Will artificial intelligence robots have subjective experience? What are the ethical and safety implications of such entities? Which quantum physics theory can accommodate consciousness?
In this episode we have the extraordinary possibility of subjective experience and feelings in artificial intelligence robotic systems to think about. So we look at experiments to try and prove if it’s even possible; the quantum building blocks from which both living and artificial systems are made up; the ethical and safety implications of advanced intelligence instantiated in robots, and we get into the controversial search for a quantum physics theory that can accommodate consciousness.
Fortunately, my guest today is not only one of the first pioneering scientists to really devote themselves to the creation of sentient human-similar robot minds and bodies, but is also an experimental physicist working with quantum computing systems. She is of course the quantum engineer, consciousness researcher and AI computer scientist Suzanne Gildert. She has written over 80 scientific papers, founded several successful AI companies and has dozens of US patents for her inventions.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
04:25 Her move to AI & robotics from quantum computing.
06:45 Something missing from materialism.
11:00 The what, how and why of consciousness.
12:20 Remembering quantum fields are the base level of reality.
15:50 Quantum Biology - John Joe McFadden.
18:20 ‘Protecting’ quantum coherence environments.
20:00 The Penrose-Hameroff microtubules quantum consciousness theory.
24:40 The risks of the “two mysteries” argument.
30:10 Looking for subjective experience in AI robots.
33:55 “Reward function”, purpose led, agential behaviour doesn’t emerge naturally in AI.
36:25 Limitations to building sentient AI robots.
39:25 Iain McGilchrist’s left-right hemisphere interpretation of split brain data.
41:40 How similar are AI minds to human ones?
43:40 Will Ai become conscious one day?
44:40 The generalisation problem.
47:50 The anthropomorphism problem.
50:05 Ethical implications - Regulations, rights and protections.
53:20 Survival instinct research in AI.
57:20 Brain activity mapping to subjective experience, AI decoder research.
50:20 Biological robots: Different emergent possibilities?
01:01:50 Cellular material re-purposing itself spontaneously.
01:04:10 Could the biosphere be a technology?
01:07:40 Quantum Conscious Agency Theory.
01:14:05 Quantum Annealing.
01:21:03 Can you test for panpsychism?
01:25:10 Buddhism: the dissociated agent approach.
References:
Quantum Conscious Agent theory presentation - Suzanne Gildert.
Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee, “On Intelligence“.
John Joe Mcfadden, CC Quantum Biology episode
Roger Penrose, Orch OR (Orchestrated objective reduction) theory.
Erwin Shrodinger, “What is Life?”.
‘In Tests, Open AI’s New Model Lied and Schemed to Avoid Being Shut Down’ article
‘Brain activity decoder can reveal stories in people’s minds’ article
Jerry Tang et al. ‘Semantic reconstruction of continuous language from non-invasive brain recordings’ paper
Tristan Harris & Aza Raskin, “The AI Dilemma” presentation, March 2023
Is there evidence that even light exercise can improve mental health and help treat severe mental illness? How easy is it to prove the effects? Are our ever more sedentary lifestyles putting us at risk? How easy is it to apply in the current mental health treatment system?
In this episode we have the revealing research on the use of exercise and movement to treat mental health to get up to date on. This is the third episode out of three in this series on the theme of life-style medicine, the other two being on Sleep for mental health (Episode #72 with Roxanne Prichard) and on diet for mental health (Episode #70 with Felice Jacka), so please check those out as all 3 interrelate in term of mental health outcomes. In this episode though we get into the reasons why even a little movement has a radical effect on our mental health; that movement can be used in association with talky and drug therapies to effectively treat even serious mental health disturbances like schizophrenia; we also get into the huge host of improvements across the board when exercise is applied; the impressive bulk of clinical trials that have proved this in the last 15 years; and we hear about the faster than usual uptake of this data by international policy makers, and the difficulties of practically integrating these protocols into the mental health care system.
Now fortunately for us, our guest today is one of the world’s leading researchers in this field, mental health physiotherapist and Kings College London researcher, Brendon Stubbs. He is the co-author of over 800 highly cited scientific papers, and the book “Exercise-Based Interventions for Mental Illness: Physical Activity as Part of Clinical Treatment”.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
06:40 Early attempts on the mental illness ward as a physio.
09:28 The rise of life-style research into mental health in the early 2000s.
12:00 Sedentary lifestyle issues.
13:24 The benefits of being both therapist & researcher.
15:50 Resistance to the word ‘exercise’.
19:00 Rise in sedentary lifestyle correlates with rise in mental health issues and stress.
23:45 Higher inflammation in sedentary populations.
26:30 Endorphins are not the only reason it feels good.
30:15 15% drop in depression risk.
33:10 Muscle, heart and lung strength is a marker for lower depression risk.
35:30 Even genetic predispositions to depression can be 25% less at risk.
36:30 Equally successful to CBT therapy.
38:30 Hippocampus size variations with just 10 mins of light movement.
41:45 Sleep, diet & movement increase hippocampus size & reduce inflammation.
42:30 Schizophrenia & Psychosis studies.
46:00 Difficulty with continuity of exercise when patients return to society.
49:15 The body likes routine & reduced friction.
50:00 Limitations of randomised control trials on life style interventions.
54:15 The faster than usual integration of this into the consensus.
56:30 Policy creation at national and world health level.
58:00 Pharmaceutical funded researchers pushing back against these results.
59:00 Difficulty applying this for family doctors and mental health professionals.
01:01:15 Socio-economic mental health risk and difficulty of access.
01:03:00 The national health money saving motivation is hard to prove.
01:05:00 Main tips for movement for mental health.
References:
‘Physical Activity and Incident Depression: A Meta-Analysis’ paper, Felipe Shuch et al.
‘Strength training has antidepressant effects’ paper, Fabricio Rossi et al.
‘Physical activity offsets genetic risk for incident depression’ paper, Karmel Choi et al.
‘Exercise and internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy for depression’ paper, Mats Hallgren et al.
‘Light-exercise-induced dopaminergic and noradrenergic stimulation in the dorsal hippocampus’ paper, T. Hiragana et al.
How should we support the dying, and how should we approach death itself? What is conscious dying? What does Carl Jung’s work say about facing death?
In this episode we have the complex topic of how to face Death, through the lens of psycho analyst Carl Jung. I’m sure that some of you will have found this episode because you’re facing death during this time, either your own or of a loved one; and to those of you I offer my condolences and healing prayers, and hope dearly that what we discuss today will offer some perspective and assistance, and my apologies in advance if any of our ideas cause you pain: death and mourning are extremely personal topics.
But I also hope that many others of you are here simply to try and form a healthier relationship with death.The inspiration for this episode came not only from my own experience facing my own parent’s mortality, but also from my intuition that our modern, consumeristic, aestheic and individualistic society has made us more afraid of death than ever; perhaps because of our modern societies focus on material well-being, and the power of technology to guarantee it. My gut feeling is that we need to become aware of this unconscious taboo, as it seems to be hindering a deeper and perhaps more wholesome acceptance of mortality in general.
And that’s why I wanted to speak to a specialist like my guest psychoanalyst Monika Wikman. Monika received her PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and then qualified as a Jungian psychoanalyst at the Jung-Von Franz Center for Depth psychology in Zurich. She is an expert on topics including archetypal phenomena surrounding death, dreams, active imagination and alchemy. Her work with the dying culminated in a research project called ‘Dreams of the Dying’ at UC San Diego Medical Center. She is also the author of the book, “Pregnant Darknesss: Alchemy and the rebirth of consciousness”.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
04:30 How to support the dying.
