Visionaries: Recent Episodes
visionaries
Hosted by John Lobell, we talk with visionaries – people in the arts, technology, science, culture, and spirituality
The Four and Loop Quantum Gravity Today we look at some books about where we are now. We start with Scott Galloway's "Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity." The publisher says, "The COVID-19 outbreak has turned bedrooms into offices, pitted young against old, and widened the gaps between rich and poor, red and blue. But as author Scott Galloway argues, the pandemic has not been a change agent so much as an accelerant of trends already well underway...." What is this going to mean for all of us? Then we look at some "Great Courses" from Robert Greenberg, Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances; and Steven L. Goldman, the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University. We finish with Jim Baggott's "Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe"
Movies Myths and Archetypes This week Lobell talks about his new book, "Movies Myths and Archetypes," which is available on Amazon. Lobell describes an archetypal approach to movies, beginning with "Phantom of the Opera," which is the archetype of how a woman negotiates between key male figures, the father, the demon lover, and the husband lover. He then goes on to look at The Hero Journey in movies like "Apocalypse Now," Mean Streets in movies like "Chronicles of Riddick," Promethean Visions in movies like "Lucy," Time in movies like "Midnight in Paris, and Our Better Selves in movies like "Groundhog Day."
Architecture as Philosophy
John Lobell talks about his new book, Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy. https://www.amazon.com/Louis-Kahn-Architecture-John-Lobell/dp/1580935281/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=John+lobell&qid=1597670486&sr=8-1
There is only one philosophical question: "Who are we and what are we doing here?" Philosophy seeks to address this, but we do philosophy sitting in chair. However, we experience architecture. We are born in, live in, work in, die in buildings. Architecture is the architect's presenting to us of what those experiences might be.
Today we talk with Tegy Thomas who tells us about his work with the Obama campaign, MIT startup competitions and the 2010 TEDx Brooklyn event he organized. We look at how Richard Saul Wurman created TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) and the roll of TEDx.
M.J.Dorian is once again our guest. We discuss his recent podcast, "14. Why Humans Need Art." Find M.J.'s podcast, Creative Codex, on your favorite podcast source. M.J.Dorian is an award winning composer who writes music for film and television. Catch our previous interviews on past shows, and find out more at: www.mjdorian.com
Andrew Feenberg is Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, where he directs the Applied Communication and Technology Lab. He was a student of Herbert Marcuse. Today we talk about Marxism. Find more at: Find more at: https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Feenberg
Alexis Karl is a filmmaker, multimedia artist and perfumer, founder and perfumer of Scent By Alexis and co-founder and perfumer of House of Cherry Bomb. She teaches at Pratt Institute. Find more at:
"Technological Optimism." We have just finished the most prosperous decade in human history in which one billion people exited abject poverty. Today the poorest people carry $3 million Cray super computers and live to their 80s. So why the pessimism? Tune in as we explore.
The economist, Clayton Christensen who introduced the idea of "disruptive innovation,” just died, so we look at some of his ideas, and then wander off into thinking about who are some of the most important "idea" people of our time, and why they are seldom (or never) mentioned in the New York Times. Look up Matt Ridley, Steven Kotler, Craig Venter, Sebastian Thrun, Jimmy Wales, and Peter Diamandis, and see what you get.
Today our guest is composer and music producer MJDorian. On his blog he looks in depth at creative figures such as Salvador Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, and Clinton King. Today we discuss the Red Book by Carl Jung. Once a colleague of Freud, Jung broke away to explore the unconscious in much greater depth. Once dismissed as a mystic, Jung is now central to any meaningful discussion of the arts and of culture. Find more at http://www.mjdorian.com. His blog is Creative Codex.
Our guest today is Rachel Fulton Brown. Rachel is an associate professor of Medieval History at the University of Chicago. She writes: I am the professor your other professors warned you about. I love Christianity, America, and the Western tradition of theology, art, philosophy, music, letters, and education. I believe in the reality of truth, beauty, goodness, and love. I teach history as an exercise in empathy, rethinking the thoughts of the past so as to shed light on our common humanity. I judge people by what they say and do, not by what others say about them. I worship Jesus Christ as Lord. Find Rachel's blog at: https://fencingbearatprayer.blogspot.com
More on what we might all be reading (or in my case, audio books I'm listening to). With thoughts on the "canon wars" promoted by the death of Harold Bloom. We discuss his idea of "swerving" (deliberately misreading an influence) and his terrific book, "The American Religion" in which he looks not at what denominations people belong to, but what they actually believe. Plus we discuss the fabulous Eve Babitz, who I somehow missed in the 1970s, but all of her books now have great audio versions.
