The context was that he was saying, to paraphrase, “that people would adapt to the changes from pervasive cheap energy & intelligence on tap [which he forecasts as coming in the next decades], however scary and weird we might find it, because the modern context is already weird and very different from human history; an example of this sort of human ability to cope with change is that the US government announced the other day that UFOs are real, and everyone just shrugged and carried on as usual.” I didn’t take him as endorsing the claim “yeah, space aliens are totally real, here, and buzzing pilots for kicks”, necessarily.
The context was that he was saying, to paraphrase, “that people would adapt to the changes from pervasive cheap energy & intelligence on tap [which he forecasts as coming in the next decades], however scary and weird we might find it, because the modern context is already weird and very different from human history; an example of this sort of human ability to cope with change is that the US government announced the other day that UFOs are real, and everyone just shrugged and carried on as usual.” I didn’t take him as endorsing the claim “yeah, space aliens are totally real, here, and buzzing pilots for kicks”, necessarily.