07:05 Death informs us.
09:00 Facing our own mortality - the history of Conscious dying.
13:18 The Osiris Myth. Dismemberment and rememberment.
16:45 Death is the ultimate goal, an achievement, according to Jung.
19:15 Death duellers.
21:45 The last step of individuation.
24:45 Symbolic death, according to Jung.
30:00 ‘The wound is where the light enters you’. Rumi
33:00 The religious function - Jung.
34:00 Monika’s 2nd NDE - a relationship with the darkness.44: 00 Life after death and the subtle body.
46:00 Prayer and connecting with the eternal.
50:00 Only through limitation can we connect with the eternal.
51:00 The subtle body - uniting psyche and matter.
56:10 The Divine wedding - the marriage between opposites.
57:45 Synchronicities around the dying.
01:07:00 Studying the dreams of the dying.
01:11:30 Dead friends and family often come for them in dreams.
01:15:20 Common motifs of crossing rivers, thresholds and initiations.
01:17:00 How we mourn.
01:29:20 If you didn’t serve someone well you’ll regret it after they die.
01:22:00 Grief transforms.
References:
Monika Wikman, “Pregnant Darkness - Alchemy and the rebirth of consciousness”
Wendell Berry poem - Rising
Mircea Eliade, “Yoga: immortality & Freedom”
C.G.Jung, “Memories Dreams and Reflections”.
Ram Dass quote, ‘Dying is absolutely safe’
Leonard Cohen quote, 'We are so lightly here'. (Not William Blake).
What are the implications of the discovery of the chemical variation of water, nicknamed “The 4th phase”? What does the new structured chemical composition mean for the storage of energy and information? What can we learn from the discovery that electrical charge plays a role in the way water moves and transports other molecules?
In this episode we have the fascinating new science of water to get into, particularly the research around the discovery of the gel-like chemical variation of water, nicknamed the “4th phase”. It occurs when water gets close to water friendly surfaces, and as it changes chemical structure, it separates into positive and negatively charged components. So we find out how this particular form of water is used by nature; how its structure can be ‘charged’ by infrared energy from the sun like a solar cell, becoming an energy source that can do work. We also separate the wheat from the chaff on the controversial ‘memory of water’ claims of Maseru Emoto and Nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier; and we discuss why there is so much resistance to this research despite the ubiquity and importance of water in biological systems.
Fortunately to navigate this cutting edge research and avoid wishful thinking, we have the director of Pollack Labs at the University of Washington, one of the most established lab’s studying water in the world, Bioengineer, professor Gerald Pollack. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers, and four books for the general public including ‘Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life’, ‘The 4th Phase of Water’ and his new book just out ‘Charged - the unexpected role of electricity in the workings of nature’.
What we discussed:
00:00 Intro.
10:00 The role of electricity in nature.
15:25 The Earth has a negative charge & the ionosphere positive.
19:00 The old consensus on water.
23:00 Gilbert Ling - cellular water is charged and so the molecules stack.
26:15 The transition of chemical structure when in contact with hydrophilic surfaces.
27:45 Exclusion-Zone Water = Liquid Crystal Water.
32:45 Changes chemical structure and electrical charge.
35:00 Add light or electrons to build EZ Water.
37:30 Grounding - is there any evidence?
38:20 It’s an energy source, a battery charged by infared light.
42:15 The difficulty raising money for ideas that go against the consensus.
46:15 The threat to an old world view.
48:30 The Brownian motion criticism of the data.
49:00 Electrical energy generation in cells.
56:00 The cardio vascular, blood flow energy issue.
01:05:45 We’ve misunderstood membranes.
01:13:00 The gel itself might be a barrier.
01:14:00 Purification of water using the exclusion process.
01:19:00 Difficulty getting business funding for the applications.
01:24:00 Cancer cells have a lower negative charge. Perhaps a lack of EZ water.
01:26:00 How information is stored in structured water.
01:31:00 Luc Montagnier - water claims confirmed in 3 studies.
01:39:00 Jacques Benveniste - dubbed ‘water memory’.
01:40:30 Masero Emoto - Dean Radin confirmed his result.
01:44:45 Non-verbal communication.
References:
Gerald Pollack, “Charged: The Unexpected role of electricity in the workings of nature”
Gerald Pollack, “The Fourth Phase of Water”
Earth’s negative charge, Richard Feynman Volume II, Chapter 9 of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, titled "Electricity in the Atmosphere”.
Gilbert Ling - Polarised-Oriented Multilayer Theory
Harold Hillman - ‘A radical reassessment of the cellular structure of the mammalian nervous system’
How can consciousness emerge from non-conscious material? If there is only one type of stuff, how is the potential for consciousness encoded in the building blocks of the universe?
In this episode we have the ancient philosophical mind-body problem to get our heads around, and the ever more popular solution, panpsychism: That is, the belief that everything material, no matter how small, has always had a component of consciousness in it. We get into what consciousness is, why it’s not an illusion; into subjective experience; we cover the rich history of the mind-body problem in philosophy, and we also confront the apparently magical emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness by exploring the arguments for panpsychism, and how new understandings from the last 100 years of science might change preconceptions about a panpsychist solution.
Fortunately, to understand this we have the hugely experienced author and analytical philosopher of mind, for many years at the university of Oxford and now at the university of Texas, professor Galen Strawson! Alongside over 140 papers, he has also written 12 books including “Consciousness and its place in nature”, “Things that bother me: Death, Freedom, the self etc” and his new book “Stuff, Quality and Structure”.
What we discuss:
00:00 intro
05:30 ‘Naturalism’ as a position.
07:00 Qualia explained.
09:30 There’s only one kind of stuff: identity metaphysics.
12:00 A criticism of life as narrative story.
14:30 what is the self?
17:20 There is no mystery of consciousness.
19:15 Locke’s Primary and Secondary Qualities clarified.
21:45 The history of the mind-body problem.
27:30 The interaction problem VS the combination problem.
30:30 Radical emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness is impossible.
32:30 The arguments for panpsychism.
34:00 Psychophysical laws - David Chalmers.
35:00 The rise of panpsychism.
36:30 Different types of panpsychism.
41:30 Separating between conscious stuff, and subjects of consciousness.
48:30 Cosmopansychism - patterns of excitation in the quantum field.
50:00 Cellular cognition - Agential behaviour is not proof of experience.
54:00 ‘Matter is energy’ assists panpsychist intuitions.
56:15 Who demands evidence is begging the question.
01:02:30 “A Global Replace” of consciousness in matter.
01:03:30 How would a world of panpsychist science look?01:06:30 Neuroscience: neural correlate reductionism.
01:09:30 Feelings evolved before reasoning.
01:11:30 Being is energy; being is becoming; being is qualititivity; being is mind.
01:13:15 A cosmological mind.
01:16:15 Teleology and Meaning.
Quote:Lee Smolen, “Qualia must be understood as aspects of nature, that is our commitment to naturalism, the philosophy that asserts that all that exists is part of the natural world science studies.”
References:
Galen Strawson, “Mental Reality”, 1994
Galen Strawson, “Against Narrativity” paper. 2004
Galen Strawson, “Realistic monism - why physicalism entails panpsychism”, 2006
Galen Strawson, “Mind and Being, The Primacy of panpsychism”, 2017
What are memes and why do some replicate while others disappear? Are the memes selected for always for the benefit of the host culture? How are our new technologies changing the way memes feedback into our cultural evolution?