What is our culture? For me in the late 1950s it was books - Gide, Freud, culminating in Mailer's Advertisements for Myself. Then in the early 60s it was foreign films - Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Antonioni's L'Avventura, and most of all Godard's Breathless. Then in the later 60s, rock music - The Beatles and the Stones, culminating in Dylan. For my students today, they say it is social media - wasup with that? Then we discuss Daniel Markovits's The Meritocracy Trap - more on that to come.
Today we look at some of the books on my phone. "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America" by Margaret O'Mara reviews a history of computers familiar to those who have followed the industry for the past 50 years. "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein presents powerful insights into creativity and performance, debunking the 10,000 hours thing. We will get to "The Meritocracy Trap" by Daniel Markovits in an upcoming show.
Today we discuss the creativity of Salvador Dalí with MJDorian (Milosz Jeziorski), an award winning composer who writes music for film and television and blogs about creativity. In 2016, he took on the identity of MJDorian: a faceless music producer who wears a poltergeist mask which obscures any indication of age, race, or gender. Look for his blog, Creative Codex on your blog app, where you will find, besides Salvador Dalí, discussions of Frida Kahlo, Leonardo da Vinci, Nikola Tesla, Clinton King, and others. Find more at www.mjdorian.com
Jennifer Dumpert, a dream hacker, explains how to explore liminal dreaming for creativity and spiritual inspiration. At the edges of consciousness, between waking and sleeping, there’s a swirling, free associative state of mind that is the domain of liminal dreams. Working with liminal dreams can improve sleep, mitigate anxiety and depression, help to heal trauma, and aid creativity and problem-solving. Readers of Liminal Dreaming will learn step-by-step how to create a dream practice outside of REM-sleep states that they can incorporate into their lives in personally meaningful ways.
We discuss her book, "Liminal Dreaming: Exploring Consciousness at the Edges of Sleep" and also what is consciousness. About the book at: http://www.liminaldreaming.com
Find more at: http://oneironauticum.com
Jennifer Dumpert is a San Francisco-based writer, lecturer, and consciousness hacker. She is an author, speaker, and avid dreamer. In 2009, Jennifer founded the Oneironauticum, an international organization that explores the phenomenological experience of dreams as a means of experimenting with mind. On the same night, remote participants from around the world use the same oneirogen--any herb, root, technology, practice, scent, sound, or whatever promotes vivid dreams--creating a worldwide slumber party, a night when people around the globe unite as a community of dreamers.
Hypermodernity and the End of the World” by John David Ebert and Brian Francis Culkin, preface By Michael Aaron Kamins. This new book follows the sweep of cultural history from Modernism to Post Modernism to Hypermodernity. It looks are how the Internet is upending our world are we know it, fragmenting all. Kamins writes in his preface: “The Book of Revelation got nothing on this new Apocalypse by Culkin and Ebert. They are, no doubt, the real hype of cultural criticism today (so was John of Patmos). One is the Father of a new Americana of visionary-criticism and, from a modest casita in Santa Fe, must be sitting on the most valuable literary estate of a generation. I mention this last point because with nearly thirty books and 500+ YouTube videos—from film reviews and philosophy, to poetry and commentary on the “decay rate” of virtually all cultural phenomena [3]—John David Ebert is still practically unknown beyond a small but international “cult following,” and a tight circle of writers, artists, and meme madmen: a.k.a., the Hypermoderns
Raymond Storms is a Reiki Certified Psychic Empath who is able to see, hear and feel energy. He works privately with clients in New York City and abroad helping them free themselves from energy blocks, thus allowing them to dive into the beautiful sea of Love that is waiting for us all. Raymond has learned to live more in the present thereby reclaiming his power and he can help you do the same. As a singer who performs in cabaret, classical music, and opera, Raymond has a unique perspective on unblocking people’s true potential. http://raymondstorms.com
Today we discuss: "A Politically Incorrect Feminist: Creating a Movement with Bitches, Lunatics, Dykes, Prodigies, Warriors, and Wonder Women" by Phyllis Chesler. "Red Harvest" by Dashiell Hammett. "The Robots Are Coming!: The Future of Jobs in the Age of Automation" by Andres Oppenheimer. "Explaining Postmodernism (Expanded Edition): Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault" by Stephen R. C. Hicks. "Possible Minds: Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI" edited by John Brockman.
“Brian Francis Culkn on ayahuasca and globalization” Our guest is again Brian Francis Culkin, writer, cultural theorist, and film director. Today we talk about his new book, "THE AYAHUASCA DIALOGUES: globalization, plant medicine, and the healing of the human heart" that he co-suthored with shaman Ricardo Amaringo.
