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Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his Qatsi trilogy - Koyaanisqatsi: Live Out of Ballance, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation, and Naqoyqatsi: Life as War, essays of visual images and sound which chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment. Thanks to my friend Tom Lowe, I was very fortunate to attend the premiere of Godfrey's latest film - Visitors. In my view Visitors is one of those fundamentally important films that one simply has to watch. If you are fortunate enough to see the film the way I did - in glorious 4k and accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra live performance of Philip Glass' original music score, then I guarantee it will be a movie experience like no other. And chances are that it will touch and move your heart even if it doesn't do so for your head. I would also suggest that you must go and watch at least Reggio's first film - Koyaanisqatsi. [If you can also see Visitors it will be even better.] Otherwise it is unlikely you will get many of the references we are discussing during the interview. At any rate, during our 1 hour conversation with Godrey Reggio we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is a refugee from another period who had the opportunity to live in the middle ages; the guiding principle behind his life and work; why and how he got interested in film-making; his Qatsi trilogy as another way of seeing the world and how it was adopted by popular culture such as MTV;  Visitors and shooting both 4k and Black-and-White; the evolution of Reggio's ideas and his take on the technological singularity... My most favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Godfrey Reggio is: "It's our behavior that determines the content of our mind. [...] We become what we do; we become what we see; we become the routine that we are a part of..." (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)   Who is Godfrey Reggio? Born in New Orleans in 1940 and raised in Louisiana, Godfrey Reggio spent 14 years in a Roman Catholic religious order of men (the Christian Brothers) — living in community, dedicated to prayer, study, and teaching. Based in New Mexico during the 1960’s, Reggio taught school, lectured, and co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization project of juvenile street gangs. Following this, Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a Santa Fe community medical clinic, and La Gente, a community organizing project in the barrios of Santa Fe. Based in new Mexico during the sixties, Reggio taught grade school, secondary school and college. In 1963, he co-founded Young Citizens for Action, a community organization project that aided juvenile street gangs. Following this, Reggio co-founded La Clinica de la Gente, a facility that provided medical care to 12,000 community members in Santa Fe, and La Gente, a community organizing project in Northern New Mexico's barrios. In 1972, he co-founded the Institute for Regional Education in Santa Fe, a non-profit foundation focused on media development, the arts, community organization and research. In 1974 and 1975, with funding from the American Civil Liberties Union, Reggio co-organized a multi- media public interest campaign on the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control behavior. Koyaanisqatsi, Reggio's debut as a film director and producer, is the first film of the Qatsi trilogy. The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and 1982, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass. Powaqqatsi, Reggio's second film,

Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his Qatsi trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi: Live Out of Ballance, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation, and Naqoyqatsi: Life as War, essays of visual images and sound which […]

Godfrey Reggio is an inventor of a film style which creates poetic images of extraordinary emotional impact for audiences worldwide. Reggio is prominent in the film world for his Qatsi trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi: Live Out of Ballance, Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation, and Naqoyqatsi: Life as War, essays of visual images and sound which chronicle the destructive impact of […]

Dr. Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist perhaps best known for concepts such as the Omega Point or The Cosmological Singularity. He is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University and the author of books such as The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity. During our 1 hour conversation with Dr. Tipler we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he is both a physics imperialist and fundamentalist; the cosmological singularity, the technological singularity and the omega point; his personal journey from Christian fundamentalism through agnosticism and atheism and back to theism and Christianity; why most physicists are good atheists and bad scientists; immortality; determinism and whether God plays dice with the universe; mind-uploading and [Quantum] consciousness... The most interesting quote that I will take away from this interview with Frank J. Tipler is: "If the laws of physics be for us, who can be against us?!" (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)   Who is Frank J. Tipler? (in his own words) I was born and raised in Andalusia, a small farming town in southern Alabama. At the age of five, while in kindergarten, I became fascinated by the work of Alabama only famous physicist, the rocket scientist Werner von Braun, and decided then that I wanted to be an astrophysicist. With this goal, I obtained by undergraduate degree in physics in 1969 at M.I.T., where I first learned of the Many-Worlds of quantum mechanics, and of the Singularity Theorems of Stephan Hawking and Roger Penrose. In 1976, I obtained a Ph.D. in physics for my proof, using the techniques of Hawking and Penrose, that creating a time machine would necessarily result in singularities in the laboratory. I was hired in 1979, as a post-doc by John A. Wheeler, the great physicist best known for his work on black hole theory, to extend my 1978 proof that in general relativity, time is not relative: a unique rest frame exists. I became Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1981 at Tulane University, where I have been ever since, working to draw the full implications of my earlier work: that quantum mechanics and general relativity require that the Cosmological Singularity - the Uncaused First Cause - consists of Three Persons but one Cause. I have now written up these results for a popular audience, and the book is The Physics of Christianity. Related articles 17 Definitions of the Technological Singularity

