Incentivizing the Future with Peter Diamandis

About This Episode

How do science competitions further innovation? Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with Peter Diamandis, Founder of the XPRIZE Foundation, to discuss science innovation, incentive competitions, and the future of space, longevity, AI, and more.

Peter takes us through the founding of the XPRIZE and his idea to create a competition for getting people to space. We discuss the history of incentive competitions and how the 1919 Orteig Prize motivated the first flight from New York City to Paris. Learn about the many prizes the XPRIZE runs now.

How often do prize winners enter the industry? Why create a prize for space? Find out about Peter’s path to get Stephen Hawking onto a zero-g flight. How do you create a prize for longevity? Learn about XPRIZE’s new competition for extending the human health span. What is longevity escape velocity? Why not pursue immortality?

We talk about the role of AI in industries going forward and how companies are reinventing how we feed ourselves. How do we combat deepfakes? What happens when deepfakes become completely indistinguishable? Plus, discover when life likely began in the universe.

Thanks to our Patrons Lauren Crist, Nick R, George Swain, Karsten de Braaf, Winifred Kessler, Lucille Bosco, and Tom Lindelius for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.