“The Culture Wars: Then and Now.” In 1987 Allan Bloom published "The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students," and in that same year E.D. Hirsch published "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know," and the culture wars were on. xx point was (or should have been) rather innocuous - you can't think critically (or even uncritically) unless you have something to think about. But Bloom's position was certainly controversial. He attacked Nietzschian relativism, advocating a notion of absolute truth. But is anything, even physics (or especially physics) absolutely true? And he favored Western culture over other cultures about which he know little. (And he attacked rock and roll, a position one should have gotten over decades earlier.) Today we look back and see how the culture wars still roil today.
“MJDorian: Revisited.” We talk about creativity with Milosz Jeziorski, an award winning composer who writes music for film and television. In 2016, he took on the identity of MJDorian: a faceless music producer who wears a poltergeist mask which obscures any indication of age, race, or gender. Look for his blog, Creative Codex on your blog app, where you will find, among others, discussions of Frida Kahlo and Leonardo da Vinci. Find more at www.mjdorian.com
Our guest is again Brian Francis Culkin, writer, cultural theorist, and film director. Today we talk with Brian about the impact of new technologies, especially social media and our lives, and on the gentrification of our cities. Find more at: https://www.brianculkin.com
Our guest is Brian Francis Culkin, writer, cultural theorist, and film director. Brian's books include: - The Meaning of Trump - Postscript on Boxing - There is No Such Thing as Boston - Conversations on Gentrification - On Heroin, Spontaneous Reflections - The Problem for Men Find more at: https://www.brianculkin.com
Starting with "Merchants of Truth" by Jill Abramson we look at our fragmenting culture anthem movement from feed to seed, and the antinatalism movement.
Continuing our conversations with Ebert, here we apply mythological insights to movies. Our discussion includes "2001: A Space Odyssey" and its relationship to "Solaris," "Apocalypse Now" and its origins in the Odyssey and Heart of Darkness, "The Truman Show," and "Blade Runner."
Ebert is a major intellectual figure, the author of over 20 books which you can find on Amazon and 600 videos you will find on YouTube. Here we talk about Ebert's intellectual foundations -- books on mythology, media studies, German Idealism, Post-Modernism, etc.
"WHO IS JOHN DAVID EBERT? Part 1.” Ebert is a major intellectual figure, the author of over 20 books which you can find on Amazon. You can find his essays on Cultural-Discourse.com and CinemaDiscourse.com, and his lectures on YouTube and Google+. Ebert puts together Spengler’s approach to culture, McLuhan’s approach to media, and Campbell’s approach to mythology to give us insight to our world today. Here we focus on Hypermodernity. This is the first of four interviews that will survey the archetypal intellectual landscape.
"Things I Can't Talk About." I was going to talk about archetypes and Spiritual Feminism, and then the cover item in the New York Times Book Review was about psychedelics, and I thought I would talk about that also, and then I realized that both were dangerous topics. Psychedelics are illegal, and I have been warned off of talking about essentialism and archetypes where I teach. So here are my thoughts with some tricky navigation.
“Archetypes and Movies, Part 5.” Lobell explores what "Lucy," Mummy movies, "Wolf" with Jack Nicholson, and Andre Gide's "The Immoralist" have in common.
Archetypes and Movies, Part 4." More of our usual digressions, and then we pick up on movies.
"Archetypes and Movies, Part 3." More of our usual digressions, and then we pick up on movies, looking at "Puzzle" and "The Wife," and then at female revenge movies. More on those, plus "Lucy" next time.
"Archetypes and Movies, Part 2." After our usual digressions, we pick up on archetypes in movies, including "Babette's Feast."
"Archetypes and Movies, Part 1." Movies are perhaps our most archetypal medium--maybe it has something to do with the big screen. Our most prominent example is Star Wars, straight from Jospeh Campbell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces." Here we look at several, including "Phantom of the Opera."
"Essentialism and Archetypes." The pioneering Modern American Architect, Louis Sullivan, wrote, "The germ is the real thing; the seat of identity. Within its delicate mechanism lies the will to power: the function which is to seek and eventually find its full expression in form." Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, "What is honor? Not the rules of a code—but the nature of honor. What would be the honor of a brick? That in the brick which makes the brick a brick." What did these architects mean? How does it affect our understandings of our world today? Tune in and find out.
"The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure." Our guest is Greg Lukianoff who is coauthor of "Coddling" along with Jonathan Haidt. Greg is president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Jonathan is Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. His is the author of "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" and "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion." "Coddling" looks at how college students have suddenly become fragile, unable to confront challenging ideas, and what should be done about it.
“Our Culture Today: Ressentiment and the Attack on the Enlightenment.” Our culture today, as reflected in the media, politics, and particularly in our university is dominated by "Post Modern Marxists" who have mounted a broad and sustained attack on the Enlightenment and on anyone who defends it. Given the benefits brought by the Enlightenment one wonders why the attack, and perhaps it is the "ressentiment" that was identified by Herman Kahn in his 1976 book, "The Next 200 Years."
