Hello, Human

Fiction is important. In this episode we talk about why, and particularly now. And while we spend more than half of the time on the practical aspects of fiction—what it is good for, why it is important in the day-to-day life of people trying to live, trying to earn a living, and trying to make sense of an increasingly complex and difficult world, we also get into things like the magic of fiction—its power to change minds and civilizations, the role orthodoxy of "the word" has in structuring social, cultural, intellectual, and religious conversation, and Peter also wonders where the real line is between fiction and non-fiction (hint...it can't be about facts).

In this episode, we go face-to-face with solitude (or as Peter calls it—channeling the crazed Basel-based philologist—the abyss). We talk about Michael Harris' book, Solitude, about solitude as an ecological resource, the challenges of solitude, and the vast library of writings on solitude and our inability, regardless, to find solitude. Of course, we also look into the social expectations around solitude and its opposite, and the difference between loneliness and solitude.   A smattering of stuff you might want to look at: Michael Harris, Solitude: In pursuit of a singular life in a crowded world Emma Jackson, "Alone and together with myself: how do we experience solitude?" Existential Analysis, July 2016. Brent Crane, "The virtues of isolation," The Atlantic (March 30, 2017)

What is the value of slowness, or for that matter, speed? How do we best understand slowness in the context of cultural and social norms, technology, and our own inner-lives? Trying to answer these questions can send you down vast and labyrinthine wormholes. We tied-on our tiny spelunking gear and jumped in. Some stuff we talked about: Slow Food Manifesto Manifesto for Accelerationist Politics Italian Futurism Manifesto Darley, J. M., and Batson, C.D., "From Jerusalem to Jericho": A study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior". JPSP, 1973, 27, 100-108. What Steve referred to as the High-Hurry study. Summary of results: Overall 40% offered some help to the victim. In low hurry situations, 63% helped, medium hurry 45% and high hurry 10%.  Carl Honoré, In Praise of Slowness, and his TED talk. Fast Yoga

We take as our jumping-off point David Brooks' recent article in the New York Times about what he calls, 'thick institutions'. That is, institutions that support deep social ties, shared values, a common history and set of ideals, an ethical framework, stories, and rituals. For Brooks' some examples are institutions like St. Johns College, fire departments, strong civil society organizations, the military, and fraternal societies.  We discuss what happens when thick institutions face thin cultures. Is it possible for thick institutions to thrive in thin cultures; is it even possible to create new thick institutions in cultures that are attenuated, distracted, and dissociative? The essential problem is one of belonging, and in this the problem of thick institutions is in good company. Contemporary technically-mediated cultures pretend to thickness as a way to appeal to new users, most of whom--once on board--discover how thin this pretense is.  David Brooks, "How to leave a mark

This is our not-quite-inaugural episode of Hello, Human. Recorded in late April of 2017, this episode was intended to be the final hurrah of The Human Business Podcast. But things happened. So here, instead, it is a way to wet your whistle for what's to come. We talk about what work has meant over the last few thousand years, and particularly its place in creating and maintaining social systems (and order). Of course, we wander into the future as well, and wonder whether or not automation will finally deliver the leisure we've all been promised since at least the Industrial Revolution.

In this episode of the Human Business, Peter and Steve discuss the ramifications of disembodied intelligences, the power of context, and the continuing importance of conversations, their moral power, and their place in family and cultural memory. The term Messy Bodily Goop is repeated more often than it should be, Peter massively misattributes a quote and the outlines of a seminal psychological experiment, and the hosts manage to only mention scholasticism once. And...we finish-up with a couple of suggestions of things to read and listen to. 

We're back in episode 15 with more on the power and place of conversations. Using Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation as a jumping-off point, we plunge into the world of ideas shaping ideas, overcoming the fear of thinking out loud and with others, the generosity and compassion necessary for the effective exploration and articulation of ideas in conversations, and Montaigne's essay-writing and the differences between interiorized and exteriorized discovery of the self. And...we finish-up with a couple of suggestions of things to read (and do). 

Over the last month or so, in the newsletter, Peter and Steve have gone back and forth on the power of conversation and its place in living a more humane life. In this episode they expand that idea to talk about conversation as praxis, as a way of getting things done. Or, at least, beginning to get things done. Stuff mentioned: The void, the Abyss, the old TV show Frasier, Sherry Turkle's books Alone Together and Flight from Conversation, radical individualism, online communities, embodied digital personae, and our tendency to talk to ourselves. 

