Genius Podcasting

[Diebert van Rhijn]

Joseph Chilton Pearce I think would make an interesting interview.

I have his book Evolution's End here and enjoyed reading it around two years ago. A quote from the strongest section of the book, near the end:

As Blake said, anything possible to be believed is an image of truth. Truth is function, not a thing, idea, event or semantic slogan. Truth is how the creation works. Understand function and you are home-free. The opposite of truth is delusion, the non-functional. My fearful self-sense, a "raging bundle of desire in a dying animal" as Yeats calls it, is the only delusion there is. All else is God. So the creation gives rise to God as defined, the infinite defined in order to know itself as a self, as you and me. But God as our realized definition is still less-than, still defined. Even so great a relation as me and my greater Self, is a relation and relationship requires separation.

So even this rug, the union of individual and God, will be pulled out from under sooner or later. A further stage will open. We will have to leave the safe-harbor of even the highest knowing, since, as Eckhart put it, all known things must be left behind. Only then will we express evolution's end that was in its beginning, which is the opening of a new evolution.

[Jamesh]

That was quite an interesting interview with Pearce- re the affects of TV, computers and so on on kids.

"Researchers found that twenty years ago young people could distinguish between 360 different shadings of a single color category like red or blue. Today it's down to about 130. That's over a 2/3 loss of their ability to detect shadings of color."

I don't know if has exaggerated or misquoted scientific investigations (statistic lies), but I'll assume he isn't. Stuff like this is a worry. I watch a hell of a lot of TV, movies and computer shit, and noticed that I get more out of a good anime film than, than most normal films these days.

[Cory Duchesne]

I've been keeping my eye out for an interesting woman candidate for a podcast interview.

How aboutMariana Caplan?

Here is an amazon review of one of her books.

[Dan Rowden]

Thanks everyone for their suggestions thus far; we will be researching and/or contacting all those suggested.

Keep it coming. Just don't suggest the Pope.

Edit: Actually, if you have the contacts.....

[Shahrazad]

I'd love to see Daniel Dennett or any of the other guys who have written about philosophy of mind and have tried to explain consciousness. The HPC is something that has been on my mind bothering me for decades, but somehow I doubt QRS is too interested in that mystery. It may be seen as too scientific.

.

[Dan Rowden]

dennet => demasio

What do you want?

[Shahrazad]

Can you rephrase? As always, I'm no good with jokes.

Dennett is a zombie, btw.

[Shahrazad]

Dan,

I just thought of an interesting physics PhD guy that's into philosophy: Sirbytor. Do you remember him? I think he can also be interviewed. But with him, prepare to get insulted. He's not shy.

[Dan Rowden]

Yes, I remember him. He was a good quality poster but maybe too academic for our liking. Plus he doesn't seem to be around these days so God knows what's become of him.

[Shahrazad]

Damn, I can't look him up in RL because he never told us his real name. All we can get is an email and an IP address.

When or if you talk to Victor again, can you ask him if by chance he knows Sirby's name, or the school where he works?

.

[Tharan]

I haven't seen Robert Larkin around since I made him pop a blood vessel defending his "there is no enlightenment" position. I actually agreed with him to some extent, but of course I couldn't let him know that.

*edit*
Do you know who might be a fun guest? Tumbleman. Lure him in by telling him that some people would like to understand OS12 (I think that was what he called it).

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

I have not had much contact with Robert in many months because he has been quite busy with offline matters, and he has stated that going to a message board at this time seems really trivial and inappropriate. Robert is/was taking care of his mother who is/was dying of cancer. Last I had contact with him, she was doing very poorly, and he did not expect her to survive the week. I don't know if she is still alive or not, but even if she is not, there are a number of post-mortem matters to take care of, as well as dealing with personal grief.

I don't see Robert as someone who would run just because of a debate.
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[Shahrazad]

Tharan! Nice to see you're still alive and healthy enough to post.

I'm Sher, btw.

How goes life?

.

[Tharan]

Hi Sher, I recognized you (the Sherazhad derivative and the pic of the Panama Canal gave it away :P). Life is life. I've always been healthy enough to post.

How's everything going with you?

[Shahrazad]

Tharan,

Life is treating me quite well, and I am starting to mature. Still basically a nihilist, but I've reached a stage where I am willing to give up a few of my attachments.

.

[Cory Duchesne]

I was suprised to find an interesting article in my local newspaper the other day. Actually, it was more than just interesting. The article, to my suprise, introduced me to highly controversial author, who, judging from her polemic, might make a good guest to have on the reasoning show.

