James Fowler is a professor of medical genetics and political science at UC San Diego, and the co-author of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. Before participating in a panel on the future of direct democracy in California, he revealed that he’s almost always got social networks on the brain.
Q. If you could go back and live in any other time period other time and place, where would you want to live?
A. Right here and now. We’re at this moment that we’ve come together with all of this data and all of these theories and social networks. We’re going to be resolving a lot of these issues in the next 10 to 20 years, and I think it’s going to have a huge impact on how we live out the rest of this century.
Q. What’s your favorite thing about San Francisco?
A. Food. Tomorrow I’m going to go to Tartine, and that’s one of about 10 or 15 places in the city that I just love. I love San Diego, and I love living there, but the one thing we don’t yet have there is good food.
Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
A. My high school debate coach told me, “You’ll never get anywhere if you’re competing against other people. You have to compete against yourself.” Ever since then that has been my mantra.
Q. Assuming there is such as thing as reincarnation, what profession would you choose to pursue in your next life?
A. I’ve always had this wistful desire to be a musician. You know, to be a rock ’n’ roll star.
Q. Who’s your childhood hero?
A. Albert Einstein, and it was just because I was very enamored with astronomy and mathematics when I was younger.
Q. If you could have a beer with anyone in history, living or dead, who would it be?
A. My first instinct is to say Obama. Or maybe Thomas Jefferson. He was a really interesting guy, and a big fan of direct democracy.
Q. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
A. It would have to be Indian food of some kind, probably something super spicy from Kerala (a state in Southern India). My wife and I spent three months in India, and I didn’t crave American food once while I was there.
Q. Describe yourself in five words or less.
A. Five words is too little.
Q. Ask yourself a question and then answer it.
A. Why do you think social networks are so important? Above and beyond the power we’re going to discover in terms of being able to use them to make the world a better place, they fundamentally change the way we see ourselves, and I think even just realizing that has the power to make us better.
*Photo by Gene X. Hwang