“David Deutsch and Quantum Constructor Theory.” Wikipedia says: “David Deutsch, born 1953 is an Israeli-born British physicist at the University of Oxford. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for Quantum Computation in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. He pioneered the field of quantum computation by formulating a description for a quantum Turing machine, as well as specifying an algorithm designed to run on a quantum computer. He is a proponent of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.” On Edge.org, Deutsch describes his quantum constructor theory: “Some considerable time ago we were discussing my idea, new at the time, for constructor theory, which was and is an idea I had for generalizing the quantum theory of computation to cover not just computation but all physical processes. I guessed and still guess that this is going to provide a new mode of description of physical systems and laws of physics.” His latest book, “The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World” is on unlimited human possibilities.
“Nikola Danaylov, aka Socrates and the Singularity.” Nik’s Singularity Weblog started as a personal journal of thoughts on trends, news, issues, films and people related to the technological singularity. However it has evolved into a growing community of people interested in exploring and shaping our future. Nik has interviewed numerous leading thinkers. Catch his podcasts at SingularityWeblog.com and Singularity.FM.
John David Ebert and Hypermodernity.” Ebert is the author of over 20 books which you can find on Amazon. You can find his essays on Cultural-Discourse.com and CinemaDiscourse.com, and his lectures on YouTube and Google+. Ebert puts together Spengler’s approach to culture, McLuhan’s approach to media, and Campbell’s approach to mythology to give us insight to our world today. Here we focus on Hypermodernity.
“The Intellectual Dark Web.” The dark web is areas of the web that are not found by search engines and that typically deal in illicit goods. Recently a group of intellectuals that have been shunned by the mainstream, who post podcasts and YouTubes, and who sometimes interview each other has been labeled “The Intellectual Dark Web.” Wassup with that?
“MJDorian.” Our guest is Milosz Jeziorski, an award winning composer who writes music for film and television. In 2016, he took on the identity of MJDorian: a faceless music producer who wears a poltergeist mask which obscures any indication of age, race, or gender. MJDorian is currently producing a dark pop and hip hop album, drip releasing with art and music videos monthly. The project is called CATHARSIS. It features collaborations with the best unsigned singers and rappers of NYC, and focuses on a music journey into the Jungian shadow. Find out more here: www.mjdorian.com
Find his recent song he wrote and produced which called “Blood Lust” (feat L'FREAQ) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=321&v=0jTUa2VwuF0
“More meanderings on books.” Why the vicious attacks on Steven Pinker for his book, “Enlightenment Now,” which shows how some aspects of life have been radically improving. And thoughts about David Deutsch’s “The Beginning of Infinity.” (And we can’t talk about Deutsch without mentioning quantum computing and how quantum computers get their power by harnessing their siblings in parallel universes.)
“2001: Creation from Within or Without?” This is the 50th anniversary of the movie,”2001: A Space Odyssey.” The movie is about the search for the extraterrestrial origin of a series of monoliths, one of which sparked the origin of human intelligence. So, where does our humanness come from? There are two traditions: From without, as we see in Genesis 2.7. when God breaths the spark of life into dead dust to create Adam, “2001,” and the tradition of space aliens bringing civilization to us. And From within, as we see in Eastern traditions, especially Taoism, in which spirit is in all things, and in the architecture and spiritual thought of Louis Kahn. To see these two tradition in tension, look at the most famous panel of the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo. It shows God sending the spark of life to Adam. But looking more closely, we see that God himself is within a section of the human brain — thus a creation of the human imagination.
“A Reading List: Part 5.” Lobell continues looking at kool books for our time. Lacking the attention span to read books, Lobell listens to audiobooks, so all the books we talk about are available in audio version. Right now we are interested in the question, “What happened?” For thousands of years human civilization bumped along with great sophistication occasionally popping up, such as Rome and periods of ancient China. But there was never much wealth and people were always short on food. Then 250 years ago, things took off. Why? A key book we will discuss is Stephen Pinker’s “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.”
Bob Walter, Director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Campbell is one of the seminal sources of the contemporary psyche, but few have read his books. Who was Joseph Campbell? How did he become the source for much of today’s cinema? What are his key works, and how might one begin to delve into his ideas? Bob Walter, Campbell’s last editor and publisher, and now director of the foundation that maintains Campbell’s literary material, guides us into these depths.
Lois Farfel Stark, author of “The Telling Image.” In her magnificently illustrated new book, award-winning documentary filmmaker Lois Farfel Stark reveals the human drama as a journey from the “webs” of round-thatched huts and stone circles, to the “urban ladders” of pyramids and skyscrapers organized by hierarchy and measurements, to today's world of “interconnected networks.” In “The Telling Image” Stark shows us how buildings, behaviors, and beliefs reflect humans’ search for pattern and meaning.
