"Will we solve the crises of next hundred years?" asked Krulwich. "Yes, if we are honest and smart," said Wilson. The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall. Until we understand ourselves, concluded the Pulitzer-prize winning author of On Human Nature, until we answer those huge questions of philosophy that the philosophers abandoned a couple of generations ago—Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?—rationally, we're on very thin ground.

Quoted in Harvard Magazine from a public discussion between Wilson and James Watson moderated by NPR correspondent Robert Krulwich, September 9, 2009.