In this episode we have the slightly disconcerting ideas of Memetic theory to get our heads around; as we learn how successful ideas and information are replicated by humans before being re-transmitted back out into world. We’ll see how these memes evolve our culture and minds over time, similarly to how our genes evolve through natural selection. But concerns will arise when we realise that this replication is not only selected for memes that are good for human evolution, and so memes seem to take on some type of evolutionary survival of their own. So when we now find ourselves in an internet era, with AI algorithms replicating ideas in an artificially amplified feedback loop with our own human memes, we get a cultural run away train, in which we are not really in control of our own culture and ideas.
So fortunately, to get our head around this tough topic we have one of the inventors of the field, author of the 1999 book “The Meme Machine”, and by now, in her third appearance on Chasing Consciousness, our in-house sceptic - psychologist, philosopher, broadcaster and author Susan Blackmore. She’s best known for her books "Zen and the Art of Consciousness, Consciousness: An Introduction", and "Seeing Myself". Susan’s work spans across hundreds of publications in over 20 different languages, making huge contributions in the fields of psychology, memetics, religion, philosophy of mind, supernatural experiences, and anomalous experiences.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
04:00 Using Natural Selection to apply to the imitation and thus survival of ideas.
06:35 Successful imitation of behaviours came first.
07:35 The ideas that get copied more, for whatever reason, survive longer.
08:40 Language allowed better copying and feedback.
12:10 Memplexes: an analogy of co-adaptive gene-complexes.
14:20 Sue’s scepticism of quantum theories of consciousness.
14:40 Ideas are memes but experiential knowledge is not.
19:05 Concern: Memes themselves are the beneficiary of selfish replication, not the host culture or minds.
22:50 Human rights memes run against genetic replication needs.
26:05 The taboo around memetic theory.
32:40 “Tremes” - technological imitations independent of humans - a third replicator.
40:00 Social media algorithms as super-treme replicators.43:50 Too fast turn around of ideas, hyper vigilance and negativity bias.
47:50 Over stimulated, fast societies - Negative mental health outcomes.
48:20 The implications of artificial general intelligence in terms of Tremes.
53:05 Technology as an extension of our culture.
57:40 Max Tegmark’s “Moloch” allegory.
References:
Susan Blackmore, “The Meme Machine”.
Richard Dawkins - “The Selfish Gene”
What are the benefits and risks of developing advanced AI? What kind of safety precautions could we take? Could we risk never making future discoveries, by over-limiting today’s AI in pre-emptive safety regulations?
In this episode we get a sceptical evaluation of the complex debate that’s currently raging on artificial Intelligence safety, aiming to get a balanced view of the extremely useful applications versus the currently hugely publicised existential risks, and evaluate the safety measures and legislative frameworks that are being considered to help avoid risk to humans. To do this we trace the path from today’s artificial intelligence right up the ever steeper curve towards artificial super intelligence; we risk risk assess the unpredictability of emergent properties of such systems; we assess the future of work, and the potential loss of control of our culture as AI starts to outnumber us and generate more and more of the media we consume.
My guest today has a unique take on these issues which took me by surprise, as he disagrees with the alarmism and call for harsh regulation, whilst openly predicting that emergent properties will more or less guarantee safety hazards. The fact that he has been at the cutting edge of computer science for over 40 years, creating computer language and Ai solutions, makes him well placed to provide a counterpoint to the AI safety campaigners calling for collective action. He is of course physicist, computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram. In 1987 he left academia at Caltech and Princeton behind and devoted himself to his own computer systems at his company Wolfram Research. He’s published many blog articles about his ideas, and written many influential books including “A new kind of science”, “A project to find the fundamental theory of physics”, and “Computer modelling and simulation of dynamic systems”, and most recently “The Second law” about the mystery of Entropy.
What we discussed:
00:00 Intro.
06:30 Stephen’s first forays into neural nets in the early 80s.
09:30 Cellular Automata.
11:00 Can you make the knowledge of the world available via computers?
13:00 Wolfram Alpha: A non-AI AI.
17:45 Can AI solve science?
22:00 AI is great at rough answers, worse at the detail.
33:00 Artificial General intelligence, A.G.I.
42:00 The pros & cons of super intelligence.
47:40 Chat GBT’s unpredicted peculiarities.
54:00 The spread of mistruth.
58:00 AI and the future of work.
01:05:20 Businesses leading automation push.
01:09:00 AI will outnumber us and network, changing our culture.
01:11:00 AI will follow a banal ‘mean’.
01:16:30 The AI Safety debate.
01:21:00 We have no choice, it will be developed anyway.
01:22:00 Ai systems may have feelings, we don’t know.
01:25:00 Stephen’s non-interventionist safety approach.
References:
Stepehn Wolfram, “A project to find the fundamental theory of physics”,
Stephen Wolfram, “The Second Law”
The History of “Neural Nets” since 1943, (Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts paper)
Stephen Wolfram, “Can AI solve science?” article
What are the contents of Out of Body Experiences? How closely do they map the actual physical world? Is it possible to induce them purposefully? How do modern practices compare to indigenous shamanic ones?
In this Episode we look at the scientific, religious, cultural and historical contexts of Out of Body Experiences, also known as astral projection - so the experience in which an individual appears to leave their body and be able to travel around the world and into other dimensions, often meeting other worldly entities, similarly to DMT psychedelic experiences, (see Episode #73, “DMT Entity Experiences”). So, we get into the phenomenology- the various things people experience; potential neurobiological explanations; and the possibility of inducing the experiences on purpose and of exploring alternate realities; we get into indigenous traditions of ‘Shamanic flight’ and which people might be predisposed to these alternate states of consciousness; and we end up talking about a potential connection between OBE, sleep paralysis and ludic dreaming.
To discuss this slippery topic, we have a researcher who is also a lifelong experiencer, who has devoted her career to trying to understand these phenomena, the medical anthropologist and author Samantha Lee Treasure; she has an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS university in London, has been a brain science research assistant at the University of Liege, and has just released her first book on the topic, “Out of Body experiences”, the release of which this episode is timed to coincide with.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
11:30 What is medical anthropology?
16:00 OBE entity research.
22:15 Samantha’s New Book - getting beyond preconceptions.
25:50 OBE vs Astral projection - bypassing the taboo.
30:00 Common reported OBE experiences.
33:00 Mental body schemas and projected models of the world.
37:00 Do OBE’s map the real world accurately?
45:00 Olaf Blanke - the Temporoparietal junction discovery.
48:45 No sense of smell during OBE nor processed by the TPJ.
49:40 Techniques to induce OBE’s intentionally.
53:45 Bob Monroe’s perspective switching technique.
55:30 Shamanic flight practices in Tuva, Siberia.
59:35 The sonezen - the perceiving mind self.
01:01:00 This is not for everyone, it can be scary.
01:05:00 The predisposition for some to have these experiences.
01:10:45 Crossovers between NHI Contact and OBE entity experiences.
01:14:20 Genealogical predispositions.
01:18:25 “Reality Shifting” and the role of intention in OBE.
References:
Samantha Lee Treasure, “Out-of-Body Experiences: Explorations and encounters with the astral plane”.
Stephen Le Berge, “Pre-sleep treatment with Galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming” paper
Olaf Blanke, “Linking out-of-body experience and self processing to mental own-body imagery at the temporo-parietal junction” paper.
