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Steven Pinker shares his "relentless optimism" about human progress
If you follow the news closely, chances are your view of the state of the world is not super optimistic. From war in Ukraine to a warming planet to global poverty and hunger, there's plenty to get upset about. But what if things are actually getting...better? That's what Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker asks in his interview with Ian Bremmer for the latest episode of GZERO World.
"If you compare the number of wars and the number of people killed in wars in the sixties and the seventies and even the eighties, we're actually much better off today" Pinker argues. "And so if you don't look at data, if you look at headlines, since as long as bad things haven't vanished from the face of the earth, which they never will, you can get the impression that things are unchanged or even are worse than ever, even when they're improving. It's only when you count the number of wars, number of deaths in war, longevity, child mortality, extreme poverty, number of leisure hours, that you see that there actually has been improvement. "
Watch the GZERO World episode: Is life better than ever for the human race?
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld and on US public television. Check local listings.
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Why is America punching below its weight on happiness?
It's a good time to be alive in America. The wealthiest nation on earth, though, is full of unhappy people, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker points out on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer.
"The United States is the anomaly because it's rich. It's more or less democratic, but it has lower life expectancy. It has poor scores on math tests, has more obesity, more drug addiction, more violence," Pinker tells Ian Bremmer. So you'd think Americans would be fat and happy, but it turns out they are fat and unhappy.
Compared to its wealthy counterparts, the United States punches well below its weight in terms of happiness and quality of life given its wealth. Pinker offers many reasons for that anomaly, seen through the lens of his approach to measuring the state of human progress.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Is life better than ever for the human race?
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld and on US public television. Check local listings.
Why human beings are so easily fooled by AI, psychologist Steven Pinker explains
There's no question that AI will change the world, but the verdict is still out on exactly how. But one thing that is already clear: people are going to confuse it with humans. And we know this because it's already happening. That's according to Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, who joined Ian Bremmer on GZERO World for a wide-ranging conversation about his surprisingly optimistic outlook on the world and the way that AI may affect it.
"People are too easily fooled. It doesn't take much to fool a user or an observer into attributing a lot of intelligence to the system that they're dealing with, even if it's rather stupid."
So what should regulators do to rein AI in? Especially when it comes to children?
Watch the GZERO World episode: Is life better than ever for the human race?
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld and on US public television. Check local listings.
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Is life better than ever for the human race?
Pinker shares his counterintuitive take on the state of the world. How does his optimism (as welcome as it might be) stack up against the undeniable sorry state of the world today? From war in Ukraine to a persistent pandemic to a resurgence of extreme global poverty, things feel...bad. And yet, Pinker remains relatively positive.
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