Dr. Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist perhaps best known for concepts such as the Omega Point or The Cosmological Singularity. He is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University and the author of books such as The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Physics of Immortality and The […]

Dr. Frank J. Tipler is a physicist and cosmologist perhaps best known for concepts such as the Omega Point or The Cosmological Singularity. He is a professor of mathematical physics at Tulane University and the author of books such as The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity. During our […]

Dave Asprey is founder of The Bulletproof Executive as well as a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur who spent 15 years and over $300,000 to hack his own biology. He lost 100 pounds without counting calories or excessive exercise, upgraded his brain by more than 20 IQ points, and lowered his biological age while learning to sleep more efficiently in less time. I first heard of Dave from my friend PJ Manney who highly recommended Asprey for my Singularity 1 on 1 podcast. After such an endorsement I was certain that the Bulletproof Executive will not disappoint. However, I never suspected that, after our conversation, a total coffee fanatic like me would end up changing his morning routine and become an upgraded coffee fan. [It's been 5 days since the interview was recorded and the results were so impressive that my wife couldn't help it but join me in the bulletproof coffee morning routine.] During our 1 hour conversation with Dave Asprey we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: biohacking and the bulletproof executive brand; interval training and electrical stimulation; Asprey's experience as a technology executive; the bulletproof diet and upgraded coffee; the ethical and health implications of the paleo and vegan diets... My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Bulletproof Executive Dave Asprey is: "Hack the environment to hack yourself and you can reach levels of performance never imagined." (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)   Who is Dave Asprey? From private brain EEG facilities hidden in a Canadian forest to remote monasteries in Tibet, from Silicon Valley to the Andes, Dave Asprey used hacking techniques and tried everything on himself, obsessively focused on discovering the answers to this one persistent question: What are the simplest things you can do to be better at everything? What emerged is the idea of being “Bulletproof”, the state of high performance where you take control of and improve your biochemistry, your body, and your mind so they work in unison, helping you execute at levels far beyond what you’d expect, without burning out, getting sick, or allowing stress to control your decisions. It used to take a lifetime to radically rewire the human body and mind this way, if you were lucky enough to even know it was possible. Technology has changed the rules. Dave founded The Bulletproof Executive to make these breakthroughs – and the body and brain you deserve — easily available to you in your everyday life.   Black Coffee is a three-hour documentary series that traces the unique and volatile history of coffee. From its discovery on an ancient Ethiopian hillside to its role as a contemporary elixir, coffee has dominated and molded the economies, politics, and social structure of entire countries. "Black Coffee: Episode 1, The Irresistible Bean" carries us back to coffee’s origins in Ethiopia and its triumphant spread over five continents sparking revolution, controversy, creativity, business, and slavery all along the way.   "Part II: Gold in Your Cup" uses an elegant contemporary competition created to elevate the quality of coffee in Brazil to frame a portrait of 19th century coffee-fueled oppression in Latin America.   Part III: "The Perfect Cup" heralds what some coffee experts have called the “romantic age of coffee.” North Americans rediscover what their European counterparts have known all along: that the best cup is quality coffee that’s good for the farmer and good for the environment, and the best place to find it is in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the café.  