Charles T Tart - 6 Studies of OBE.
Graham Nicholls, “Navigating out of body Eperiences”.
Yurgan Zeiwe - “Multi-Dimensional Man”.
RosalieYoga, Monroe Sound science guided meditations,You tube channel.
Celia Green & Charles Mc Reery, “Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness during Sleep”.
Anthony Peake, “Near Death Experiences”.
How do astronomers detect the conditions for life and techno-signatures on exoplanets many lightyears away? What conditions on earth give us clues to how life might have formed elsewhere? How do intelligent civilisations evolve to technomaturity before they destroy themselves?
So in this episode we have the mysterious arising of life and eventually intelligent life on our planet to try and explain, to then apply that to our search for other intelligent life in the cosmos. So to explain that we’re going to be getting into the co-evolution of the geosphere and the biosphere on earth and their corresponding feedback loops; the possibility of planetary level intelligence; the difficulty of laying a technosphere on top of the geo and biosphere, and the risk of civilisations wiping themselves out before learning how to harmonise the technosphere with the biosphere; We’ll be looking at the changes in the field of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Terrestrial Intelligence), since we can now identify potentially life sustaining exo-planets in nearer parts of the galaxy; we’re going to get into the newly funded search for techno signatures from advanced civilisations, and potential space junk from the many civilisations that presumably didn’t make it; lastly we’re going to discuss recent claims of ancient and alleged present visitations to earth by extra terrestrial intelligence.
Fortunately to face these tough and complex issues, our guest is a world specialist in astrobiology, with a talent for making these topics fun and imaginative, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, Professor Adam Frank. He’s the author of over 200 scientific papers and 6 books for the general public including, “The Blind Spot: why science cannot ignore human experience” and “The Little book of Aliens” which we’ll be focussing on today. He’s also an award winning science communicator, on a mission to raise public awareness about existential risk and science in general.
What we discussed:
00:00 Intro.
05:20 The importance of experience.
07:00 The limits between the expressible and the inexpressible.
09:10 Semantic Information: life as self organising, autonomous agents.
15:00 There’s stuff you can’t talk about - there’s only the silence
16:20 The Basian probability of other life in the universe.
20:00 The ingredients for life on this earth.
22:30 The codependence between Geo and Biosphere.
22:60 Gaian feedback loops.
27:00 The earth is not conscious but it is an agent.
29:45 Mind is a process, it’s not just in the head.
33:25 The fluidity of individuality.
34:30 Distributed Cognition - bacteria, fungal networks etc.
38:30 A fundamental reimagining of what we mean by ‘Nature’.
39:30 There is no disembodied perspective.
41:00 Geosphere to Biosphere to technosphere maturity.
47:30 The biosphere offers a model for what planetary intelligence looks like.
48:00 The history of search for extra terrestrial Intelligence, SETI
49:00 The Drake equation - 7 requirements for intelligence life.
53:45 We’ve never looked - a tiny amount of the sky has been studied.
54:00 Exoplanets: searching for biosgnatures and techno signatures.
56:00 Technospheres: Kardeshev scale and Dyson Spheres.
59:00 Techno junk from dead civilisations.
01:02:30 UFO’s need more data to be taken seriously.
01:08:20 UFO’s could be surveilling their spy tech.
01:10:00 Pros and Cons of solar system settlement.
References:
Adam Frank, Evan Thompson, Marcelo Gleiser, “The Blind Spot: Why science cannot ignore human experience”.
Adam Frank, “The Little Book of Aliens”
Adam Frank, David Grinspoon, Sarah Walker - Intelligence as a planetary scale process.
Lynn Margulis - Evolutionary Biologist.
David Krakauer et al, An information theory view of individuality
Frank Drake - Project Ozma
Jason Wright - SETI meta-analysis
Adam Frank - New York Times ‘I’m a Physicist Who Searches for Aliens. U.F.O.s Don’t Impress Me’ article
"The Expanse", Apple TV series
What’s the architecture of a DMT experience, who are the entities that regularly interact and what’s their message? How can DMT therapy facilitate positive mental health outcomes?
In this episode we’re going to learn about the bizarre types of experience that users of DMT have; DMT being the most powerful hallucinogenic molecule on the planet. So we’ll be getting into the background of psychedelics for mental health; and the particularities of DMT, the active ingredient in Ahyuasca and the psychedelic that most often presents entities that interact meaningfully with the experiencer; we’re going to discuss the different types of entities: from mythological creatures, to Gods and Demons, to machine elves and aliens, and the significance of these same characters appearing significantly often without an obvious primer; we’ll also discuss the importance of mystical experience and teacher /guide experiences to positive mental health outcomes.
Fortunately our guest was the head researcher on a 2022 paper that looked at exactly this topic, the medical doctor and sports scientist professor at the University of Toronto, Dr. David Wyndham Lawrence. He’s published over 35 scientific papers across sports science and psychedelics for medical use.
What we discussed:
00:00 Intro
05:20 Concussion, sports mental health & psychedelic therapy.
08:10 Bringing in Robin Carhartt-Harris on the gaps in sports mental health treatment.
12:06 Why psychedelics for those already in psychological difficulty?
14:04 Serotonin receptor - neuro-protective mitochondria function.
15:00 DMT is endogenous to the brain.
18:20 Medical institution meets shamanism.
23:50 David’s DMT phenomenology paper.
30:10 The architecture of the DMT world.
32:60 Mostly positive, interactive entity encounters.
37:05 Occasionally negative encounters.
38:40 Negative psychedelic experiences study - Jules Evans.
40:05 How much “Primers” from pop culture influence experiences.
44:00 Alien encounters in %16 of participants.
45:30 Medical procedures by entities in 9% of participants.
47:05 Mystical experiences in %70 of participants.
49:00 Familiarity/ sense of home in the experiences.
52:20 Default Mode Network is less active during altered states.
48:35 Ego dissolution Vs mystical experience.
01:00:00 5meoDMT Vs DMT.
01:03:20 Wise teacher experience in 32% of participants.
01:05:20 Death bed palliative doses to alleviate fear of death.
01:09:50 ‘You’re not ready for this experience’ message.
01:11:05 Theories of DMT experiences evaluated.
01:12:20 ”All models are false but some are useful”, anonymous statistician.
References:
David Lawrence, “Phenomenology and content of inhaled DMT”
David Wyndham Lawrence and Robin Carhart-Harris, “Sports Medicine, Mental Health & Well-Being, and Psychedelics”
Benny Shanon, “Antipodies of the Mind”
Matthew W. Johnson - Johns Hopkins
Andrew Gallimore - “Death by Astonishment”
Jules Evans et al, “Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs”
Similarities between DMT and Alien encounters paper
David W. Lawrence, “DMT Occasioned Familiarity and the Sense of Familiarity Questionnaire”
Roland Griffiths, “Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer”
What are we sleeping less and less? What are the benefits of getting a good nights sleep and the risks if we consistently don’t? How is sleep linked to memory, cognitive performance, blood sugar regulation & stress hormones? How is young people’s development affected by sleep?
In this episode we have the surprising data on the science of sleep to get up to date on; so, why there’s a sleep deprivation epidemic; how sleep works and what it’s required for; dreams; and importance of sleep for learning and for immunity. We’re also going to discuss the wide range of serious health issues that arise with even a small sleep deficit, and the vast benefits of getting sleep right; and the lifestyle tips we need to consistently get the sleep we need. And of course, sleep and mental health, and the importance of sleep for development in young people.
