ReasonTV: Filmmaker Jason Silva on How Drugs Helped Invent the Internet, The Singularity and "Turning Into Gods"

The Singularity Summit is the premiere futurist conference (it's happening in New York City on October 15 and 16).

Among the speakers is Current TV's Jason Silva, the director of the forthcoming documentary, Turning into Gods. Taking a page from Timothy Leary, the folks behind the Whole Earth Catalog, Ray Kurzweil, and other visionaries, Silva's work looks at the ways in technological progress is allowing humans to direct their own evolution. And the ways in which prohibitionists of all stripes push back on new ways of being human.

"People have always sort of been scared of new technologies," says Silva.  "But in the end we assimilate them and they improve the quality of our lives."

Interview by Reason's Zach Weissmueller. Shot and edited by Sharif Matar. About 11 minutes long.

Go to reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel  for automatic notifications when new material goes live.

Comments

[Monk]

When the singularity comes, we will either be totally free or totally slaves.

It's a toss up.

[Terence McKenna]

Machines set us free.

Hunter-gatherers worked two hours per day.

Now we commute that long for a 12 hour work day at the law office.....WAIT! What's wrong with this picture?

Oh, we've got iPods. It's all worth it.

[MNG]

"Hunter-gatherers worked two hours per day."

Lie.

[Terence McKenna]

This "party atmosphere" is how many ethnographers have described the everyday life of hunter-gatherers and other primitive tribes, such as Jean Liedloff's description of the Yequana in The Continuum Concept. Primitive life is to work one day, and take the next day off, averaging as little as two hours per day. With all that extra time, foragers tell stories, gamble, joke, and play (and do a lot more sleeping than we do, too), creating the relaxed, informal, "fun" atmosphere we would assoicate with a party.

A Pirate's Life for Me
by Jason Godesky | 7 July 2006
http://rewild.info/anthropik/2.....fe-for-me/

[MNG]

""Hunter-gatherers worked two hours per day"

"averaging as little as two hours per day."

Thanks for correcting your lie, as anyone can see, your original quote does not say what your follow up says.

[the pedantic pissant]

I love you, Mighty Nano Gendarmerie.

[Bingo]

MNG is a douche, but are you really trying to say the difference between the average and what was implied isn't significant?

[Bingo]

MNG is a douche, but are you really trying to say the difference between the average and what was implied isn't significant?

[White Indian]

First me thinkum molehill. Now me thinkum heap big mountain. You big friend helpum White Injun.

[Joshua Corning]

"Hunter-gatherers worked two hours per day."

Lie.

No this is probably close to the truth.

Of course they also died before reaching 40 and if they had children probably saw more then 60% of them die before reaching adolescence....

Also they were over 2000% more likely to be killed violently.

Most sane people would choose working in an air conditioned office then the screaming blood horror stone age option.

[an anthropologist]

No, it probably isn't.

The ones who worked were busy all day long, the ones who didn't bring the average down.

To say anyone "worked two hours a day" is dishonest at best, and an outright lie at worst.

[Thomas Paine]

died before reaching 40

Actually, the agricultural revolution greatly cut life expectancy.

And even in modern times, with longer life expectancy, the bushmen in the Kahahari go 69 years, and the average world civilization life expectancy is 67.2.

Not to mention civilized people suffer from many Diseases of Civilization.

Smart people are now switching to the "screaming blood horror stone age option" of a Paleo diet for better health.

A question for you:

Do squirrels live a life of screaming blood horror?

Do crows evolve into living a life of screaming blood horror?

Do dolphins evolve into living a life of screaming blood horror?

Do squirrels evolve into living a life of screaming blood horror?

If not, then how is it that you assume humans evolved into a life of screaming blood horror?

In fact, we didn't.

Humans naturally evolved into an Original Affluent Society.

[an anthropologist]

And even in modern times, with longer life expectancy, the bushmen in the Kahahari go 69 years

Asian women have a life expectancy of 85.8 years, why is the bushmen's so short?

http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/.....2&lvlID=53

Actually, the agricultural revolution greatly cut life expectancy.

