The following is a conversation with Jaren Leneer, a computer scientist, visual artist,

philosopher, writer, futurist, musician, and the founder of the field of virtual reality.

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As a side note, you may know that Jaren is a staunch critic of social media platforms.

Him and I agree on many aspects of this, except perhaps I am more optimistic about it being

possible to build better platforms and better artificial intelligence systems that put

long-term interests and happiness of human beings first.

Let me also say a general comment about these conversations.

I try to make sure I prepare well, remove my ego from the picture, and focus on making

the other person shine as we try to explore the most beautiful and insightful ideas in

their mind.

This can be challenging when the ideas that are close to my heart are being criticized.

In those cases, I do offer a little pushback, but respectfully, and then move on, trying

to have the other person come out looking wiser in the exchange.

I think there is no such thing as winning in conversations, nor in life.

My goal is to learn and to have fun.

I ask that you don't see my approach to these conversations as weakness.

It is not.

It is my attempt at showing respect and love for the other person.

That said, I also often just do a bad job of talking, but you probably already knew

that.

So please give me a pass on that as well.

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