Gratefully our guest today is a psychologist and neuroscientist that specialises in sleep, mental health and dream research, particularly in young people. She’s the Scientific Director of Psychology at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, Roxanne Prichard! She’s the author of over 40 highly citied scientific papers, and her TEDx talk “Addressing our Childrens Sleep Debt” was featured in the lecture series: Transforming Education. She’s quoted regularly in the press, inlcuding the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, and USA Today.
What we discussed:
00:00 Intro.
05:00 The Sleep deprivation epidemic.
07:15 Shaking off prejudice about resting being laziness.
08:31 Glymphatic system for toxin removal.
10:00 Synaptic plasticity: Learning & unlearning.
11:10 Learning & memory require sleep.
14:00 The hippocampus processes memory during sleep.
15:00 Late night cramming for exams blocks learning.
15:50 Lack of sleep appears to the body as a threat out in the world.
17:40 Blood sugar regulation is affected by sleep.
18:00 “Sleep! Like diet and exercise only easier!”
19:10 Immunity and sleep deprivation.
21:00 Cancer & regularity of circadian rhythms.
22:00 Evolution, daylight, circadian rhythms & learning.
23:45 Sleep delay of morning stress hormones in teens.
26:15 Light Vs Deep ‘Slow Wave’ Vs REM sleep.
30:00 REM Sleep explained.
33:00 Dreams: The top theories.
36:30 The electrical nature of sleep & brain waves.
40:00 Alpha Waves and biofeedback for insomnia.
42:00 Insomnia & the health risks of sleep deprivation.
46:00 Sleep is within our control.
47:15 The inflammation link with sleep.
49:30 The mental health risks of sleep deprivation.
50:00 Catastrophising and attention deficit.
50:45 College students mental health & sleep as a crucial marker.
57:30 Persausive technology, screens & sleep.
01:02:30 How much sleep do we need?
01:04:25 Avoid external stimulants & go to low light.
01:06:00 Avoid internal stimulants like caffeine and alcohol. 01:07:40 Sleep and wake at regular times every day.
01:08:40 Core temperature dropping signals sleep.
01:10:00 Roxanne’s campaign points.
01:12:00 The shame around rest.
References:
Ya Chai at al, ‘Two nights of recovery sleep restores hippocampal connectivity but not episodic memory after total sleep deprivation’ paper.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65086-xN.I.H. article, 'Sleep on it - How snoozing strengthens memories' (40% drop in learning after sleep deprivation)https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/04/sleep-itU. Chicago Medicine article, 'New study helps explain the link between sleep loss and diabetes'.
Trisha Hershey, ‘the Nap’ Bishop. - “Rest is Resistance” book.
Can intention alone cause changes in physical systems? Can the collective attention of a large group of people to an event cause changes in the coherence changes in physical systems, despite that lack of intention to do so?
In today’s episode we’re going to be exploring a field consciousness hypothesis: so a variation on the idea that consciousness may extend beyond the body and interact casually with physical systems and the consciousness of other beings, in some kind of resonant field phenomena. We’re going to be learning about the experiments with random number generators used to test this hypothesis; how human intention and attention has been proved to be able to affect these random outputs in a vast backlog of positive results and meta analyses; We're going to hear about how these experiments have been taken global, looking at collective effects on RNGs of particularly important world events that many people are attending to; we’re going to be looking at criticisms of the statistical analysis and a potential experimenter effect; and we’re going to be talking about the contrast between some seemingly non-local effects with other localised effects; and as always we’re going to be getting into the implications, in this case of whether the ‘field consciousness’ effect the data seems to point to, is more likely to be a unified field of consciousness, so in some sense a single mind, or simply the aggregated sum of all individual consciousnesses.
Now fortunately to guide us as we carefully test the thickness of the ice on this genuinely alternative world view of consciousness, we have the cognitive psychologist that has pioneered these field consciousness experiments since he founded the Global Consciousness Project at the Princeton University PEAR labs, Roger Nelson. Roger worked at Princeton’s PEAR labs in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, initially under Bob Jahn, for over twenty years until his retirement in 2002. He is also the author of the book “Connected: The emergence of global consciousness”.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
07:30 Random Number generator ‘mind-matter interaction’ experiments at Princeton PEAR labs.
21:10 Bob Jahn - Dean of Engineering at Princeton.
28:45 Emotional and passionate group events saw coherence in the RNG experiments.
33:00 Contrast between apparent local and non-local effects.
37:55 David Bohm’s Implicate / Explicate order concept.
38:55 “Pilot wave” and “active information” link between the implicite and the explicate.
43:55 Statistical results generation and analysis of significance.
49:05 The sceptics criticisms.
51:45 The Global Consciousness Project methodology.
53:05 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s mind sphere, called ‘Noosphere’.
57:45 Measuring the group coherence of Princess Diana’s funeral.
01:00:25 The 9/11 Results.
01:05:55 The emotional component in coherence.
01:18:40 The quantity of people and strength of the emotion, whether positive or negative, raises the effect size.
01:11:10 A single collective consciousness VS an aggregate of all individual consciousnesses.
01:14:50 Different levels of collective consciousness above individual bodies.
01:16:55 The analogy of individuals being like neurones in a cosmic brain.
01:20:55 The Experimenter effect criticism.
01:26:10 The Helmut Schmidt “Unobserved tape” experiment.
01:29.10 The indeterminate state before observer ‘collapses of the wave function’ analogy to explain results.
01:37:25 The Schmidt ‘retrocausation’ hypothesis.
References:
Roger Nelson, “Connected: the Emergence of Global Consciousness”
Robert Jahn And Brenda Dunn, “Margins of Reality”
International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) Publishing.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The Phenomena of man”
How much can a change in diet influence symptoms of mental health disorders? Why are a diversity of plants and whole foods so important to include, and ultra processed foods so important to remove? Why are inflammation and microbe diversity in the gut so key to this question? What does this research mean for the life-style medicine movement and to world food policy?
In this episode we have the exploding new field of nutritional psychiatry to get to grips with, that is the way our diet can influence and even treat mental health conditions. We’re going to be discussing the historical separation of mind and body by science, which has led to scepticism that diet could influence mental health outcomes; the new understanding of the importance of diversity in our microbiome and inflammation to our mood and mental state; our main topic which is going to be the radical results of recent trials showing large changes in cognitive and mental health outcomes when diet is altered; we’ll get into the foods that can bring about that change and why they work; and we’re going to be getting into the reasons for the broken industrialised food environment that has contributed to the current mental health epidemic in the west.
Fortunately, to understand this complex new field, our guest today is the very scientist that risked her reputation to conduct the first trials, facing considerable pushback, only to shift the consensus remarkably quickly with some top science, Felice Jacka. She is the Deakin University Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry in Melbourne, the founder and director of the Food & Mood Centre, and of the International Society of Nutritional Psychiatry; She has been cited in over 100 institutional directives for food policy including the World Health Organization and UNICEF; and she is also the author of two books on this for the general public, the children’s book “There’s a Zoo in my Poo” and for adults “Brain Changer: How diet can save your mental health” which we’ll be covering today. Her impact has been so high on public health that in 2021 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to nutritional psychiatry.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
08:50 The historic separation between mental and physical health.
10:35 People with mental health die about 20 years earlier.
13:30 The connection between the immune system and mental health.
16:20 New microbiome & chronic inflammation research’s influence on psychiatry.
20:00 Epigenetics, mitochondria (energy generation) & neurotransmitter influences.
