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Dr. J. chats with Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation. They talk about the Freemasons, theosophy, Gandhi, Edgar Cayce, the Third Reich and the New Deal, and the eventual occultification of contemporary Christianity. MP3
I really appreciate the varied perspectives on the interplay between science, technology, philosophy and spirituality, this program continually brings to its audience, but one thing I realized during this show is that the guests invited to participate generally share Dr. Hughes' opinions on important issues.
Perhaps it's just that I haven't been listening to the show long enough to hear something like this, but I would love it if once in a while you could invite guests with opposing opinions to debate against, or multiple guests to moderate. I can imagine the transhumanist community relishing the opportunity to hear their ideas tested by the outside world and have them prevail.
Kyle Munkittrick wrote in his blog last month: "Within the transhumanist community, debate is a sign of what our community needs most: growth and maturation." I think we can go further than that. I think it's time to break the seal on this think tank and bring the fight home, lest we begin to obscure the focus venturing into earthquakes and freemasonry.
You are right that I have a preference for guests that I want to promote. That's partly because I only do a half-hour a week, and there are so many intelligent people with good ideas to talk to that I hate to waste time on debating bad ones. But I do need to mix it up more. I actually just interviewed the author of an anti-transhumanist PhD dissertation, but I think you'll hear that I kept the gloves on.
Send me some suggestions of people I should invite.
Can you get him on the blower? It would be good to enquire further regarding his views on Liberalism, liberal freedoms, existential risks and more about his personal visions of how to balance freedoms in future society? Also he has some alarming yet at the same time reasonable views regarding neurology and drug enhancements.
Have you read last book ''Imaginary Futures: From Thinking Machines to the Global Village''?
It was the winner of the 2008 Marshall McLuhan Prize for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology.
From: http://www.imaginaryfutures.net/
Author and University of Westminster lecturer Dr. Richard Barbrook, debuted his latest literary work to worldwide audiences in Spring 2007. Imaginary Futures demonstrates how politics influenced the way this powerful tool is controlled today and calls upon all who are cyber-connected to use the Internet for taking revolutionary politics into their own hands, to create a more positive future. Anyone who uses the Internet should read this book because it is:
Barbrook challenges new generations to take the power of the Internet into their own hands, to resist status quo politics and to use the world's most powerful political tool to shape their own, better, destiny. His message: if we don't want the future to be what it used to be, we must invent our own, improved and truly revolutionary future.
"There is an urban guerrilla feeling and tone to this book with an ambitious message to point out. It is fantastically radical, because it reminds us of what could have been and what may still happen Many Net writers adopt an a-political stance, but Richard shows it is the opposite : and that the most important political issues of our time are tied into the Net." :Simon Schaffer, Cambridge University Professor and BBC Presenter
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