Jaron Lanier: ...I was around Richard Feynman - the Nobel prize winning physicist - one time when he was on acid. Before he started to come on I asked him, "What do you really think about the mind-body problem? Now come on, don't just shove it under the rug. You probably experience yourself existing on the inside; how do you think that reconciles with the matter of the brain? Do you think there's any problem there?" He said, "I've thought about that a lot, and I really just don't understand it." That was just an example of the immense honesty and integrity that he had.

Rebecca: It was proof that he'd really thought about it.(laughter)

Jaron Lanier: Exactly. I asked him again when he was on acid and he said, with this most wonderful smile and this effervescent glee, "I don't understand it." That sort of glee at the fundamental mysteriousness of the universe is just the motivational core of science and you always run into that with a great scientist. Just to be clear, though, Feynman didn't state any mystical ideas, he just was rigorous about what he did and didn't know, which I think is one of the hardest mental disciplines.