“A Reading List: Part 4.” Today Lobell continues with his list of audiobooks and chats about each one. “The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future” by Steve Case. Steve Case was founder and CEO of AOL. When AOL merged with Time Warner, they were in a position to take over the Internet, but instead they self-destructed. How and Why? Case gives us part of the story. “Jack: Straight from the Gut” by Jack Welch. Jack Welch was considered the greatest CEO of modern times (until Steve Jobs re-emerged). How did he do it, and what has happened since? “How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival” by David Kaiser. What is “quantum weirdness, how did physicists cover it up, and who brought it back to attentions. More on interesting books on future shows.
Visionaries - 02.05.18 February 5, 2018
“Rita McMahon of the Wild Bird Fund.” If you find an injured bird in New York City, there is a place you can bring it where it will be cared for — the Wild Bird Fund. Find them at https://www.wildbirdfund.org. My wife, Alissa Grimaldi (http://alissagrimaldi.com) joins me in interviewing Rita McMahon, co-founder of the Wild Bird Fund. We hear stories of bird rescues, how you can help support her efforts, and how we are all enriched by the presences of birds, even in New York City.
Visionaries - 01.29.18 January 29, 2018
“A Reading List: Part 3.” Today Lobell continues with his list of audiobooks chats about each one. Today we briefly mention books I am just starting: - The Sentient Machine: The Coming Age of Artificial Intelligence by Amir Husain - 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson - Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson - Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age by Leslie Berlin - The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball by Noam Cohen
And then look at some older books: - Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin Seligman - She by H. Rider Haggard - Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler - Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth - The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future by Steve Case
Tune in next time for more.
“TV Shows, Movies and Philosophical Zombies.” Today Lobell was supposed to continue with his book recommendations, but he got distracted by artificial intelligence, TV shows, and philosophical zombies. He discusses the new TV series, “Counterpart” about parallel universe intelligence agencies, and also creatures with no inner life.
“A Reading List: Part 2.” Today Lobell continues through his list of audiobooks chats about each one. In this show we cover: :How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines,” by Thomas C. Foster. “Revolutionary Wealth: How It Will Be Created and How It Will Change Our Lives, by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. “A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age,” by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni. “American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road,” by Nick Bilton. “The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency,” by Annie Jacobsen. “To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death,” by Mark O'Connell. Tune in next time for more, and call in with your book recommendations.
“A Reading List: Part 1.” Today Lobell goes through his list of audiobooks chats about each one. In this show we cover: “The Know-It-Alls: The Rise of Silicon Valley as a Political Powerhouse and Social Wrecking Ball” by Noam Cohen, “Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality” by Jaron Lanier, “Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life” by Daniel C. Dennett, “The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality” by Paul Halpern, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House by Donna Brazile, “Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, and “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” by Max Tegmark. Tune in next time for more.
“Extreme Life Extension: Part 2.” Last week we talked about extreme life extension—what if we could live for hundreds of years. Today we talk about what we might do with such long lives. (Oh, and check out http://timeship.org a project on which I work. More on Timeship in a future show.)
“Extreme Life Extension.” The past 200 years has see (roughly) a doubling of the average life span. But 80 years seems to be a common limit, and perhaps 125 is the absolute limit. But what if we could live for hundreds, even thousands of years. That is the goal of some researchers today who assume that in perhaps 50 years we will be able to stop aging all together. And for those who won’t make it through the next 50 years, there is cryonics. Today’s show looks at some of the issues surrounding “extreme life extension.” (Oh, and check out http://timeship.org a project on which I work. More on Timeship in a future show.)
“Enemies of Creativity.” We think of creativity as a positive thing, but not everyone is always happy about it — with creation comes destruction. Think of Uber — the yellow taxi industry is not too happy about it. More generally, creativity is a celebration of individuality — long on the hit list of many groups. Today we look at some of the enemies of creativity.
“Michael Silver.” Once again we check in with Mike to see what is up in consciousness, A.I., and stuff like that. Mike is an architect, cultural commentator, professor, student of consciousness and principal of Critical Systems Lab. He works in robotics among other fields. Today we discuss Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, and the mind/body problem. That should cover it.
“Christopher Vogler:” Chris is a Hollywood development executive known for his 2007 book “The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers,” a guide for screenwriters. The book grew out of his now legendary 7 page memo, “A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” Chris’s approach not only reveals the mythic patterns underlying our movies, but also underlying ourselves — thus becoming a psychology.
“Inside Education.” We use the term “inside baseball” and “deep in the weeds” when political talk gets wonkish. We can also get wonkish about design education, and in doing so, address a lot of today’s issues. Like what will be the impact of the digital industrial revolution on every aspect of our lives.
