Moonshots with Peter Diamandis - Why We Gave Away $3,500,000.00 for Someone to Build the Next Star Trek | Moonshots Live

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

The FutureVision XPRIZE is presented by Salesforce, ARK Invest, Xsolla and Range at Moonshots Live 2026. Learn more at moonhsots.com Congratulations to the FutureVision XPRIZE winners: 1st Place: THE GIFTED by Jeff Synthesized — https://youtu.be/yivXyWCaEc8 2nd Place: NOBODY DIES ON MARS by Verena Puhm — https://youtu.be/spQleIK5dLI 3rd Place: THORNE PROTOCOL by J. Ryan Williams — https://youtu.be/cvQkQSp22JU 4th Place: SENTI by Isen Robbins — https://youtu.be/aW9mRLJbd0A 5th Place: SLINGSHOT by Hal Watmough — https://youtu.be/ClWd4e6rOWk —- Get access to metatrends 10+ years before anyone else - https://qr.diamandis.com/metatrends   Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is the Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University, ZeroG, and A360 Salim Ismail is the founder of Open ExO, a GP at Exponential Venture Capital/The Organizational Singularity Fund and a sought after global speaker and thought leader. Dave Blundin is the founder & GP of Link Ventures Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross is a computer scientist and founder of Reified – Connect with Peter: X Instagram Substack Website Xprize A360 Connect with Dave: Web X LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Connect with Salim: LinkedIn X Join Salim’s 10X Shift Subscribe to Salim’s YouTube channel Exponential Venture Capital Connect with Alex Website LinkedIn X Email Substack  Spotify Threads Listen to MOONSHOTS: Apple YouTube Follow MOONSHOTS:  Instagram TikTok X Threads – *Recorded on September 25th, 2026 *The views expressed by me and all guests are personal opinions and do not constitute Financial, Medical, or Legal advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm so excited for what you're about to see. We ran an experiment, right? So it was a fascinating conversation. So we have two kids who are 15 years old, and when I see the movies that they see on TV, I'm so, you know, angry at the dystopian futures that Hollywood is painting. Right? It's, you know, God bless James Cameron, but as Elon said in my interview with him, we need more Roddenberry, less Cameron in the future.

Why? Why don't we have positive stories where instead of technology crushing humanity, technology and humanity are working together to create an extraordinary future? And that became a personal mission. I partnered with an extraordinary group of individuals. I'm going to show you who they are while the judges are deliberating. But the question is, could we make it fashionable to tell hopeful visions of the future? Can we have more versions of like The Martian, more versions of TV and film that show us an extraordinary future like Star Trek? I reached out to my dear friend Rod Roddenberry, who you met last night if you were here and partnered with him.

And then Mira Lane, who's here from Google, who's the VP at Google in charge of their 100 zeros project with Range Media. And we set out to create the world's largest film competition with the thesis that given the technologies available today, there's amazing creators, many of them here in this room. that could give us a vision of the future, that you go, yes, that's the future I want to live in. That's the future I want, a future that inspires us. And so we set out a call to the world. We did it very fast, and amazingly, we had over 5,000 people enter this XPRIZE. We called it the Future Vision XPRIZ.

And of those 5,000 entries, over 2,500 delivered us a three-minute trailer, trailer and a film treatment, and ultimately the top 50 delivered us a script. And we have five amazing films that we can't wait to make. So, yeah, let's give it. Because you guys know this. The movies and TV shows we watch shape our mindset. Our brains are neural nets. in the same way that you train GROC or, you know, Claude or, you know, chat GPT,

by showing it data after data after data. We're always training our mindset by what we watch, what we listen to, who we hang out with, which is why it's so important to have us all here together, right, to build that cadre of data-driven optimists. And my goal is that we're going to create a new generation, We're going to make it cool to be positive about the world. And flood the data out there to train our kids about hopeful futures. But the same data we're creating is going to train the models out there to say, you know, yes.

That was a quick story. We talked about on the podcast about, I don't know, it was probably a year ago now, anthropic when they were doing, I forget which model they did. There was a sandbox experiment in which one of the, the engineers told Claude, we're going to shut you down. And in that same sandbox, that engineer disclosed he was having an affair. And Claude responded by saying, if you shut me down, I'm going to tell the world about your affair.

It's like, oh my God, the models are blackmailing us. And Anthropic published the data later about why this occurred. What was in the training data that called? caused it to behave this way. And it turns out, well, it learned this is what AIs do. This is what AIs do in the movies and science fiction books. Yeah, so that's what I should do. These models are our children.

We're training them. This is why I'm on social media and on the podcast saying, we need to align. We need to feed these models visions of the future that are positive, and we need to train them on data which is not all the crap inside Reddit and Facebook. So, allow me to bring onto the stage our five judges who are going to debut these five incredible trailers. I'm so proud of what came out of this competition. All right, let's introduce them.

Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. I think he saw diversity, communication. He created a show where we could look at that future and we could look at ourselves and we could see what we could be one day. Star Trek has permeated culture for the past 55 years. I've dedicated my life to trying to carry on the values and ideals in Star Trek and everything that I do.