In this, our first show of 2017, things go in a different direction. Sort of. Peter and Steve talk about metaphor, artificial intelligence, bad brain theory, poetic license, and what happens when all you want to do is load yourself into a piece of silicon, and it turns out that's not how things work. Plus, healthy cells, brain science, and recommendations for the next couple of weeks ahead. Stuff mentioned: Robert Epstein, "The Empty Brain" Aeon, 18 May, 2016. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Elissa Epel, The Telomere Effect (Grand Central, 2017). Arthur Herman, The Cave and the Light (Random House, 2014). Jean-Francois Revel, Matthieu Ricard, John Canti,  Jack Miles, The Monk and the Philosopher (Schocken, 2000). Krista Tippett's podcast, On Being. Tippett's conversation with Anil Dash.

In this episode—our twelfth—we look back over the last year of conversations. From education to ethics, from morality to warfare (both ancient and modern), from evolution and astronomy, from living forever to choosing to die, we talked a lot. Our conclusions looking back? We learned things, about the past, the world, each other, and fed a lot of interested minds. We do want to thank all of those who've listened, commented, written us, yelled at us, and even those who occasionally rolled their eyes. It's a public discussion, and we were happy to have it, and have you. 

In this episode—recorded live at Northern Arizona University—we talk about making our way in a heterogeneous society while remaining true to ourselves. Our guide, of course, with a topic like this, is Emperor Marcus Aurelius (of Meditations fame). We also talk about Sebastian Junger's new book, Tribe, enquire after Boethius's thoughts on all this, and also discuss the role of technology in shaping our social experiences and enterprises. All with questions and commentary from a top-notch group of university students who are struggling every day along with us on this journey. 

Kevin Kelly's new book, The Inevitable, proposes 12 technological trends that are shaping, and will continue to shape, our world. It is a challenging work—suggesting that what's left is only our efforts to develop strategies to survive what is coming. Peter and Steve explore some of the more provocative ideas the underlie Kelly's important contribution to this conversation we're all having (in one way or another): alien intelligence, the mass-diffusion of the book, the surveillance state/company, political machinations, intellectual property, and that Delphic admonition—γνῶθι σεαυτὸν (know thyself).

Aristotle thought that what made the difference was rationality—that man was the rational animal, and that made him different than all others. In part 1 of a longer inquiry into what's uniquely us, and what isn't, and how all of that might relate to what's going on in contemporary technology circles, we start with the role of virtues and polis, and very soon find our way into Materialism, Turing tests, neo-Kantians, more Harvard research, symbolism versus realism, multiple intelligences, and somebody even mentions (again) the parable of the cave.

In an episode that really does make us both sound like old men, we ask about civility's evolution from the necessary duties of a citizen to something that is often misconstrued as politically correct speech. Plato makes an appearance, as do a couple of other dead white men, but this episode—recorded over Steve's dining room table in Flagstaff—is really about two guys trying to make sense of a term that has retained its meaning but seems to have lost its place. We do end up with a couple of proposals…and a little more optimism than when we started.

Why live? Keep on living? How about forever? What does death mean for the human experience? And are we still human if we live forever? If we give up the flesh? Is death a necessary aspect of the human condition? These are all questions that make up the essence of this episode's conversation. Listen for the perspectives of E.J. Emanuel, Aubrey de Grey, Mona Lisa Schulz, Epicurus, Nick Bostrom and others.

What does it mean to be human when everything is mediated by technology? When this technology does not have our best interests at heart? In this episode we look at the role technology--mostly personal digital technology--has in our relationships with people and machines. Peter gets to his social media fragility thesis; Steve connects astronomy with business ethics; and of course: Plato makes an appearance.

In this episode--carrying on the tradition from the last three--we tackle a huge topic and scratch only the surface. This time, ethics generally, and a deeper look into business ethics. We start with the interplay between ethics and regulation, particularly in the business context, and then talk about the concept of ethical companies, recruiting ethical employees, and even corporate personhood.

In this episode—one that will probably be the first of a couple over the course of the next year to deal with this topic—we look at heroism. Starting from its roots in Homer to its post 9-11 conceptions, we ask what does it does it mean to be a hero, to be heroic. To help us dig into these questions, we've got—in addition to Homer—some Pericles, Plato, Pindar, Franco & Zimbardo, Campbell, Kohen, Hegel, and the BBC.

In this episode we tackle what will be an evergreen topic for us probably, and that is the role of humanities in education. We do actually manage to talk some about this, but also about the value of the humanities in general in the making of a useful person. Sprinkled into the conversation is a little ethics talk, the values of slow thinking and commentary, and what's going on in Scott L. Montgomery and Daniel Chirot's new book, THE SHAPE OF THE NEW, and David Quammen's THE RELUCTANT MR. DARWIN.

For our first episode, we start with Steve's recent essay on what makes a veteran unique, and jump into ancient Greek heroes, women in combat, narcissism and noise, mythology, and the possibilities for a new sort of war memoir.