Your latest book is called Who Owns the Moon. Who owns the moon?
Well, nobody does and that’s part of the problem. Billions are being invested in mining the moon because there are some very valuable resources there that are in short supply on this planet. There will be huge technological side effects when there is settlement on the moon. But I wrote the book because I feel that the regulatory framework that exists for activities in space is very, very weak.
There is one UN treaty from 1967, which was actually a Cold War treaty on preventing the militarization of space. It designated the moon as a kind of terra nullius: it’s just anyone’s and if you can get there, you can do whatever you want there. The moon belongs to no one, which means it belongs to everyone. But all activities out there must be for the benefit of humanity, not for Elon Musk or the Chinese government.
You are known for your amazing hair. Have you ever shaved it?
I have never shaved it off. I got a lot of stick for it when I was younger and it was even longer. People will joke about how much product I use on it, which is actually not true – all I use is some sort of salt spray. People think I have whole cupboards full of hairspray and god knows what else.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done for love?
oh my god So much. I am one of those people who do not love wisely, but too well. I’ve been seriously in love half a dozen times in my life. I once fell in love with an English sinologist and she was going to work in China for a year. I couldn’t bear the idea of being divorced, so I went to the Chinese embassy and gave them my CV and suddenly I got an invitation from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to be a visiting professor there . It really was a great year.
What do you do when you can’t sleep?
I’m very lucky that I don’t usually struggle with it. But when I do, I have a stockpile of things I imagine doing. One of them plays cricket for England – I go through this whole routine where I take a lot of wickets and I make a lot of runs. It’s fantastic. If a fairy godmother turns up and grants me a few wishes, one of them will be that I can play international cricket.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Don’t let other people’s negative reactions hinder you. You will never be able to please everyone. There are going to be some people who just don’t like the cut of your jib.
You know, I use Twitter – I refuse to call it anything else – to complain about Brexit. Someone once said to me: “I admire the way you keep whining about Brexit despite all the trolls trying to get you.” And I said, “What are trolls?” Being a complete tourist in digital land, I didn’t realize people could write to me, so I didn’t see all these horrible things. My god, it’s terrible what some people say. But some of them really make me laugh.
What work of literature, film or music do you return to the most?
I am a great lover of classical and romantic music, anything from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven. I am also a great lover of opera. Many people think, “it’s just a fat guy and a fat lady, how boring”. But I find it deeply moving.
In Madame Butterfly there is a famous aria called Un bel dì, vedremo, which always makes me cry. Music is the universal language – Schopenhauer pointed out that music was the one art that elevates us all above the level of transcendence to an experience where we feel fully connected to everything in the universe.
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What is the oldest thing you own?
A copy of GH Lewis’s A Biographical History of Philosophy, which I bought at the age of 14, way back in the late medieval period. I read it so often it literally fell apart, so it’s all taped and practically unreadable. I became interested in philosophy when I was about 12 and read a translation of Plato’s Dialogues. I was completely blown away by the fact that these great figures devoted their lives to trying to think these things through. I thought, “That’s brilliant, I’m going to do it.”
If you had to fight a celebrity, who would it be and who would win?
I would like to fight Boris Johnson. He has done a lot of damage, a lot of damage and I object very, very strongly to several things that he has done. And I would win, there’s no doubt.
Do you prefer to be called Anthony or AC?
My name Anthony spelled with an H, but it is pronounced “Antony”. The name comes from Antonines in Rome – one of the most famous was Marcus Aurelius. Some idiot in the Renaissance thought that the name Antony might come from “anthos” in Greek, meaning flower. So if you’re an Anthony with an H, you’re a flower, rather than a Roman emperor. I would much rather be a Roman emperor.
As a philosopher, are you surprised by the questions people approach you with?
I have always taken the stand being a philosopher is a license to poke your nose into everything. I am interested not only in classical philosophical problems, but also in political and social issues, and the impact of our tremendous advances in the natural sciences over the last century, giving us a richer understanding of who we are and how we relate to them . each other and for our planet. So I tend to be asked about anything that is considered complicated or problematic. Taxi drivers in London tend to ask me what the meaning of life is – I know what it is by the way.
