Rebel Wisdom

Rebel Wisdom

We uncover the most rebellious ideas in philosophy, human potential and culture to find direction through the chaos of the times. read less
Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Episodes

In Search of the Third Attractor, Daniel Schmachtenberger (part 2)
23-08-2022
In Search of the Third Attractor, Daniel Schmachtenberger (part 2)
Where are we headed as a species? What is the landscape of risks and challenges that we need to confront over the next decades, and are there a small number of key factors that we need to solve to avoid catastrophe? These are the questions Daniel Schmachtenberger is laying out in a new two part series on Rebel Wisdom, called 'In Search of the Third Attractor'. As he describes it, the power of ever increasing technological capacity (exponential tech) means that both destructive and creative capacities are increasing exponentially. Two of the most likely outcomes (attractors) are either some kind of chaotic breakdown, or the development of powerful control systems in response, oppressive authoritarian control. Given this, what does a third option, a 'third attractor' look like? Daniel will be speaking at the Rebel Wisdom festival, 'the Last Campfire' in London on November 5th. To check it out and buy tickets, go to: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/r...  To find out more about the topics Daniel is discussing, check out his work on civilisation, at Civilization Emerging: https://civilizationemerging.com/ And for more on his work around the Sensemaking crisis, check out the Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/   TIMECODES: UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM: 00:00:00 BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP DOESN'T WORK: 00:06:21 HYPER AGENTS: 00:15:06 GREAT GAME OF POWER: 00:26:55 EGREGORES: 00:34:38 TECHNOLOGY & ETHICS: 00:42:50 TECHNOLOGY CHANGES SOCIETY: 00:49:45 INFRASTRUCTURE, SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SUPERSTRUCTURE: 00:59:49 WISDOM OF GODS: 01:13:14 EDUCATION: 01:30:40 CLOSING THOUGHTS: 01:42:08
In Search of the Third Attractor, Daniel Schmachtenberger (part 1)
18-08-2022
In Search of the Third Attractor, Daniel Schmachtenberger (part 1)
Where are we headed as a species? What is the landscape of risks and challenges that we need to confront over the next decades, and are there a small number of key factors that we need to solve to avoid catastrophe? These are the questions Daniel Schmachtenberger is laying out in a new two part series on Rebel Wisdom, called 'In Search of the Third Attractor'. As he describes it, the power of ever increasing technological capacity (exponential tech) means that both destructive and creative capacities are increasing exponentially. Two of the most likely outcomes (attractors) are either some kind of chaotic breakdown, or the development of powerful control systems in response, oppressive authoritarian control. Given this, what does a third option, a 'third attractor' look like? Daniel will be speaking at the Rebel Wisdom festival, 'the Last Campfire' in London on November 5th. To check it out and buy tickets, go to: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/rebelwisdom/718672  To find out more about the topics Daniel is discussing, check out his work on civilisation, at Civilization Emerging: https://civilizationemerging.com/  And for more on his work around the Sensemaking crisis, check out the Consilience Project: https://consilienceproject.org/  Timecodes: INTRODUCTION: 00:00:00 SENSEMAKING: 00:02:10 THE TWO ATTRACTORS: 00:06:09 EXISTENTIAL HOPE?: 00:09:01 INTERCONNECTEDNESS: 00:14:33 FAILURES OF ACTIVISM: 00:18:33 CATASTROPHIC RISK: 00:25:08 THE POST WW2 SYSTEM: 00:38:40 EXPONENTIAL DESTRUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY: 00:45:02 NEAR-TERM RISKS: 00:50:48 THE ENERGY TRAP: 00:58:10 PERVERSE INCENTIVES: 01:03:54 PRIVATE GAINS, EXTERNAL LOSSES: 01:09:38 BIOTECH RISKS: 01:14:13 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: 01:19:29 MULTIPOLAR TRAPS: 01:29:03 CORPORATIONS VERSUS INDIVIDUALS: 01:46:54 NEW GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS: 01:53:27 NETWORK DYNAMICS: 01:58:41 SOLVING MULTI-POLAR TRAPS?: 02:06:51 CENTRALISING POWER: 02:17:47 COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: 02:33:00
Reflecting on the Pandemic, Zubin Damania
03-07-2022
Reflecting on the Pandemic, Zubin Damania
