Big Think

• Shortcuts are killing humanity. It’s time to meet the alternative. | Ari Wallach

  Short-term thinkers take shortcuts. Take the longpath instead, explains futurist Ari Wallach. Long-term planning is tough. With all of the pressures and distractions of daily life, it’s often a hassle to stop and consider whether what we’re doing at any given moment is putting us on track toward our future goals. And if the answer is no, it often takes even more effort to consciously change course and sacrifice immediate gratification for long-term gain. Long-term thinking is difficult for anyone, but especially for those living paycheck to paycheck. Does that mean “longtermism” is only for the privileged? The answer is no, according to the futurist Ari Wallach, author of "Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs." Although it might be harder for some people to consider how our current actions will affect the future, it’s a moral question that we all should ask ourselves. Chapters: 0:00 What is ‘longpath’ thinking? 1:33 Take the pause 2:16 Who is taking shortcuts? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Ari Wallach: Ari Wallach is an applied futurist and Executive Director of Longpath Labs. He is the author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs by HarperCollins and the creator and host of the forthcoming series on PBS A Brief History of the Future, which is being executive produced by Kathryn Murdoch and Drake. He has been a strategy and foresight advisor to Fortune 100 companies, the US Department of State, the Ford Foundation, the UN Refugee Agency, the RacialEquity 2030 Challenge and Politico’s Long Game Forum. As adjunct associate professor at Columbia University he lectured on innovation, AI, and the future of public policy. Wallach's TED talk on Longpath has been viewed 2.6 million times and translated into 21 languages. Ari was the co-creator of 2008's pro-Obama The Great Schlep with Sarah Silverman. He has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, CNBC, Vox, and more. He lives in the lower Hudson Valley with his wife, three children and wonderdog Ozzie. More at https://www.longpath.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  4:39

  --------

  4:39
• Your life’s most important moments are flukes, not fate | Brian Klaas

  “When you start to accept that you have profound influence on the world, but very limited control, you start to see the world differently.” We like to believe that everything happens for a reason. But what if that belief is a comforting illusion? Political scientist Brian Klaas argues that randomness, not reason, drives much of human life. The stories we tell ourselves about cause and effect aren’t reflections of truth, rather, they’re coping mechanisms to make chaos feel like order. 0:00 The limits of control 0:30 Does everything happen for a reason? 1:58 Science and chaos 2:27 Religion and the scientific revolution 4:23 Making sense of patterns 6:56 “The delusion of individualism” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Brian Klaas: Dr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is also the author five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). Klaas writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded roughly three million times. Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, political violence, elections, and the nature of power. Additionally, his research interests include contingency, chaos theory, evolutionary biology, the philosophy of science and social science, and complex systems. In addition to Fluke and Corruptible, Klaas authored three earlier books: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (Hurst & Co, 2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (Oxford University Press, 2016) and How to Rig an Election (Yale University Press, co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; 2018). ------ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  11:26

  --------

  11:26
• Sean Carroll: Einstein’s most radical thought

  “Consciousness is fundamental. It's a fundamental property of the world that we inhabit, a fundamental property of the universe.” What does it mean to be conscious, and why does it feel like something to be you? Neuroscientist Anil Seth argues that consciousness isn’t a mysterious spark but a deeply biological process, one that depends on prediction, perception, and the body’s constant negotiation with the world. In this conversation with philosopher Jonny Thomson, he explores how our brains don’t passively observe reality but actively construct it. Chapters: 0:00 Einstein — underrated? 1:00 The network of genius 1:16 Classical mechanics 1:48 Space and time 2:21 Electromagnetism 2:59 The speed of light 4:20 Spacetime 5:38 Special theory of relativity 6:31 Inverse square law of gravity 7:56 General theory of relativity 9:07 Schwarzschild solution 10:12 Quantum field theory 13:22 Quantum mechanics 16:16 Why physics is a conversation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sean Carroll: Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work. ------ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  17:57

  --------

  17:57
• The illusion of shared reality: Why no two minds see the same world | Anil Seth & Jonny Thomson

  “Consciousness is fundamental. It's a fundamental property of the world that we inhabit, a fundamental property of the universe.” What does it mean to be conscious, and why does it feel like something to be you? Neuroscientist Anil Seth argues that consciousness isn’t a mysterious spark but a deeply biological process, one that depends on prediction, perception, and the body’s constant negotiation with the world. In this conversation with philosopher Jonny Thomson, he explores how our brains don’t passively observe reality, but rather actively construct it. Chapters: 0:00 Non-human consciousness 1:40 The current state of consciousness science 2:10 What is consciousness? 4:05 The similarity of conscious experiences 5:48 Consciousness in the brain 11:23 Technology for measuring consciousness 16:03 Measuring consciousness levels 20:33 Pragmatic physicalism and functionalism 23:25 Pansychism 28:25 Emergence 32:35 AI and consciousness 36:49 The difference between non-human animals and AI 41:49 Is artificial consciousness possible? 48:12 Consciousness in the body and outside the brain Consciousness in the future and AI 50:27 Audience Q&A 50:41 Could computers could simulate the brain and body? 59:55 Why are you skeptical about asserting the dependency of life to the consciousness? 1:03:31 If consciousness is so clinical, does it undermine free will? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Anil Seth: Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and public speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than 20 years. He is the author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. About Jonny Thomson: Jonny Thomson taught philosophy in Oxford for more than a decade before turning to writing full-time. He’s a columnist at Big Think and is the award-winning, bestselling author of three books that have been translated into 22 languages. Jonny is also the founder of Mini Philosophy, a social network of around two million curious, intelligent minds. He's known all over the world for making philosophy accessible, relatable, and fun. ------ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  1:13:15

  --------

  1:13:15
• Harvard professor debunks the ‘10,000 steps per day’ myth | Daniel Lieberman

  Did you know treadmills were invented as prison torture machines? Modern exercise is confusing. Harvard professor Dan Lieberman sets it straight. Today, most of us tend to medicalize exercise, turning it into something that we “have” to do. Case in point: the treadmill. If our main goal was enjoyment, there’s no way we’d regularly spend 45 minutes walking in place on these expensive machines. But our relationship with exercise — or, more generally, physical activity — was not always so discrete and joyless. For much of human history, people got plenty of physical activity by not only walking long distances, but also by doing activities that were both necessary and socially rewarding, like hunting, dancing, and sports. Harvard biologist Daniel Lieberman argues it’s time to rethink our relationship with exercise, and to understand physical activity as a complex and integral part of human evolution. After all, while walking thousands of steps through the environment to find our next meal was a major part of our evolution, walking on the treadmill was not. 0:00 Treadmill torture (really) 1:54 Exercise vs physical activity 2:40 Why exercise stresses us out 3:12 “Medicalizing” exercise 3:48 The 10,000 steps myth 5:02 Warrior origins of exercise 6:12 Aggression: Proactive vs. Reactive 7:15 The anthropological view ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Daniel Lieberman: Daniel Lieberman is Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and a professor of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He received degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, and taught at Rutgers University and George Washington University before joining Harvard University as a Professor in 2001. He is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lieberman loves teaching and has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many in journals such as Nature, Science, and PNAS, as well as three popular books, The Evolution of the Human Head (2011), The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health and Disease (2013), and Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding (2020). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------02:20-10 ------ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  --------  

  12:12

  --------

  12:12

Mais podcasts de Ensino

Podcasts em tendência em Ensino

Sobre Big Think