Dave Asprey is founder of The Bulletproof Executive as well as a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur who spent 15 years and over $300,000 to hack his own biology. He lost 100 pounds without counting calories or excessive exercise, upgraded his brain by more than 20 IQ points, and […]

Dave Asprey is founder of The Bulletproof Executive as well as a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur who spent 15 years and over $300,000 to hack his own biology. He lost 100 pounds without counting calories or excessive exercise, upgraded his brain by more than 20 IQ points, and lowered his biological age while […]

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher who promotes what he calls The Hedonistic Imperative. David is also a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and a vegan who argues that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society but also to alleviate the suffering of animals in the wild. During our 85 minute conversation with David Pearce we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why in his view philosophy is mostly a matter of temperament; Utilitarianism as his choice of flavor; why he decided to be a vegan; defining and measuring sentience; his definition of transhumanism and why philosophy has largely ignored it; The Abolitionist Project; the importance and impact of suffering; The Hedonistic Imperative; whether killing other humans can be permissible under extreme circumstances; Buddhism; his take on the technological singularity, mind uploading and the Hameroff/Penrose model of consciousness... My favorite quotes that I will take away from this interview with David Pearce are his two definitions of transhumanism: "Technical solution to an ethical problem." "The use of technology to overcome biological limitations." (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)   Related articles David Pearce reads The Antispeciesist Revolution

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher who promotes what he calls The Hedonistic Imperative. David is also a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and a vegan who argues that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society […]

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher who promotes what he calls The Hedonistic Imperative. David is also a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and a vegan who argues that we (or our future posthuman descendants) have a responsibility not only to avoid cruelty to animals within human society but also to alleviate the […]

Dr. Noam Chomsky is a famed linguist, political activist, prolific author and recognized public speaker, who has spent the last 60 years living a double life – one as a political activist and another as a linguist. His activism allegedly made him the US government’s public enemy number one. As […]

Dr. Noam Chomsky is a famed linguist, political activist, prolific author and recognized public speaker, who has spent the last 60 years living a double life - one as a political activist and another as a linguist. His activism allegedly made him the US government's public enemy number one. As a linguist he is often credited for dethroning behaviorism and becoming the "father of modern linguistics" (and/or cognitive science). Put together his accomplishments are the reasons why he is often listed as one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century. And so I was very much looking forward to interviewing him on Singularity 1 on 1. Unfortunately our time together was delayed, then rushed and a bit shorter than anticipated. So I was pretty nervous throughout and messed up some of my questions and timing. Never-the-less, I believe that we still had a worthy conversation with Dr. Chomsky and I appreciate the generous though limited time that he was able to grant me. During our 30 minute conversation with Noam Chomsky we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: the balance between his academic and his political life; artificial intelligence and reverse engineering the human brain; why in his view both Deep Blue and Watson are little more than PR; the slow but substantial progress of our civilization; the technological singularity... My favorite quote that I will take away from this interview with Dr. Chomsky is: "What's a program? A program is a theory; it's a theory written in an arcane, complex notation designed to be executed by the machine. What about the program, you ask? The same questions you ask about any other theory: Does it give insight and understanding? These theories don't. So what we're asking here is: Can we design a theory of being smart? We're eons away from doing that." (You can listen to/download the audio file above or watch the video interview in full. If you want to help me produce more episodes please make a donation!)   Who is Noam Chomsky? Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. During the years 1951 to 1955, Chomsky was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph Syntactic Structure, which was published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975. Chomsky joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and in 1961 was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics (now the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.) From 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. During the years 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ. In the spring of 1969 he delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford; in January 1970 he delivered the Bertrand Russell Memorial Lecture at Cambridge University; in 1972, the Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, and in 1977, the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, among many others. Professor Chomsky has received honorary degrees from University of London, University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Swarthmore College, Delhi University, Bard College, University of Massachusetts, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Amherst College, Cambridge University, University of Buenos Aires, McGill University, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Tarragona, Columbia University, University of Connecticut, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto,

Dr. Noam Chomsky is a famed linguist, political activist, prolific author and recognized public speaker, who has spent the last 60 years living a double life – one as a political activist and another as a linguist. His activism allegedly made him the US government’s public enemy number one. As a linguist he is often […]