21:15 Gut brain axis & oxidative stress response.
33:30 The SMILES trial results and their integration into the consensus.
38:30 Using the Press to shorten the usual 20 year gap between results and policy change.
43:00 Industrialised food is the leading cause of chronic disease & biodiversity loss.
45:00 ‘We’re not going to tell people what to eat’: the food lobby’s ‘nanny state’ argument.
50:00 Soil depletion and the soil microbiome.
50:50 The life-style psychiatry movement: Diet, sleep and exercise.
01:05:30 Take out ultra-processed foods - even the nutritionally balanced ones.
01:12:30 Cognitive ability and memory reduced by processed foods.
01:14:45 Nutritional and energetic equivalent foods have totally different outcomes for the microbiome.
01:19:15 Put in a variety of plants - 30 a week.
01:20:20 The mediterranean diet. 01:24:50 Polyphenol science so far.
01:27:00 Emulsifiers and artificial sugars - the mucosal lining of the gut.
01:30:15 Fermented foods - the waste products of the bacteria are beneficial.
References:
Felice Jacka, “Brain Changer: The Good Mental Health Diet”
Felice Jacka, “There’s a Zoo in my Poo”
Melissa Lane et al, ‘Ultra‐Processed Food Consumption and Mental Health: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Observational Studies’ paper
Felice Jacka’ et al, ‘A randomised controlled trial of dietary improvement for adults with major depression (the 'SMILES' trial)’ Paper
What is the relationship between our cognition and our bodies in the natural environment? How do we reconcile the presence of mind in life without splitting them into a dualism? What are the similarities between cognitive science and the buddhist view of the mind? How can we resist the bifurcation of nature into subjective and objective?
In this episode we have the important topic of embodied cognition to raise our awareness about, that is the importance of our biologically lived experience to our perspective of world. So we get into the biologist and neuroscientist Francisco Varela’s concept of Autopoiesis, literally ‘self creation’ from the Greek, which describes the extraordinary tenacity of self-organising living systems to create and sustain themselves; we discuss the meeting point of buddhism, meditation, asian philosophy and modern cognitive science which may have become overstated in recent decades; and we get into the deep continuity between body and mind, and the importance of the artificial separation of the objective and subjective in the history of science, that has led us to the dominant position of reductionist materialism.
To face these diverse topics, we have as our guest the hugely influential philosopher, cognitive scientist and Asian philosophy scholar Evan Thompson. Evan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and an Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology (Cognitive Science Group). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of many books, collected works, and papers, including “The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience”, “Mind in Life”, “Why I’m not a buddhist” and “The Blind Spot, why science cannot ignore human experience”.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro.
06:30 Francisco Varela and the “Embodied Mind” book.
11:00 Embodied experience, embedded in the environment.
13:15 Chalmers and Clarke: Extended mind.
15:30 Autopoiesis - Self-creation. Maturana.
21.25 Autonomy and enactive self-organising systems.
24:30 Neither Inside out, nor outside in, rather relational.
26:00 The Enactive relationship between organism and environment.
29:00 Mind is a distributed systemic process in connection with the environment.
34:00 Neurophenomenology - you need an investigation from within.
38:40 Mind in life & Deep Continuity.
40.00 Sense making and cognition are proto-mind.
41:30 Whitehead and the bifurcation of nature into subjective and objective.
44:45 Bottom up/ parts VS top down/ wholes.
47:00 Reductionism: the surreptitious substitution.
53:45 Buddhism & The Mind and Life Institute.
01:03:30 Buddhist exceptionalism.
01:05:00 Neuroscience & Buddhism on self.
01:09:45 The commercialisation of meditation - spiritual narcissism.
01:12:15 The benefits of mindfulness to treat mental heath.
01:13:30 De-individualisation of spiritual practices - social practice for social problems.
01:15:45 Ritualisation of practice for positive transformation.
01:18:30 Dependent Origination and the Self.
01:26:15 Dying: Our ultimate transformation.
References:
Evan Thompson, “The Blind Spot”
Evan Thompson,“Mind In Life”
Evan Thompson,“Why I’m not a buddhist”
Evan Thompson, “Waking, Dreaming, Being”
Alfred Lord Whitehead - The Bifurcation of nature article
David Bohm - “Wholeness and the Implicate Order”
Evan Thompson quote from the episode:
“Mind is a systemic property or process. It’s not in the head”
Why and how do we store certain memories and not others? What lifestyle elements influence memory for better or worse? Can traumatic memories be reframed and lead to reduction in symptoms?
In this episode we get into the most recent research into memory. So, how we store memory; the different types; the way we actively construct it rather than simply receiving it; it’s importance to our sense of self and framing of the world; to our attention and motivation; to our openness and updating our beliefs; and to Deja Vu. We talk about the influence of screen time and multi-tasking on memory; some unexpected life style factors that influence the quality of memory function and how they can feed into memory disorders; and we discuss traumatic memories and how we can reframe them, and the psychedelic research on that too.
Fortunately, our guest is one of the world’s most fun and knowledgeable authorities on memory, psychologist, neuroscientist, and head of the dynamic memory lab at The University of California Davis, Dr. Charan Ranganath. He’s the author of over 120 scientific papers on memory and has recently released a fascinating book for the general public on all this, “Why We Remember”. Charan is also a rock guitarist with several bands so a man of many talents.
What we discuss:
00:00 intro.
07:20 The remembering self vs experiencing self.
09:30 We forget a lot, we’re supposed to.
11:00 Autobiographic memory.
13:30 Episodic memory.
14:20 Emotional intensity brings attention, which is linked to motivation.
18:20 Association, cue and prompts, and the hippocampus.
20:30 Memory athletes and training memory.
21:51 Storifcation, mental schemas and ‘scaffolding’ new memories with old blueprints.
24:40 Preconceptions, bias and prejudice is baked into new memories.
27:00 Imagining the past (re-membering) and imagining the future are very similar in the brain.
29:15 The brain is not linear, rather a global network of dynamic interaction between brain regions simultaneously.
31:29 Prediction error, goals, and memory enhancement.
37:00 Dopamine drives our attention, interest and curiosity, multiplying remembering.
43:20 Mental flexibility, youthful neuroplasticity, and openness to new experience.
46::00 The ‘Stage of Life’ theory of memory.
49:00 The young brain needs to struggle to get the information they’re curious about.
50:15 Deja Vu research and familiarity.
54:20 The environmental and social components of memory.
58:15 The act of remembering can change that memory.
01:00:00 Collective memory - shared memories support sense of self.
01:01:20 Life style factors: good for the body = good for the brain, so good for memory.
01:02:00 The importance of vascular health and inflammation.
01:06:30 Depression inversely correlates with memory.
01:08:45 Screen time, focus and memory.
01:10:20 Multi taking is actually switching, and leads to fragmented memories.
01:12:30 Traumatic memories and reframing them.
01:19:20 Psychedelic reframing of memories.
01:20:20 Extinction learning - learning to suppress memory prompts and re-write them.
References:
Charan Ranganth, “Why We Remember”
Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking Fast and Slow”
Hermann Ebbinghaus, “Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology” 1885
Endel Tulving, ‘Mental time travel’
Frederic Bartlett, 1930 ‘Imagining the past and constructing the future’
Mathias Gruber and Charan Ranganath, “How Curiosity Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Memory: The Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration (PACE) Framework” Paper
Anne Cleary, Deja Vu experiments article
How do plants communicate using sound? How do they remember previous stimuli that have proven not to be threat, when at first they seemed like one? Where is the memory encoded considering they have no brain? What are the implications for biology of plant memory?