“Meandering Thoughts on One, Two, Three Cultures.” In 1959 C. P. Snow published “The Two Cultures” observing that a split had grown between the sciences and the humanities. More recently John Brockman, the empresario of science as the new culture, published “The Third Culture,” suggesting that science as philosophy had become a third (and the real) culture. Today we ruminate about all of this.
“Virginia Postrel.” Virginia is an author, columnist, and speaker who looks at a broad range of topics, from social science to fashion, concentrating on the intersection of culture, commerce, and technology. She is the author of “The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion,” “The Substance of Style,” and “The Future and Its Enemies.”
“Christine Peterson and Nanotechnology.” Christine is Co-Founder, former President, and Projects Director of Foresight Institute. She lectures and writes about nanotechnology, AI, and longevity. She is co-author of Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution(Morrow, also free online) and Leaping the Abyss: Putting Group Genius to Work (knOwhere Press, also free online). She advises the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Global Healthspan Policy Institute, National Space Society, startup Ligandal, and the Voice & Exit conference. She coined the term “open source software.” She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from MIT. Foresight Institute researches technologies of fundamental importance to the human future, focusing on molecular machine nanotechnology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.
“Stop Progress?” After thousands of years of little progress, human achievement took off in the 1700s with the Enlightenment, and remained in an upward direction — until the 1970s, when we managed to stop it. What now?
“Tina Seelig.” Tina is Professor of the Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Tina is also a faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering. She teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She is the author of “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World,” “inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity,” “Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World,” and “Creativity Rules: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and into the World.”
“Visionary Creativity in Business: Part 3.” Continuing our discussion of our world of genomic clusters of interconnected fractal networks, computationally generating themselves and each other, we observe that: If you wanted to make an oak tree, you would not put a pole in the ground, nail sticks to it, and glue leaves to the sticks. You would, of course, put an acorn in the ground and let the oak tree make itself. Why aren’t we making our smart phones that way?
“Visionary Creativity in Business: Part 2.” What does it mean that the world and we have become genomic clusters of interconnected fractal networks, computationally generating themselves and each other? And what does it say about Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla?
“Visionary Creativity in Business.” In 1982, in a climate of panic over American business “decline,” Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman released a book titled “In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.” The book is important to this day and has been followed by similar books, for example James C. Collins’s 2001 book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t.” The authors presented lists of principles management leaders should follow, all based on exhaustive research — or was it? Here we look at the importance of Visionary Creativity in business, and how it relates to creativity in other areas.
“Jeremy Lent.” Our guest is Jeremy Lent, author of “The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning.” Jeremy is a writer and the founder and president of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering a worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the earth. You’ll find the Liology Institute at liology.org. We discuss Eastern and Western worldview, the nature of science, how we can understand the world non-reductively, and how we can live in greater harmony.
“Creative Thinking.” In his book, “The Act of Creation,” Arthur Koestler proposes a general theory of creativity the he calls "bisociation" – a blending of elements drawn from two previously unrelated lines of thought into a new matrix of meaning. Today we look at some examples of this kind of thinking. Today, particularly in academia, we are discouraged from going outside of our fields, but perhaps that is the best way to break new ground.
A hundred and fifty years ago we began to feel the impact of industrialization. Before, artisans made the things we used. After, industrial designers designed prototypes that would then be mass produced. But the era of mass production is ending. Today we talk about new ways of making that will change everything about our lives. We will look at some clips from the YouTube: “Neil Gershenfeld: "The Third Digital Revolution" - Solid 2014 Keynote” which you can find at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0RDrSKenGo
“Is the Universe Conscious?” A conversation with Dr. Gregory L. Matloff, emeritus associate and adjunct associate professor of physics at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), who has coordinated the astronomy program at that institution, has consulted for the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, is a Fellow of the British interplanetary Society, is a Hayden Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. His pioneering research in solar-sail technology has been utilized by NASA in plans for extra-solar probes and in consideration of technologies to divert Earth-threatening asteroids.
Dr. Matloff’s work is discussed in an NBC article, “Is the Universe Conscious? Some of the world's most renowned scientists are questioning whether the cosmos has an inner life similar to our own.” You will find the article at: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/universe-conscious-ncna772956
On Dr. Matloff’s website, you will find discussions of interstellar travel, the search for intelligent life, and lots more. Go to: http://www.gregmatloff.com
See an article, “Can Panpsychism Become an Observational Science?” by Gregory L. Matloff at: http://jcer.com/index.php/jcj/article/view/579
“Exponential Growth.” Our minds are set up to think “linearly.” If we take 30 one-meter steps, we expect to be 30 meters (30 yards) away. But what if we were to take 30 “exponential” steps? (Each step double the previous — first step 1 meter, second 2 meters, third 4 meters, forth 8 meters, etc.) How far would we have gone? Around the block? Actually, we would have circled the earth 27 times. We have long seen this exponential growth in our computers (Moore’s Law), and the smart phones in our pockets today outpace the super computers of the 1980s. But now it is showing up everywhere. What will this mean?