A wide-ranging conversation on the experience of sensemaking during the pandemic, with Zubin Damania (ZDoggMD). Zubin first came to my attention with a viral video at the start of 2020 where he channelled some righteous anger at the medical establishment's response to the pandemic, and said he hoped that the crisis would be the trigger to “burn this broken system to the ground”. For years he's been arguing for a significant change to the medical system, away from treating people as interchangeable parts in a machine and towards a more holistic vision of what he calls Health 3.0. During the pandemic we compared notes on what we were seeing, through shared frameworks like Ken Wilber's Integral Theory and Jonathan Haidt's “moral tastebuds”. He argues for nuance and complexity, and dubs his political perspective as “alt-middle”. 0:00 - The Pandemic & the Information Ecology 04:02 - Zubin & Health Care 3.0 08:09 - The USP of Rebel Wisdom, curating a conversation 10:09 - The pandemic was a stress test that we failed 14:03 - The internet leaking out into the real world 16:37 - The religiosity of the Covid debate 19:53 - The rise in conspiracy narratives 22:56 - Questioning our own thinking 29:33 - Public intellectuals going off the rails 32:48 - The hermeneutics of suspicion 39:00 - A culture of bullshit 44:14 - Conspiracies thrive in the gaps of the mainstream 46:31 - The pre/trans of the insurgency after 2018 53:34 - Paradox of being outside the institutions - audience capture 58:27 - Warping effects of the tech platforms accelerated on creators 01:00:37 - Attention hijack as opposite of mindfulness 01:02:41 - The tragic arc of Jordan Peterson 01:06:55 - The return of the repressed 01:14:14 - The return of psychedelic medicine 01:18:57 - The limitations of psychedelics 01:22:51 - Meditation & Awakening 01:29:36 - Ayahuasca 01:32:14 - Culture War 2.0 & the memetic tribes 01:43:06 - Post Pandemic Awakening 01:46:39 - The English Taboo Against Earnestness 01:49:30 - Mutual Appreciation Society
Curiosity & Wonder, John Vervaeke & Jonathan Pageau
17-06-2022
Curiosity & Wonder, John Vervaeke & Jonathan Pageau
This was a special in person dialogue between the cognitive scientist John Vervaeke and the symbolism expert Jonathan Pageau. They reflect on what each finds valuable about each other's work, the nature of the conversation that they have been part of, good and bad criticism, the nature of symbolism and much more.  It was recorded in Toronto during the making of the forthcoming Rebel Wisdom documentary about John Vervaeke's thought. Some behind the scenes pictures, and a second part of this film is available for subscribers on the Rebel Wisdom Substack: LINK HERE John Vervaeke's YouTube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqDUjTsof-kTNpnyWper_Q  Jonathan Pageau's work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtCTSf3UwRU14nYWr_xm-dQ  Timecodes for the conversation: 0:00 - What does Jonathan appreciate about John's work? 3:55 - What does John appreciate about Jonathan's work? 9:35 - What is the nature of the wider conversation you are both part of? 16:10 - The nature of criticism & "civility porn" 24:09 - The need to go beyond the political layer of analysis 26:19 - Paranoia fuelled by the 'Hermeneutics of Suspicion' 35:16 - Dialogue, Curiosity & Wonder 48:25 - How Symbolism breaks the frame and rewires our thinking 54:36 - A parable is to a narrative what a koan is to a question 57:35 - "I want to help people fall in love with Being again" 01:05:23 - The moral of Socrates and Alcibiades 01:12:56 - Patterns of Being; love, faith & beauty 01:21:32 - Freedom cannot be absolute
Elon Musk, Twitter, Free Speech vs Moderation. Jim Rutt & Aaron Rabinowitz
30-04-2022
Elon Musk, Twitter, Free Speech vs Moderation. Jim Rutt & Aaron Rabinowitz
In one of the most important developments in the dynamic between big tech, free speech and media in many years, Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44bn. Much of the commentary online has devolved into the predictable political shouting matches, and there has been very little engagement with the key questions that this brings up about the nature of moderation, of how to create healthy dialogue and what problems Elon will have to wrestle with in taking Twitter forward. Jim Rutt is the former head of the Santa Fe Institute, and has been involved with online communities since the birth of the internet. He believes that Elon has not fully wrestled with the problem of moderation that he will be taking on with Twitter, a view he explained in his new piece for Quillette, 'Musk & Moderation': https://quillette.com/2022/04/27/musk-and-moderation/  This is a sometimes robust debate and disagreement with Aaron Rabinowitz, a moral philosopher and host of the Embrace the Void podcast. Aaron has spent time wrestling with these same issues, in particular in a famous experiment he ran during the Trump election of 2016 when he created a completely unmoderated discussion group, called Monster island: https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2020/10/monster-island-free-speech-experiment/  Check out Jim's podcast, the Jim Rutt Show: https://www.jimruttshow.com/  And Aaron's podcast Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/podcasts