This is false.

[Abject Indian]

It's dishonest to cherrypick; an honest anthropologist would take the average for the now global civilization, knowing that civilization both has class structure and concentrates wealth.

Sure the wealthier class live longer.

Fiat money makes people rich too, right?

Oh...the rich get richer.

See how that works?

Current world average 67.2 2010 est.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Life_expectancy

[an anthropologist]

"It's dishonest to cherrypick"

"the bushmen in the Kahahari go 69 years"

So you admit you're dishonest, fair enough.

an honest anthropologist would take the average for the now global civilization

So would an honest white indian. You go first.

[libertarian-statist slayer]

"the bushmen in the Kahahari go 69 years"
So you admit you're dishonest, fair enough.

The bushmen of the Kalahari are one of the very few paleolithic groups we've been able to study in modern times, with which to compare to agricultural civilization.

No, it's not dishonest. Quit psychologically projecting your libertarian ethics on me.

[an anthropologist]

Current world average 67.2 2010 est.

Yeah, it works like this

30,000 to 9,000 B.C. -Median
Lifespan (yrs)-Males 35.4 Females 30.0

http://www.beyondveg.com/nicho.....4-1a.shtml

Lifespan has doubled.

[Cherrypickin' Bernanke]

If you want to cherrypick the last few decades of data out of several thousand years of agriculture, have at it; you are a fibertarian.

Agriculture (especially using 10 calories of petroleum now for every 1 calorie of food) is like fiat money -- a temporary boom, especially for the hierarchical elite.

A more honest accounting of agriculture is here:

Thesis #9: Agriculture is difficult, dangerous and unhealthy.
by Jason Godesky
http://rewild.info/anthropik/thirty/

[Your time is money for...]

...the capitalists.

That's why they want artificial lines drawn on the earth to restrict the free movement of people. Then you are deprived of the ability to feed your family gamboling about forest and plain and are coerced to work for them.

And they package it as "freedom."

[Thomas Paine]

"The life of an Indian is a continual holiday..." ~Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice

[an anthropologist]

The whole quote

The life of an Indian is a continual holiday, compared with the poor of Europe; and, on the other hand it appears to be abject when compared to the rich.

Agreed, the life of an Indian is abject, thanks for finally admitting it.

[White Indian Quotes]

"The life of an Indian is...abject..." ~Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice

http://www.cooperativeindividu.....ce_02.html

[Thomas Paine]

The life of a typical American Fibertarian is...abject when compared to the rich.

~White Indian

P.S. Where's your Gulfstream 650, capitalist fellator?

[Abject Libertarian]

quit making me feel bad

[White Indian Quotes]

"The life of a typical American... is...rich.

~White Indian

P.S. Where's your Gulfstream 650, capitalist fellator?"

Name calling? Really? Why so mad guy?

[Abject Libertarian]

Why would WI be "angry?" I like fellating capitalists, two jobs, so I can pay off mom's medical bills. You got something against it?

[White Indian Quotes]

Why would WI be...fellating...capitalists?

Why so mad guy?

[Boogeyman]

Hunter-gatherers often suffered injuries like those of rodeo riders, had few if any treatments or cures any injury or sickness, fought constantly with neighboring tribes, constantly lived on the knifes edge of starvation, death by exposure, animal attacks and were overall lucky to live past 35. I think Ill put up with the commute.

[Diomasach]

So Al Gore was on drugs when he invented the internet?

[algorithm]

"See, I think drugs have done some good things for us...."

Tool - Third Eye
(Full Version HD)
SENTIENTMIND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zV78IgXzB0

Only Tool? could make me watch a 14 minute video.

[dbcooper]

The singularity is bullshit. The end.

[Terence McKenna]

Agreed.

The Age of Batshit Crazy Machines
by Ran Prieur
July 4, 2005

[Terence McKenna]

The Age of Batshit Crazy Machines
by Ran Prieur
July 4, 2005
(There is also a condensed version called Don't Fear the Singularity.)

http://ranprieur.com/essays/machines.html

[Terence McKenna]

This guy is just stealing Terence McKenna's work and repackaging it into techno-triumphalism.

