Is the first person to live to 1,000-years-old, alive today? And if that's true, what does that inevitably mean for the future of the human condition?
One of the world's leading anti-aging researchers, Aubrey De Grey, (and strangely—my neighbor) believes that to be 100% true. Because, well, Aubrey's the one who said it.
And if what Aubrey says is true, would you then believe Arthur C. Clarke's third law, which states: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?
Meaning that modern technology can seem like literal witchcraft to the ignorant, or simple science to the learned.
Popular mystery writer, Agatha Christie, once wrote, "The supernatural is only the natural of which the laws are not yet understood."
And I agree. However...
Are we metaphorically "summoning the demon," as tech mogul Elon Musk fears?
The Guardian published an article on former vice-president of user growth for Facebook—one you may have read or, at the very least, heard about in November of 2017. The former executive said that he feels "tremendous guilt" over his work on “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
Chamath Palihapitiya said, "This is not about Russian ads.”
“This is a global problem. It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”
Historian and novelist Ronald Wright popularized what is called a progress trap.
The exact definition of a progress trap is as follows:
The condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems they do not have the resources or political will to solve, for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life.
Many of the problems we're seeing now–whether we're talking about hunger or massive inequity–whether we're talking about climate change or the loss of biodiversity–have been driven over the last 250 years by a system of overproduction and overconsumption of stuff.
You've probably heard Einstein's famous quote, "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." This quote, although popular on the Internet, is false.
Einstein did say, however, "I believe that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stems primarily from the mechanization and depersonalization of our lives,” he wrote in a letter to his friend, psychiatrist Otto Juliusburger, in 1948, “a disastrous byproduct of science and technology. Nostra culpa!"
And In many ways science and technology have become the new religion of our time.
Karl Marx described religion as an opiate to the masses because it dulled the senses and kept people passive and accepting of a capitalist, industrialist culture warped on the idea of consumption and growth.
Freud, the father of modern psychology, argued that religion served to repress and sublimate an individual's desire into activities that serve the culture. This, Freud argued, produces neurosis and mental illness in those that civilization seeks to domesticate.
And so if we imagine technology as a drug, where its purpose is to manage pain and create sensations of calm and well-being, do we not forget that we are apart of the natural world, fighting for survival, just like everything else?
In many ways technology works much like religion, distracting us from our inevitable deaths with feelings of fleeting invincibility and immortality.
(I'd like to thank my friend Julian Langer for that connection between technology and religion.)
Anyways, guys! This is part 2 of 2 of Privilege, Identity Politics, and the Transhuman Agenda with Daniel Vitalis.
All-in-all, this was a challenging conversation to navigate for both Daniel and myself, so please keep an open mind, ear, and heart.
So...
In today's episode, you'll learn...
Daniel says he approaches the world like a mishmash of these three values—and science
Sophia the AI robot, identity politics, and the challenge Daniel has with privilege and where it's going
Daniel's thoughts on bio and nano technology
What Daniel says his religion would be if he were to subscribe to one
Why Daniel says people who practice animism today aren't the same as people who practiced animism in the past
Are we in an augmented reality?
Elon Musk, Space X, and artificial intelligence. Are we summoning the demon?
Daniel's personal relationship with modern technology
Daniel recalls the first time he saw someone walking down the street talking to themselves (on a hands-free cellular device)
Why Daniel feels he's lost some of his intelligence (and what happened to it)
Peter Thiel, the Bulletproof Conference, and how Peter (Thiel) sees the future state of humanity's relationship with technology
The juxtaposition between The Bulletproof Conference and the 2017 Annual North American Rewilding Conference
Daniel's foreboding observation about the Pixar's animated movie Wall-E
Are we going into an age of biological denial?
Daniel's thoughts on merit, identity politics, and the transhuman agenda (i.e. "the cult of progress")
How modern technology, Daniel says, has effected humanity throughout the past few generations
James mentions AHR episode #4 with Arthur Haines and the allegory of the cave
How Daniel talks about his work
What Daniel says is the theme of today's episode
Why you won't hear Daniel use the word rewilding (...much)
Did you know that some scientists say that oaks produce more nuts annually than every other nut tree—both wild and commercial—combined?
Nuts, right? (Yeah, yeah—laugh it up. The pun was intended.)
Acorns, or oak nuts, are nutritional powerhouses.
Depending on the species, a single acorn can contain up to 18% fat, 6% protein, and 68% carbohydrate—with the rest just being water, minerals, and gut-healthy fiber.
Acorns are also great sources of both vitamins A and C, as well as having a long list of essential and nonessential aminos acids.
With those numbers, it’s easy to understand why the native people here in California never resorted to agriculture and why—interestingly—they never spoke of—or created traditions for—famine.
To speak more about this abundant wild food, I'm excited to introduce to you someone I've mentioned many times on Ancestral Health Radio before: Daniel Vitalis.
I waited for what seemed like a couple years for this interview... Which, by the way, is a solid two hours. So I decided to break it up into a two-part episode, so your ears can have something to munch on later.
Daniel's helped me, as well as many of my friends, better understand ecology through ancestral lifeways.
In today's episode, you'll learn...
Welcome Daniel onto the show
The significance of being a symbol and the impact that idea has on Daniel
Why Daniel separates the mundane intricacies of his personal life from his business life
Daniel's opinion on actors and sports figures as political commentators
Why Daniel says he's not the person to speak about productivity or systems related to entrepreneurship
How Daniel is currently prioritizing in his personal life
Why Daniel no longer subscribes to the idea of morning routines
Why Daniel and his partner don't live together
Four of Daniel's daily practices
The one skill Daniel's currently spending most of his time on
Why processing food takes president over many facets of Daniel's lifestyle
Daniel's favorite foraging season
Daniel explains the anthroposcene era and its significance to modern hunting and gathering
Why Daniel says you'd be hard pressed to find any true hunter-gatherers these day
The wild food Daniel believes is going to revolutionize food production (hint: It's "not a grain")
The role grains have played in the civilizing of the modern world
What Daniel says is more exciting, and bigger work, than any one food
The two-pronged idea behind Daniel's episode, "Is Wild Food A Privilege?"
Daniel opens up and shares his traumatic background growing up in the United States
Why building a loyal team of people who share your vision can be one of the hardest things you can ever do
Daniel's thoughts on white privilege and America's self-correcting constitution
Why Daniel won't touch the topic of evolutionary and biological psychology
Why we're currently fighting an information-based civil war
Daniel's personal conservation efforts
Why most of the people Daniel says he's inspired by are not people who specifically identify with the word rewilding
The four guests that have most impacted Daniel over the span of 175+ episodes of the Rewild Yourself podcast (Stephen Jenkinson, Dan Flores, Gabor Maté, and Neil Strauss)
Why Daniel says he likes to find inspiration outside of the rewilding community rather than from within it