When Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography, he made the interesting choice to include a graph that detailed his weekly schedule. In giving himself the solitude to work, he accomplished much. As we have grown accustomed to having fewer and weaker boundaries, interiority has declined. In this time the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be a perfect time to begin a habit of the great creators and plan our days.

EssayCast

Schedules and Boundaries

Typically, people view altruism as the opposite of selfishness. If we reimagine our notions of self and other and imagine that one's sense of self is developmentally dynamic, altruism is simply as state of self so large that it encompasses more than the physical being possessed of consciousness. With sociopathy and narcissism on the small side of self, we can choose greater solipsism or larger community. 

Altruism and the larger self

For a long while, it seemed that there were two categories of homemade videos; cute videos of cats and babies and those that appeal to schadenfreude where bears fall from trees or people are hit by cars. The documentary, once marginal, has become the great usurper. Serial programming must now vie for budgets against the docuseries. As a result, the world has grown more intimate and the exotic has become familiar. In this essaycast, I suggest the potential for film as a tool for world peace.

Documentary film as a tool for peace

Public art, specifically street music, is an often under appreciated component of a rich urban culture. As many people are forced into a shelter-in-place lifestyles with the outbreak of COVID-19, busking has disappeared. However, in New York City, where the state's governor has implemented a more stratified social distancing, busking may be a lifeline for both artist and viewer. I speak with J.P. Couling about his experience playing music in the parks and subways of the city that never sleeps.  

Busking in the time of the Coronavirus

Non-Playing Characters, or, NPC's are a feature of video games. I suggest that there exist human NPC's who follow protocol rather than think for themselves. Here I discuss the what it is to live under the yoke of technology.

Protocol and the human NPC

Compartmentalization resulting from parsing public and private leads to a form a social bondage. Transparency becomes anathema as people ceaselessly monitor their public image. Interiority does not emerge as expression, but is locked in secret sadness.

secrets, image, and the end of interiority

A sport that merely requires a ball and a field may still be beyond the reach of many children too poor to afford food. Dropping footballs from drones to people all over the world may do great good for the disenfranchised. Further, these parcels from the air might be used to disseminate queues to the history of ideas. Special guests, Nemo D'Qrill, Charlie Hawksfield, Chris Mason, Maria Owen, & Sonja Teszler.

futbols from the sky and national mythology

With no moderation, the Twitter channel allows the president of the United States to command the attention of billions without filter. Never before has the unilateral dissemination of words been so extreme and so quick. The office of the POTUS would be far less effective in its destructive power without the social media giant, Twitter, being so dismissive of it's own rules.  Special guest Sonja Teszler. First episode of season two.

Twitter, the instrument of POTUS

With the fading of understanding in science in the past decades, many have turned to systems of belief which contradict facts and reason. Today's essay explores the narative of surrounding enlightened periods of time. Sonja Teszler is my special guest as we discuss the decline of civilization.

seven escapist systems in denial of science

Starting with the putative notion that animals don't interrogate, but rather express or plea, I look at the spectrum between meditative interiority and frantic banter. I argue that our culture demands tempo above truth and comfort over truth. I finally suggest that the pauses in dialog are the key to insight.

Animals don't ask questions

Elon Musk in an interview with Joe Rogen smoked marijuana and revealed willful ignorance regarding his vision of the future. Stocks dipped afterwards as investors had their confidence shaken. That he got high was far less a problem than what he revealed about his poor understanding of science. I compare Musk to the fictional Hammond of Jurassic Park. I also share an imaginary radio show with Einstein and Orson Wells.

Hammond and Musk: Jurassic Park and living on Mars

False notions of progress in the service of control through technology lead trajectories of destruction. Life as emergence as opposed to death made inevitable in an unhealthy adherence to the ideology of causality. The blurry line between machine and organic organism.

The Virtualization of the Heart

One party communication we know as meditation or thought. Two party is often a dialog or conversation. Civilization and writing come together and allow for a new medium to be the second party and the third party be the recipient of the new medium or second party. The great works and history of ideas are all third party communication, however, in the digital age, many have no other forms of communication and given this fact, people have become objects of manipulation by corporations and political entities.

Third Party Communication in the Digital Age

An essay I wrote in 2010 describing the social trends toward isolation in the era of individualized entertainment pods as well a discussion of the current manipulation of social media by corporate and political oligarchs.  As well a small discussion of Jaron Lanier's work on the blackbox representing the algorithms used to control behavior. A musical interlude with Chris Couling, JP Couling, and I on cello, classical guitar, and violin respectively. 

Pod People

As the world has become more concerned with the letter rather than the spirit of the law, litigiousness is favored above kindness. Benjamin Franklin's last speech written for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 remarks that the document as an instrument of government is only effective with good leadership and claims despotism befalls a corrupt people. The current president's recent impeachment is a consequence of the current zeitgeist that values rights over responsibility.

Permission vs. Mutual Desire: The Constitution, Ben Franklin and Despots

EssayCast is a podcast dedicated to critical essays which I've written. I will read them, talk about them, and discuss them with others. I am a physicist, composer, and author interested in looking at the narrative of the history of ideas on our planet. I encourage commentary, critique, and collaboration.

hubhopper

EssayCast

hubhopper