“Luis Arana.” Another conversation with Luis Arana, senior artificial intelligence engineer for Robots Without Borders. What will our society be like when all is automated and there are very few jobs? Luis’s focus is building humanitarian AI systems and robotics to solve widespread problems in society. See what Luis is up to at: https://robotswithoutborders.io
“Another Look at Marshall McLuhan.” The media guru, Marshall McLuhan, was one of the most quoted figures of the 1960s and one most influential minds of the second half of the 20th century. He remains the best source for understanding the connectivity of our 21st century. Everybody has heard that “the medium is the message,” but what exactly does that mean? http://www.marshallmcluhan.com
“Creativity and Destruction.” What do Beethoven, Picasso, Thelonious Monk, and Robert Venturi have in common? And share with Angela Duckworth, Lynn Margulis, Kara Walker, and Kathy Acker? They all destroyed an existing cultural form as they created a new one. Today we look at Nietzsche’s para;e of the camel, the lion, and the child as a foundation for creativity.
“How Education Suppresses Initiative.” We like to think of our schools as progressive, but they certainly don’t encourage initiative or independent thought. From Adderall and Ritalin to group-think, we train ourselves to avoid challenging dominant thought.
“What’s Up With Science, Part 2: Thoughts on Evolution.” Peter Thiel lists to ask, “What do you believe that almost no one else believes.” That’s the start. The hard part is to talk about it, and that is discouraged in today’s world. We look at some ideas, and one is evolution driven by patterns.
“What’s Up With Science?” We recently had a march for science — ok, most of us are in favor of science, but it looked like that was really a march to support political correctness and to protect big funding for labs that do — who knows what? “Science” has become a buzz word for one’s favorite politics. Let’s look into this.
“What Ever Happened to the 60s?” For those of us who lived through the 1960s, we each had our own experiences — there were many 60s, some appreciated, some not. For me there was individuality, freedom, expression, openness to other cultures (particularly Eastern cultures), exploration of alternative realities and consciousness. All of which are under repression today. The oppressive hand of the herd is upon us, today calling itself progressive.
April 24, 2017
“Part 2: John David Ebert and French Post Modern Thought.” Today we again visit with Ebert to discuss French Post Modern Thought. Previously we talked about Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, and Derrida.
Today we continue with Jean Baudrillard (simulation and hyperreality), Paul Virilio (dromology or the study of speed and the generation of the Accident from it) and more. Find Ebert’s 20 books on Amazon, his essays on CulturalDiscourse.com, and his lectures on YouTube and Google Play.
Visionaries - 04.17.17 April 17, 2017
“What Happened to the Enlightenment?” The late 1700s was the most momentous period in human history—the first time that there was an attempt to create people and a society based on knowledge and reason rather than on tradition. Why is that attempt under such vicious attack, particularly on college campuses?
“John David Ebert and French Post Modern Thought.” Today we again visit with Ebert to discuss Jacques Lacan (the unconscious is structured like a language and the ego is a fiction), Michel Foucault (the cross sectional analysis of Western society with its four ages), Gilles Deleuze (the rhizome vs. the arborescent; the virtuality of the Idea that incarnates in matter; assemblages, flows), and Jacques Derrida (the end of the logocentric age). Find out what “deconstruction” is and about new notions of the “self.” Find Ebert’s 20 books on Amazon, his essays on CulturalDiscourse.com, and his lectures on YouTube and Google+.
What do you believe that almost no one else believes?” This is Peter Thiel’s favorite question when he is interviewing. It helps him find people who think for themselves, something that seems to become more rare every day. For example, look at what Bjorn Lomborg, Matt Ridley, and Michael Crichton have to say about global warming, and then see who else dares say such things. Today we explore the unexplorable.
“More on How to Experience an Archetypal Movie.” In which we continue our discussion of how we experience movies. Look at what Ebert and I have to say on CinemaDiscourse.com.
Visionaries - 03.06.17 March 6, 2017
“Do We Need College, Part 2.” Today we continue our discussion from last week: Suppose an 18-year-old came to you and asked, “I have $100,000+ and 4 years. What should I do with them?” Obviously college is great for some people, but is it the right choice for everyone? More thoughts today.
“Do We Need College?” Suppose an 18-year-old came to you and asked, “I have $100,000+ and 4 years. What should I do with them?” Would you advice them to go to college? Obviously college is great for some people, but is it the right choice for everyone? And if not, what would you advise them to do instead? Today we process thoughts about education.