Laura Kipnis

Here are some of the things she said from an interview she was featured in:

I remember seeing one of those Oprah programs on the rise of male eating disorders, so I think that’s very interesting that men are being inflicted with all of these things women have been inflicted with. It’s an ironic kind of happy development. If men and women achieve more parity because men are being brought down by the economy, by eating disorders, by plastic surgery. This is how gender parity will be achieved, not that women have it better but men have it worse.

There does seem to be a shift in what masculinity is all about, with a shift towards vulnerability and bodily self-consciousness, and I guess that’s what Harvey’s book is protesting, that he wants to return some more invulnerable idea of masculinity. Well, who wouldn’t?

I’m sort of contesting a smugness or complacency in the way that women have started thinking about themselves. They’re always in the right, and they always know what they’re doing. They’re always more conscious of their motives. Freud, I think, is an antidote of that.

There’s this managerial thing that women keep taking on, and one of the things that made me ask that question – do women have to clean because men won’t or because women won’t let them? – because there was some kind of revealing anecdotal things in that book about women who acknowledge control issues. Then there’s the second book [The Bastard on the Couch] that has the counterpart stories about guys feeling controlled and over-managed by women. That’s not the only story, but it seems to be a real element. All this anger about it not being the way you want it to be. It’s not just the anger that the guy won’t straighten the bathmat or whatever, it’s something about it’s not the way you want it to be. It’s played out in domestic issues.

[Cory Duchesne]

And it was through an interview with Laura Kipnis that lead me to this fellow, Harvey Mansfield

Judging from the amazon reviews of his book, he sounds like he might be a great guest as well.

[Cory Duchesne]

Ariel Levy might be worth a try too.

[Shahrazad]

I like this Laura Kipnis person already.

[Cory Duchesne]

Kate Beirne

[Jamesh]

Here's someone I'd try and get.

http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009771

In person, she is modest, graceful, enthralling. Intellectually, she is fierce, even predatory: "We know exactly what it is about but we don't have the guts to say it out loud," she says. "We are too weak to take up our role. The West is falling apart. The open society is coming undone."

These sufferings, she maintains, are traceable to theological imperatives. "People say it is a bad strategy," Ms. Hirsi Ali says forcefully. "I think it is the best strategy. . . . Muslims must choose to follow their rational capacities as humans and to follow reason instead of Quranic commands. At that point Islam will be reformed."

This worldview has led certain critics to dismiss Ms. Hirsi Ali as a secular extremist. "I have my ideas and my views," she says, "and I want to argue them. It is our obligation to look at things critically." As to the charges that she is an "Enlightenment fundamentalist," she points out, rightly, that people who live in democratic societies are not supposed to settle their disagreements by killing one another.

[Dan Rowden]

Yeah, she looks interesting. I wonder how she would answer the question: why would anyone want to be a Muslim at all?

Contacting her may be tricky. Might need Diebert on the case..

[Jamesh]

Contacting her may be tricky. Might need Diebert on the case..

Yes, I just saw her interviewed on Oz Dateline.
There would almost be no chance of contacting her.

What a courageous and intelligent woman she is though. Most impressive.

[vicdan]

I saw this and just had to reply...

That was quite an interesting interview with Pearce- re the affects of TV, computers and so on on kids.

"Researchers found that twenty years ago young people could distinguish between 360 different shadings of a single color category like red or blue. Today it's down to about 130. That's over a 2/3 loss of their ability to detect shadings of color."

I don't know if has exaggerated or misquoted scientific investigations (statistic lies), but I'll assume he isn't. Stuff like this is a worry. I watch a hell of a lot of TV, movies and computer shit, and noticed that I get more out of a good anime film than, than most normal films these days.

I think stuff like that indicates that something is going on we don't understand, and that something is not the mere fact of watching too much TV.

There is this interesting thing called Flynn Effect -- it's the fact that IQ worldwide has been steadily, slowly going up (though it may have plateaued lately). By now, the IQ has gone up around a full standard deviation since the inception of the IQ tests, though the number varies by country.

What I suspect we may be observing is that the distribution of specialization between different parts of the brain is changing. What generally happens is that during development, brain works in a very competitive way -- the sections which receive lots of stimuli basically take over the neurons which receive less, they can take over entire cortex segments.

So, if I had to make a guess, I would say that we aren't observing simply sensory or cognitive degradation in the young generation. What we are observing, I suspect, is the change in the brain which amounts to giving up the ability to, say, distinguish super-fine color shades, but gains the ability to cope with absolutely massive information streams. I suspect it's not a simple degradation but a trade-off, and one we might make willingly if we understood what is being traded for what.

P.S. Sirbytor works at the University of NH IIRC, and I can dig up his name if I have to.

[Dan Rowden]

There's something oddly Ukranian about that post...

Do you know what Sib does there, Victor? That is, what his academic field is?