other people's lives. So in a spiritual sense there's some bit of libertarian in me. But the critical thing for me is moderation. And if you let that go far you do end up with a winner-take-all society that ultimately crushes everybody even worse.

The network by itself is meaningless. Only the people were ever meaningful.

My parents were kind of like me in that they had tons and tons of weird, amazing stuff.

Individuals achieve optimal stupidity when they're given substantial powers while being insulated from the results of their actions.