In this episode we cover the ground breaking topics in plant cognition studies of: plant intelligence, behaviour, memory and communication. The type of experiments presented here have never really been done before, because there has always been an assumption in plant science that the cellular cognition that all living cells have, relies solely on light, touch or chemical interactions; so it doesn’t really permit for plant behaviour, memory and consciousness. So with my guest today, the first scientist to bypass the assumptions and try these tests, we’re going to discuss her experiments with plants; that clearly show not only basic memory and the corresponding updated behaviour based on that memory, but even pavlovian memory, i.e. associative memory that requires arbitrary stimuli to take on meaning to the plant. Obviously all of this has massive implications for distributed memory and memory beyond brains. We’re also going to get into plant medicine and other indigenous approaches to connecting with plant consciousness; and what plant communication and biophilia in general might do for our relationship to the natural world as we face imminent biosphere collapse.
My guest is of course, the research associate professor of Evolutionary Ecology at several universities in Australia, Monica Gagliano. She’s published over 60 scientific papers, across the fields of Ecology, Plant Cognition, Plant Communications and Marine Ecology.
She is also the author of the books “The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy and Literature”, and the highly celebrated,“Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
05:00 The consensus on Plant intelligence & communication.
09:20 The difference between reacting and responding in cognition.
10:00 Bio-acoustic communication between plants.
21:07 Possible methods for plants to percieve sound.
22:00 Response to gravity may be similar.
23:30 Her plant memory experiment with Mimosa.
27:15 ‘Habituation’ learning: screening out non-useful stimuli.
32:15 The connection between hardship and accelerated adaptive learning.
37:50 Her ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.
46:10 The Implications of plant memory for modern biology.
49:25 Where is memory stored without a nervous system?
52:30 Monica’s ethical crisis in animal studies.
01:00:00 ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.
01:01:30 ‘Dieta’, amazonian plant communication practice.
01:05:00 Shamanic interface with plant wisdom, particularly for healing.
01:08:00 Reductionist materialist pushback is representative of the colonial history of abuse of nature.
01:11:00 Indigenous science and a new book in the making.
References:
Monica Gagliano, “Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.
Gagliano, Manusco & Robert, “Towards Understanding Plant Bioacoustics” paper
Where is nature’s memory of its evolution encoded? Is there evidence for extended mind occurring beyond individual brains? How possible is it that the sun is conscious?
In this episode we’re going to get up to date on Rupert Sheldrake’s extraordinary theory of Morphic resonance: so Morphic fields, the unfolding of nature’s ‘habits’ and the ‘memory of nature’. We’ll examine the possibility of levels of consciousness larger than our own brains - scaling up in a hierarchy from cellular consciousness right up to planetary and perhaps even stellar consciousness! We’re also going to get into examples of consciousness beyond the brain like ‘the sensation of being stared at’ (clearly a useful skill to evolve) and other phenomena Rupert has reported in his experiments.
Rupert Sheldrake is a Cambridge PHD developmental Biologist whose published over
100 papers on topics as wide as Cellular Biology, telepathy, Pets who know when their owners are coming home, and after-death communications. He is also the author of many books like “A new science of life”, “Science set free”, and “Ways of going Beyond”, among many others.
What were discuss:
00:00 Intro.
06:10 Morphic resonance explained.
08:15 Polar Auxin - death in the midst of life.
09:15 Genes make proteins, morphogenetic fields determine form.
11:30 Nature’s “memory” spread across time.
13:25 Something that has happened before is more likely to happen again.
14:15 Collective memory, like Jung’s collective unconscious.
17:15 His scientific education engrained materialism and atheism in him..
18:15 Asian philosophy, psychedelics, Neo-platonism and Christianity.
20:30 Questioning of scientific dogma came before his faith.
22:00 Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm change, an analogy for him breaking with science.
23:50 Rupert’s work denounced as ‘Heresy’ by the editor of Nature in 1981.
26:30 Measuring Morphic fields in experiments.
28:30 IQ tests have got easier for people over time, The Flynn Effect
30:00 Video games have to make new versions harder each time.
32:10 Is subtle energy field research beyond science?
37:00 Bioelectric morphogenetic fields & Michael Levin.
41:20 Bioelectric fields are the interface not the explanation.
42:30 Where are morphic fields recorded in nature?
44:50 Platonism doesn’t explain evolution and change over time.
47:00 Different levels of collective consciousness, up to planetary, stellar and even cosmic consciousness.
56:40 The feeling of being stared at: examples of extended mind.
01:02:55 Mystical experience - being part of a greater consciousness.
01:09:40 Are spiritual & scientific insight compatible?
References:
Rupert Sheldrake, “A New Science of life”.
Michael Levin - Bio-electric morphogenetic fields CC interview
The Sheldrake.org Staring App.
QUOTE:
“Morphic resonance leaps across time and space,
It’s not stored anywhere it’s a direct connection with the past.”
Why is our subjective experiences and cultural context inseparable from our scientific theories and attempts to be objective? Why is it that the more we know, the more we know we don’t know? What does reductionist materialism miss out from the scientific picture and what does a post-reductionist science look like? How can understanding some of materialism’s incompleteness help us face humanity's greatest problems?
In this episode we have the blind spots of enlightenment science to assess; we’re going to be investigating the common belief that science can provide a universal, objective, God-like perspective of the truth of things, independent from our human experience. We’re also going to look at the implications of the consensus in science that all phenomena can be reduced to solely material causes, and what that may be missing out. To assess this we’re going to be looking at data from cosmology, biology, cognitive science and quantum physics and thinking about the assumptions that are so baked in to our western scientific approaches, that we may have forgotten they’re assumptions at all.
In order to do this we’re going to be speaking to Brazilian professor of theoretical physics at Dartmouth College, Marcelo Gleiser. Marcelo works on a range of topics from Cosmology and information theory, to the history and philosophy of science, and how science and culture interact. He’s also the author of many popular science books including most recently, “the Dawn of Mindful Universe: A manifesto for humanities future” and his new 2024 book which we’ll be focusing on today, “The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience”, Co-authored with astronomer Adam Frank and philosopher Evan Thompson, who will be not he show in the next series.
Gleiser’s also the first South American recipient of the prestigious Templeton Science prize for his standpoint that science, philosophy and spirituality are complementary expressions of humanities deep need to explore the unknown.
I have wanted to speak to Marcelo about the limits of science and a post-reductionist approach to science since he was recommended by my previous guest psychiatrist and brain-hemisphere researcher Dr. Iain McGilchrist in the series one episode “Navigating beyond Materialism”, and I’m extremely glad I followed him up on it.
What we discuss:
00:00 Intro
06:14 Asymmetry is also beautiful.
11:40 The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.
18:00 ‘Interbeing’ - buddhism and the philosophy of science.
22:00 Bacteria are our ancestors.
23:00 Sacred ancestral knowledge - belonging & gratitude for nature.
30:00 Extremely unlikely chemical steps and extinction events required for life to develop.
35:00 The chances of intelligent technological life on other planets.
37:00 Fine-tuned for life VS the anthropic principle.
50:30 Post-enlightenment sacredness.
52:00 The rise of reductionism.
01:03:30 Newton was troubled by his theory.
01:08:37 Strongly and weakly emergent phenomena.
01:12:00 Downward or upward causation? Dualism or monism?