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution
by Terence McKenna
http://www.amazon.com/Food-God.....0553371304

Terence McKenna: Culture is not your friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYB0VW5x8fI

[intelligent readers]

Terence McKenna is to technological commentary what McDonald's is to gourmet food.

If you're sheltered and ignorant, then it kind of looks ok.

[Cargo Cult Readers]

Techno-triumphalism is a religion. The intelligent know that.

"This is our ultimate challenge: solve the problem of growth or face the consequences. Growth isn't a problem that can be solved through a new technology--all that does is postpone the inevitable reckoning with the limits of a finite world. Fusion, biofuels, super-efficient solar panels, genetic engineering, nano-tech--these cannot, by definition, solve the problem."

~Attorney Jeff Vail
Hierarchy must grow, and is therefore unsustainable
http://www.jeffvail.net/2008/0.....efore.html

[an anthropologist]

Thanks for demonstrating that you don't know what a cargo cult is.

[Cargo Culter]

The techno-triumphalist Cult focuses on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced science fiction cultures by best selling authors through Cornucopian magic and religio-economic rituals and practices. Cult members believe that the wealth was intended for them by the invisible hand of their "Free Market" deity.

Take that. LOL

[an anthropologist]

The techno-triumphalist Cult focuses on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced science

Stolen from wikipedia, and not attributed.

"A cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices. Cult members believe that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors"

So, you didn't know and had to rely on WIKIPEDIA to STEAL A QUOTE FROM?

And you didn't even quote it properly?

Take that.

[Cargo Culter]

It's not quoted. It was wittily adapted to satire.

Take that.

[an anthropologist]

So, you didn't know and had to rely on WIKIPEDIA to STEAL A QUOTE FROM?

And you didn't even quote it properly?

Take that again.

[White Indian Quotes]

It's not...wittily adapted to satire.

Why so mad guy?

[pedantic pissant]

so many editing groupies, so few original thinkers like WI

[Joshua Corning]

First adopters are idiots.

For example if you bought the first iPhone for $799 you are an idiot.

What is interesting is that my improving life style requires the existence of these idiots.

So for that I say thank you all you fucking morons of the world for being idiots and wasting resources and your own money on stuff that in a year or less will greatly improve my life.

Keep on keep on being stupid

[Cars Slow as Walking]

improving life style SHHHURRRREEEEEE!

The model American male devotes more than 1600 hours a year to his car. He sits in it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earns the money to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay for gasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours on the road or gathering his resources for it. And this figure does not take into account the time consumed by other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, traffic courts, and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumer education meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. The model American puts in 1600 hours to get 7500 miles: less than five miles per hour.

Ivan Illich on Cars
excerpts from Energy and Equity
also collected in Toward a History of Needs
http://ranprieur.com/readings/illichcars.html

[Overmedicated Mark]

Ah, yes...the technological singularity - I was just discussing this the other night with visitors from planet Krypton, via my psychic telepathic powers that I developed after writing a Java applet and misreading a certain package insert for dosing instructions...

Anyway, for those unfamiliar with the minds behind the technological singularity:

"As part of his daily routine, Kurzweil ingests 250 supplements, eight to 10 glasses of alkaline water and 10 cups of green tea. He also periodically tracks 40 to 50 fitness indicators, down to his "tactile sensitivity." Adjustments are made as needed."

Yeah...about that...

[Joshua Corning]

I just realized only 4 people have comments here...

Me Monk, MNG and White Indian's many aliases....

Thanks for killing this thread before it even got started White Indian.

Do the world a favor and off yourself.

[an anthropologist]

ahem...

[Strategy for Advice Givers]

After you, Sir.

[Dekedin]

It's too bad this ended up being a troll thread. I think this video is very interesting, especially about the idea that the internet is an expansion of our consciousness. Great interview. I believe the future will be more exciting than any of us can predict.