Tim Urban
Writer and illustrator behind the blog Wait But Why, known for long-form essays that pair stick-figure drawings with deep dives into science, technology, procra...
“The problem for us is that our technology is exponential, but our wisdom is cyclical. You look back and you're like, oh, the Salem witches, we're so much smarter than them. It's like, well, we know more than them, but the way they're behaving is a lot of what I see on Twitter. … Wisdom does not go up exponentially. And that's a problem because more technology gives us exponentially more power. … I'm scared of that species having too much power.”
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps · In-Depth Interviews · October 2026
Josh Szeps closed by asking Urban to bet on what becomes of humanity. Urban says he leans optimistic by temperament but couldn't win that debate against a pessimist, because on an exponential curve the past is a poor guide to the future.
Transcript
right? Exactly, unless it's this awful dystopian thing where the bads get worse and the we serve, we survive the bads on page 800, but we will not survive the bads on page 801. If that's that's one storyline, that would be unfortunate, and it's totally plausible.
What storyline do you? I want to, you've given me lots of your time, so I'll wrap it up here. But let's wrap up with your sort of big picture prognostication. Like, if you are a betting man, what do you what will become of us, Tim?
…what I see on Twitter. And that was also a downswing, maybe. And then there was an era, you know, in ancient Greece when they were more humane than people 800 years later. And it seems like we, unfortunately, wisdom does not going up exponentially. And that's a problem because more technology gives us exponentially more power. But if we're not getting wiser, then that's the species that is in. I'm scared of that species having too much power. And that's interesting.
Yeah. So I'm scared. If you go through periods where your wisdom peaks and then your wisdom troughs, and there's a kind of a sign curve of wisdom over civilizations over here. History, then as the technology gets bigger and bigger, the peaks become more and the troughs get more damaging. And maybe…
Yeah, yeah, exactly. The big troughs are, I think, the deal breaker here. So the question is: you know, look, we built, we had the Enlightenment and built laws and liberal values and stuff, which is a way of containing our worst nature. We have a history of being very clever recently, especially at…
I hope we do.