01:17:50 Scientific concepts are stories, and stories are simplifications too.
01:21:20 “The Blind Spot: Why science cannot ignore human experience”.
01:26:31 “Sureptitious substitution” of concepts for experiences.
01:28:45 Is consciousness fundamental?
01:42:45 Blindspots in the hard sciences - jumps that are too big.
01:53:30 Marcelo’’s new “The Island of Knowledge’ centre in Tuscany.
Quote:
“Gravity must be caused by an agent, acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.” — Sir Isaac Newton (Third letter to Bentley, 25 Feb 1693)
References:
Marcelo Gleiser, “The Blind Spot: How science must take include human experience”.
Marcelo Glesier, “The Dawn of a Mindful Universe”
Aristarchus of Samos - The greek Copernicus
‘The Island of Knowledge’ Centre in Tuscany, Italy
Why are we seeing such a rise in youth mental health diagnosis? How do we relativise this against the rise in mental health awareness? What’s the best approach for parents seeking solutions? How can social-connection and loneliness completely change trauma integration? What role does the recent explosion of persuasive technologies in young peoples lives play in the changing situation? In this episode we have the important topic of Youth Mental Health to get ourselves up to date on. Today we’re going to try and unravel these often divisary issues in a balanced way; we’re going to be discussing the importance of threat and safety to a child’s state of mind as they develop; the power of the parent or carer’s own unresolved issues to transmit to young people, creating symptoms in the child; the importance of going to the root of the problem rather than just treating symptoms; the role of escapism as an emotional avoidance strategy, and how digital platforms and device providers have taken advantage of that tendency, and the parenting strategies to guide this; and we’re going to discuss the role of shame in us avoiding facing these issues. Fortunately, considering the nuanced and potentially triggering topic of the mental well being of the children we parent and teach, today’s guest has just released the paper back version of his new book on exactly this topic, “How the world is making our children mad and what to do about it”. As a hugely experienced child psychotherapist and founder of the charity “Apart of Me” that supports children to transform their loss into compassion, he is perfectly placed to give us un update on this, and is filled with excellent stories and advice to help us face it. He is of course Louis Weinstock, a transpersonal psychotherapist and mindfulness specialist, who has worked with a wide range of sufferers from the criminal justice system, to drug addicts, to homeless people, to troubled teens and their parents. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 09:00 Our mental life is inseparable from our environment. 11:45 ‘Fetal programming’ is applied in utero by the mother’s environment. 14:10 Improvements in kid’s mental health, simply from parents doing the work. 18:45 Children having behaviour issues at the same age as their parent’s had trauma. 21:20 The evolutionary history of shame. 25:40 The difference between shame and guilt. 28:00 Rupture & repair: conflict in relationships is bearable and repairable. 29:25 Is psychotherapy worth it for kids, considering the stigma? 34:15 Mental health awareness can exaggerate our negative view of ourselves. 38:30 Massive jump in recent stats on youth mental health. 41:00 ‘Roots’ of mental health issues and ‘fruits’ we can learn from them. 45:20 Suffering and transformation: post-traumatic growth. 49:50 Escaping into virtual realities: Dissociation. 53:00 The ‘freeze’ response - shutting the body down. 01:00:40 Resilience explained - fragile vs anti fragile. 01:04:00 The connection between loneliness and trauma. 01:05:25 Youth mental health and device/internet addiction. 01:07:25 ‘Variable reward’ strategy taken from gambling slot machines. 01:12:30 Clear differences in kid’s moods and sleep after too long on devices. 01:14:20 Parenting solutions to regulating screen time peacefully. 01:16:40 No devices in the bedroom, particularly in the evenings before bed. 01:20:30 Awareness: they’re capable of reflecting on their behaviour. 01:24:20 Unsupervised play outside and in nature. 01:25:40 The world is safer rather than less safe than in the past. References: Louis Weinstock, “How the world is driving our kids mad” https://louisweinstock.com/ Apart of Me mental health charity (please donate) Jonathan Haidt - “The Anxious Generation”
Let Grow movement for childhood independence
How and why did human’s develop self-awareness of what we know and don’t know? How does it develop in relation to how we evaluate what other people know? What are the risks of cognitive bias tainting our ability to learn and self correct? In this episode, we have the interesting question of our own self-awareness, or Meta-cognition, to understand. For centuries philosophers have called on us to “know thyself”, but only now with the tools of modern neuroscience have we been able to scientifically quantify the way we consciously track our behaviour, performance, thoughts and knowledge. So today we’ll be getting into why this is important for learning and error correction; we’re going to talk about meta-cognition’s use for “mind reading” I.e. tracking our confidence in others in their own knowledge, both friends and foes, fundamental for the evolution of our collaborative groups; the implications of cognitive bias blind spots in metacognition for updating our collective beliefs over time; also whether metacognition is proportionally correlated to intelligence; and how technology and AI has and will influence the future of our self-awareness, and whether it’s convenient to try programming AI to be metacognitive too, or if that would invite disaster. For these matters there can be no better guest than University College London Cognitive neuroscience Professor, Stephen Fleming. He’s the author of the 2021 book “Know Thyself, the science of self awareness”, and founder of the Meta Cognition Group at UCL, and the group leader of the Max Plank, UCL Centre for Computational Neuroscience. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 05:15 Striking aspects of experience get you thinking. 08:00 ‘Know thyself’ - a moral, social and spiritual responsibility 10:00 Lao Tsu - to think you know when you do not is a disease. 11:00 Tracking the quality of our performance, error correction and learning. 14:00 Cognitive offloading - compensating for our limitations. 14:30 Metacognition and intelligence are similar but different. 17:40 Inside-out modelling of the world influences your cognition. 20:45 The brain has confidence in colour - Subjective inflation in the periphery. 22:00 UCL metacognition lab experiments - confidence in performance. 25:20 Metacogntiive efficiency - skill in evaluating your success. 26:20 MRI scans of the processes of self-aware brain activity. 28:50 Sam Harris - Self-awareness in the brain vs Ego-self. 33:20 Mind reading/Theory of mind: Evaluation of others VS evaluation of myself. 38:50 Children’s learning 43:40 Chris Frith - metacognition for collaboration: Balancing our own VS group evaluations. 44:30 Supremacy of collective knowledge 46:45 Why did self-awareness evolve? 51:30 The fight or flight mental state trumps self-reflective evaluation. 54:00 Stress blunts frontal cortex activity. 54:20 Modern life stress is not the same as the stress we evolved for. 57:20 We need self-reflection in stressful arguments but it’s not available. 58:20 Education: re-presenting your ideas - an antidote to over confidence. 01:04:00 Left Brain Interpreter - lack of self-awareness of our cognitive bias. 01:10:00 Exacerbated confidence judgements in internet/social media information ecosystems. 01:14:40 Awareness of the inside out way we construct our view of the world could be positive for compassion. 01:17:10 Balancing long-term societal self awareness, with traditional short term one. 01:21:00 The influence of Ai and technology on our self awareness. 01:26:30 ‘Offloading’ aids for cognition VS replacements for our cognition? References: Stephen Fleming, “Know thyself - the science of self-awareness” Steve Fleming’s Lab - The Meta Lab, UCL Gilbert Riles, “Concept of Mind” - self awareness in us and others Peter Carruthers - “Knowledge of our own thoughts is just as interpretive as knowledge of the thoughts of others” paper Chris D. Frith - ‘The role of metacognition in human social interactions’ paper