“How to Experience an Archetypal Movie.” In which we discuss “Archetypes,” “Essentialism,” and revisit some super popular movies, including “Groundhog Day,” “The Truman Show,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
“How are we Individuals?” We start with the movie “Sully,” starring Tom Hanks and directed by Clint Eastwood about how Chesley Sullenberge landed an airplane in New York’s Hudson River and saved the lives of 155 people. We then look at how the Percival myth is alive in us today through “Sully” and other movies, including “Stagecoach,,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Roddick,” “Bourne,” etc.
“How are We People?” In our materialist age we tend to see ourselves as material being who arrived to who we are through the accidents of evolution, functioning through the firing of neurons. But we can also see ourselves as embedded in our cultures, as we do on today’s show.
“Joy.” There are entire industries built around happiness. Happiness is usually defined as a feeling of contentment, satisfaction, wellbeing, pleasure; a positive emotional state. But is that what we really want? Or do we we want to be engaged in the world, feel energies coursing through us. In this show we call on both van Gogh and Dr. Who to understand Joy.
“Architecture and Design, Past and Future,” with John Lobell. Computation has changed everything about architecture and design. Or has it? Computation brings us new design possibilities, new ways of making things, and products that would previously been impossible. But what are the basics on which architecture and design are built, and do they remain unchanged? On today’s show we look at some key figures from the seminal “Philadelphia School,” and then at a conference at MIT and at GE’s Minds + Machines conferences that herald our emerging “Digital Industrial” world.
“Ivan Shumkov and Build Academy:” Ivan is a New York based architect, entrepreneur and professor who talks with us about online courses and how they are disrupting education. Ivan is a pioneer in online education and founder of the Build Academy, providing professional education and solutions for the building industry. He earned his PhD in Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and masters at Harvard GSD, ETSA Barcelona, and the School of Architecture in Florence. Ivan has taught at NYU, Harvard University GSD, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Parsons the New School for Design, International University of Catalonia, and ETSA Barcelona. As a licensed architect, Ivan has worked, lectured and exhibited his projects and research in Europe, Brazil, Colombia, China, and the USA. More at: https://buildacademy.com
“Marshall McLuhan.” We look at the media guru who is the most influential mind of the second half of the 20th century who remains the best source for understanding the connectivity of our 21st century. Everybody has heard that “the medium is the message,” but what exactly does that mean. Find out on today’s show. http://www.marshallmcluhan.com
“The Beginning of Infinity.” What are the sources of knowledge and science? In his brilliant book “The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World” the physicist and computer scientist, David Deutsch, shows that the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution are unique moments coming from Explanations, and that humans have a unique role in the universe in the creation of knowledge.
“Phil Cousineau:” Interview with the author of more than 25 books, lecturer, scholar, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. His books include “The Hero's Journey” about Joseph Campbell's life, “Soul: An Archaeology, Readings from Socrates to Ray Charles,” and “The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide the Making Travel Sacred.” Phil is host of Global Spirit, which you can see on PBS and Link TV. http://www.philcousineau.net
“Our Computational World.” Is our world a computation – do we live “in the Matrix?” The mathematician Stephen Wolfram, author of “A New Kind of Science,” says that Newton made a mistake to assume nature can be understood through differential equations. Nature uses software-like rule sets. Wolfram says, “I think when I find the code that generates our world, it will be about six lines.” More at: http://generativegenomics.com
“Becoming Creative.” Most of the books about creativity are about mastery, not creativity. Creativity begins with mastering existing traditions, but then goes on to overthrow those traditions and build new traditions. We look at creativity from the point of view of Nietzsche’s parable of the camel, the lion, and the child. More at: http://visionarycreativity.com/wp1/
“Michael Silver.” Mike is an architect, professor, student of consciousness, and principal of Critical Systems Lab. Mike studied architecture at Pratt Institute and Columbia University and has taught at key architecture schools. We discuss consciousness, the mind/body problem, artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, and what all this has to do with architecture.
"Bill Katavolos." Futurist William Katavolos is a professor in the School of Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn New York. He is an innovative futurist, designer, architect, and teacher, and one of the most imaginative minds of our time. His work and thinking range from chairs in New York’s Museum of Modern Art to 240 mile tall buildings; from furniture made from chemicals with memory to buildings made from water. Find more at: http://www.pratt.digitalfutures.info/william-katavolos-the-new-palladio-poesis-versus-noesis-part-1-of-12/
John David Ebert. Culture and media critic. His many books include “Twilight of the Clockwork God,” “Celluloid Heroes & Mechanical Dragons,” “Dead Celebrities, Living Icons,” and “Post-Classic Cinema,” And most recently, a series of book on classic movies, “Scene by Scene …” We will look at our myths today. Find more at: http://cultural-discourse.com