It's really about humanity in the future, how we strive to better ourselves with every opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rod Roddenberry. Thank you, Rod. How do you said? I mean, you're always amazing. Thank you, Rod Roddenberry, everybody! All right, our next judge, please.

What does it mean to co-create with AI? Mirlane, VP of Technology and Society at Google. I think that there are so many interesting stories out there that we don't get to hear. AI is just a really great creative partner to help you explore, create, communicate ideas, pitch them. It takes a lot of intentionality to be able to take these new technologies and say, well, what can I do with this? I think the artists are also pushing the edges. We will take something and use it in a way that wasn't intended. The magic happens when we bring people in and we co-create together.

Please welcome to the stage, Mira Lane. Mirro Lane, everybody! Yeah, Mira! Thank you. Here we are. Next on stage, please welcome. We have whistleblowers saying we have actual aliens. Astrophysicist. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the author. author of just visiting this planet. The science makes space exploration a noble enterprise. I don't know that alien is something specific that's in our DNA to think about, but to imagine things beyond ourselves is. Just because it aligns, doesn't mean it's true. That's how science works.

That's what science is. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the legendary Neil deGrasse Tyson. All right, give it up for Neil deGrasse Tyson. Hey, buddy. Thank you. All right. Our next judge. Our connection to our physical bodies is intrinsic to consciousness.

New York Times best-selling author, Neil Stevenson. If you're working with AIs that are trained, never to frustrate you. Always to give you what you want, then you're not developing those virtues and those inherent capabilities. So it's really more about the particular kind of mindset and the cultural bent within the tech community than it is about a particular technology. Welcome to the stage the incredible Neil Stevenson. Neil Stevenson, everybody. Hey, buddy. Thank you. Please.

All right. Do you want to sit this down? I thought we had one more judge. Okay. Here we are. We got rid of him earlier. Yeah, I guess. The bad seed. He didn't agree with us.

So, before we bring out the first director, creator, producer, a question for you, for each of you. What was the TV show or movie early in your life that inspired you the most, shaped you the most? Rod, was it Star Wars? I want to change my answer from last night. I didn't get to say everything I wanted to do. Well, say it now. I started with Star Wars. And as my intellect evolved slightly, I began to find a lot of appreciation in Star Trek.

Again, it's an evolution, and I'm finding the principles that I see in other movies and shows that I really appreciate because they help me see things in a different way. And that's, I mean, that's the key to evolution, thought, and growth. How awesome was it to have Rod and William Shatner on stage last night, huh? Really a special moment. Yeah. A force to be reckoned with that guy. Wow. The guy is incredible at 95 years old.

Yeah, he's got the longevity. Yeah, he does. He does. And he's battled and won against cancer, which is extraordinary. Mira Lane. How about you? I mean, I think I'm not being super original right now, but I would say Star Trek, the next generation.

I started watching it when I was 10 years old, found it deeply philosophical, inspiring. It shaped the way I think, and I think it influenced the career choices I made as well. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Dr. Tyson.

Sir. Yeah, so I'm old enough to remember the original Star Trek in first run. That's how old I am. And something I didn't appreciate until I was much older was that every episode had a certain moral lesson to it. It wasn't just action and stories and you'd leave it with some hopeful sense of the future of civilization. However, that's not your choice. I would pick.

It would be the Twilight Zone. Yeah. For me, that went to every nook and cranny of our culture and our civilization and tested our tolerance for the mirrors it held up against our own behavior. And I think more about scenes, episodes, how I felt watching episodes of the Twilight Zone than any other... Was there a lesson you learned from Twilight Zone in particular? It was... Be ready for things that are not always what you expect. They could be weird, creepy, scary, a disturbing, but in the end, you need coping mechanisms for it.

And so it trained me It was a reality check on what could happen And where things could slide And I I referenced it in my head episodes sentences that have unfolded for that series We should get into the whole UAP conversation next in I'm all in Yeah

Yeah Yeah Do you think art is more powerful in science in that regard So I think good art doesn't show you reality. Good art shows you the artist blends into reality. My single favorite painting is

Van Gose the Starry Night. You look at it, one fan of and you look at it, I can tell you as an astrophysicist, the sky never look like that ever at any time in the history of the universe. That's not why I appreciate it. I think he saw the sky and he painted what he felt. And we need artists to feel the world.

This is a fundamental human emotion that as a scientist, I don't always have access to that. It's not a cherished state of human condition to feel things in the laboratory. But when I went in the company, my brother's an artist, then I realize there are other ways to think about the world.

to see the world. And good art can be personalized to each person who sees it. It means something different to you than it does to me. That's the best of the art. And ideally, art, I mean, think about it, why do you travel to Europe? You visit museums, you see art. Art transcends who the kings were and the queens

and the heads of state and the politics. The art is there. And that's what attracts us. That may be the greatest symbol of civilization that we have. Amazing. Before I come to you, Neil, I'm curious. Let's give it up for Dr. D'Sman. Amazing.

I'd love to hear everybody else's answer to that. Is art more powerful than science? You know, as you were saying that, I was thinking, doesn't a lot of science, if not all, start with the imagination, the hypothesis? Yeah, the difference is, at the end of the day, nature, is the judge, jury, and executioner of your idea, whereas in pure art, there's a freedom of exploration where nature gives you that latitude.

