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Wild Pacific's avatar

Julian is go good, he will be remembered as a pioneer who conceptualized this view.

One thing that I find thinking about: when we travel to various planets and moons (and stanets and ploons) and find them barren, maybe it is an cosmo-ethical responsibility to seed them with bacteria and other critters that I think will survive there even if we’re sure humans can’t?

To give life another chance, to become what creationists talk about?

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George's avatar

I loved this discussion so much! Thanks for letting me be an observer.

Angela Collier is a brilliant young physics professor who produces a wonderful YouTube channel. She made it her goal to read every book written by Richard P. Feynman. Please take a look. I highly recommend this recent episode, "The Sham Legacy of Richard Feynman." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

I laughed, cried, and shook my head, sometimes in amazement and disbelief. You won't regret watching her video for at least a few minutes. It's well thought out and well-presented. Since you and Julian are huge fans of Feynman, you may find that the information presented could ground your thinking in unexpected ways.

What makes me a credible "witness" in this instance? I'm a practical "physicist" - a retired "strings physicist." Isn't that what an orchestra director is? I've studied and taught "strings theory" for over 30 years. I have perspective! Don't let anyone dismiss the importance of the "strings theory" from around 1650 to 1750! The modern "strings theory" germinated and evolved and is now ubiquitous worldwide! Yea for "strings theory!"

I enjoyed your conversation and look forward to more mind-bending episodes in the future. I'm so excited to have found Infinite Loops!

One other thing. Have you thought of having Iain McGilchrist on? He wrote the 2009 book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. It's a brilliant work that I could not put down. Not only did I buy the book, but I also got the Audible version so that I could listen and read simultaneously. His latest is "The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World" and is unfortunately unavailable for listening. The printed version is $112.95, but I got the Kindle version for $39.95. The two books have a 4.8-star rating on Amazon after one year on the website!

Blurb about McGilchrist's "The Matter With Things":

"Is the world essentially inert and mechanical - nothing but a collection of things for us to use?

Are we ourselves nothing but the playthings of chance, embroiled in a war of all against all?

Why, indeed, are we engaged in destroying everything that is valuable to us?

"In his international bestseller, The Master and his Emissary, McGilchrist demonstrated that

each brain hemisphere provides us with a radically different 'take' on the world, and used this

insight to deliver a fresh understanding of the main turning points in the history of Western

civilisation.

"Twice before, in ancient Greece and Rome, the perception that evolved in the left hemisphere,

which empowered us to manipulate the world, had ultimately come to eclipse the much more

sophisticated take of the right hemisphere, which enabled us to understand it.

"On each occasion this heralded the collapse of a civilisation. And now it was happening for a

third, and possibly last, time.

"In this landmark new book, Iain McGilchrist addresses some of the oldest and hardest

questions humanity faces - ones that, however, have a practical urgency for all of us today.

"Who are we? What is the world?

"How can we understand consciousness, matter, space and time?

"Is the cosmos without purpose or value?

"Can we really neglect the sacred and divine?

"In doing so, he argues that we have become enslaved to an account of things dominated by

the brain's left hemisphere, one that blinds us to an awe-inspiring reality that is all around us,

had we but eyes to see it.

"He suggests that in order to understand ourselves and the world we need science and

intuition, reason and imagination, not just one or two; that they are in any case far from being

in conflict; and that the brain's right hemisphere plays the most important part in each.

"And he shows us how to recognise the 'signature' of the left hemisphere in our thinking, so as

to avoid making decisions that bring disaster in their wake. Following the paths of cutting-

edge neurology, philosophy and physics, he reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the

world, one that is both profound and beautiful - and happens to be in line with the deepest

traditions of human wisdom.

It is a vision that returns the world to life, and us to a better way of living in it: one we must

embrace if we are to survive."

Thanks again! I'm looking forward to your entire season!

Sincerely, George "jorge" Tate

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