Are We Human, or..?

Below is part 1 of 5 of 'What it Means To Be Human' - an interdisciplinary exploration of how discoveries in areas like fundamental physics, anthropology, and genomics are challenging our understanding of human nature.

What it Means to Be Human (Part 1/5) from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Watch All 5 Parts: Here

This event happened on May 31, 2008, at the 2008 World Science Festival - and was moderated by Charlie Rose. Participants include philosopher Daniel Dennett, artist Jonathan Harris, anthropologist Ian Tattersall, geneticist Francis Collins, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, philosopher Patricia Churchland, sociologist Nikolas Rose, embryonic stem cell biologist Renee Reijo Pera, and Nobel Laureates Harold Varmus and Paul Nurse.

Shock, Awe and the Psychology of Economic Warfare

In this short video Naomi Klein, an award winning journalist and out-spoken political commentator, discusses the economic, social and psychological impacts of Neo-liberal ideology and tactics combined with predatory state violence. Shock-trauma as economic and governmental policy?:

Also Check Out Naomi's amazingly written and revelatory book:
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Genes, Personality, Schizophrenia and Religion

Anthropologist Robert Sapolsky lectures for 90 minutes on the evolutionary basis for literal religious belief – what he calls "metamagical thinking". Sapolsky attempts to explain how, in evolutionary terms, religion - as it relates to mild schizophrenic expression called "schizotypal personality" - may have increased reproductive opportunities in our ancestors.

Jiddu Krishnamurti on the Human Condition

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) was a well-known writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. At one time Krishnamurti, or 'K' as he was often called, was thought to be a World Teacher - an enlightened master born into this world to free our species from ignorance and delusion. However, Krishnamurti rejected this label, and every other label, and instead chose to travel the world humbly giving lectures to whomever might listen.

K talked on many subjects: freedom, insight, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and how to enact positive change in society. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such a revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity whether religious, political or social. Only we can choose to attend to our own consciousness and radically open to the limits of human thought and perception.

The Future of the Secular

Here is a lecture by Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor on secular culture and the social processes underlying it. Charles Taylor is a widely respected thinker who has made significant contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of social science and the history of philosophy. He is both a world-renown academic and practicing Roman-Catholic.

Follow the Ongoing and Related Discussion: Here

The Network

Network (1976) is a politically charged, satirical film about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System (UBS), and its struggle with poor ratings. It was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay.

Network has continued to receive recognition, decades after its initial release, for its heavy criticism of mainstream media and the absurdity of American corporate culture. In 2007, the film was ranked 64th among the Top 100 Greatest American Films by the American Film Institute. Check it out below.

The Mathematics of War

By pulling raw data from the news and plotting it onto a graph, physicist Sean Gourley and his team have come up with a stunning conclusion about the nature of modern war -- and perhaps a model for resolving conflicts:

I Am

The following clips are examples of the use of digital media to evoke a sense of emotional attachment to ideology and convention. 'Special interest groups' target a wide range people as a way to influence their behavior and increase control.

And because humans form personally adaptive ego-habits and decision-making patterns in relation to what is afforded them (within wider contexts of convention and institutional power) clips like these are very effective.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/Muradaldin

Source: http://www.molsoncanadian.ca/

Dreyfus on Merleau-Ponty

In this 1995 interview with Harry Kreisler, acclaimed U.C. Berkeley philosophy professor Dreyfus discusses the importance of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (1908-1961) views in relation to computers, artificial intelligence, and the Internet.

Merleau-Ponty's primary focus on the "body" and "intercorporeality" is the key "coping" mechanism that allows us to "get a grip on reality," in a way that Dreyfus labels "normativity".

Part Two:

Dreyfus feels that Heidegger was more concerned with an existential critique of Cartesian "mental representations" in Being and Time, Merleau-Ponty's focus was always the "body with its skills that allows us to relate to things and others"... bodiless cyberspace cannot, for Dreyfus, eliminate this basic phenomenological premise.

Anthropology in the Public Sphere

Recently, StinkyJournalism.org and SavageMinds.org announced they will be simultaneously cross-publishing a series of essays exploring Jared Diamond’s controversial New Yorker Magazine article, “Annals of Anthropology: Vengeance is Ours.” Controversial, for example, in that Diamond is currently being sued and has been accused of endangering his informant's life.

The essay series titled, The Pig in a Garden: Jared Diamond and The New Yorker, is written and edited by ethics scholars in the fields of anthropology and communications, as well as journalists, environmental scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists et al.

As an anthropologist, i will be following these ‘explorations’ closely as professional anthropologists everywhere seem to be quite disturbed by how Diamond, a PhD in physiology, is representing their discipline in the public sphere. Not only does Diamond often make statements that seem to present his claims as accepted anthropological 'truths', he also blurs formal and ethical boundaries between popular science, journalism and Anthropology proper.

Personally i found Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel a fascinating read, well argued and broad enough in its claims to be a valuable supplement to current understandings of how human societies have emerged and evolved. Diamond shows – i believe – how differences in geography and natural ‘resources’ can often be deciding factors (although not determinate causes) when a particular group gains dominance over another, and how historical processes combine to afford an increased overall sociocultural complexity. [You can watch the documentary based on Diamond’s book here]

However, i think it’s interesting that anthropologists are finally getting enough moxie to openly and aggressively debate questions about ‘human nature’, culture and differences in social practice within mass culture. Anthropology as a formal body of knowledge has much to offer to both intellectual and lay discourse. As one author explains in her contribution to the series, part of the reason for furthering this ‘debate’ is to reclaim some of the attention and interest among general readers lost to popular writers like Diamond.

Well here’s hoping this series – and the passionate debate these essays may provoke - will do much towards creating a wider general audience for anthropological insights.

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