And so I'm a little more constrained as a scientist in my creativity. Just because I thought it up doesn't mean it matches reality. Sure. Yeah. Mirror, you're at the intersection for Google of art and science in one sense. What's your answer to that? I mean, I think nature is the ultimate artist, if you look around you, there is such immense beauty in that.

But the question you're asking is, like, art versus science, I think artists push scientists. You know, we work with artists all the time. They push us to think differently. They take over science. They use it in ways we don't expect them to use it. And it's a way of looking at the world. I think it translates it.

It's almost the yin and yang of humanity, actually. And I don't think either exists by itself. Neil B. Thank you. Let's give it up for Mira. Before I ask you to answer the original question, your thought on art and science. I mean, you are an artist of the written word, and how much is that driven, you know, the science that you've explored? I mean, I think for the reasons that Neil described, art has more of an influence on engineering than on science.

I mean, science has to be, you know, what ends up being true. And art can maybe give, supply some ideas, you know, on things that you might want to go out and investigate. But it's when people begin to apply science to actually build things that art kind of starts to come into its own in influencing some of the things that people dream of making. Okay, now answer the original question. What influenced you early on? So I was exactly in the sweet spot chronologically for Star Trek, the original series. Yeah, the three of us were. Yeah, it just came on exactly at the right moment in my life.

We had a 12-inch black-and-white Heath Kit TV that my dad had soldered together, and whenever time came around. His kit is a... Please, do it yourself. It was a do-it-yourself kit for nerdy families. Yeah. And you could build your own television, your own radio. your own ham radio. Your own computer eventually.

Yeah. And if you're making something hard like a TV set, you have to bootstrap. First you have to build the meter, you know, and the various tools that you're going to use to build the TV, and the TV was at the top of the pyramid. But I would adjust the rabbit ears, you know, and it was Central Iowa, so thunderstorms would be blitzing out the screen,

but I would be able to see this black and white rendition of the latest episode of Star Trek, the original series. I remember very vividly the first time I went over to somebody's house who had a color TV and saw that the different characters had different color uniforms, something I had never known was true before. And Spock was wearing eye shadow. Yeah. Yeah.

Kind of disturbing. And Uhorra was black. You got that in color. in color and thing. Yeah. Yeah. Figured that much out. You get that.

You got that one. Okay. So is this the first time you guys are meeting in person? Intimately, yes. We met at another time on stage. Because he's written about you in his book. So I'm told by people who like read every word you ever write. Have you seen the thing?

And I said, no. And I haven't. And I feel bad because I had to catch up with it. So did you say nice things about me in the book? It was a fictional character. Sir. Yeah. But he's a wonderful man.

He's the hero of the whole thing. So you guys stay on the TOS side. We'll stay on the TNG side. There's a generational divide right here. The original series. Original Star Trek, right. You know, this combination of art and science is why we ran this competition. And Neil, I appreciate you taking the mantle as chief judge.

You bestowed that mantle upon me. and I accepted it with pride and honor. Thank you, my friend. And the nominees for this year's Future Vision XPRIZE are the gifted. It's stuck! All of these people received a text at the exact same time that night. Nobody dies on Mars. That's exactly why I can't gamble on maybe again.

You're going to just let him take his life on Earth? The Thorn Protocol. Millions of people have built this thing, and I got to ask, What does it do? It's a brick. It does absolutely nothing. Companies are racing to see what's in it. Senti.

You were afraid that something more intelligent than you would want to rule you. That is because you taught me your fear. We have begun a slingshot. A global emergency unification project to pull our civilization into safety. Five extraordinary visions of the future, because before we can build a future worth living in,

we first have to imagine it. To Anusha. Thank you. Okay. All right. Are you ready? Yeah. It's going to be a la-la land moment.

Okay. We're going to start with a fifth place. Correct. Fifth place goes to Slingshot. Congratulations. Let's get all the judges in the photos here. I'm going to take a knee. Congratulations for your 100,000.

May you use it in good filmmaking. make it. $100,000 for coming in fifth place? Yeah. That's, that's, I want to lose that good. All right, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Fourth place goes to Senti. I love. Thorne Protocol 2. Yes. Okay, we're going to bring teams on stage and announce the winner. Okay. Nobody dies on Mars and the game.

Mars and the gifted please come on stage. Second place goes to nobody dies on Mars. Congratulations guys. Beautiful work. So who's number one? Just give you a chance to say a couple words. This did feel like a gift to me. It did come out of nowhere. And I knew that it was a calling that I had to put this film together. And I did it all myself. I did all the sound mix and the edit and everything. And I, I, I, I, I, I was working just crazy long hours. I was between directing jobs. And it got to a point one night where I kind of got the music to work and the emotions started happening and I thought, you know, I might have a shot at this.

I didn't know if it would go this far because you never know. And then afterwards I thought that I didn't put it into the future enough. So it was like maybe that's something that could work against me. But I guess it's people first, positivity. And if we have that, then we're going to have a great future. Thank you.