The Liminal Learning Portal

Teacher of principled entrepreneurship and author of “Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life” Luke Burgis shares the reasons behind Silicon Valley’s obsession with the philosophies of former Stanford Professor René Girard and whether we can ever transcend the human impulse of wanting to be like someone else. Stream, support, and subscribe 🎶Luke Burgis | Team Humanwww.teamhuman.fmEp. 181 Entrepreneur and author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life Luke Burgis shares the reasons behind Silicon Valley’s obsession with the philosophies of former Stanford Professor René Girard and whether we can ever transcend the human impulse …

Phenomena such as climate change occur on time scales too large for most people to understand, whether they’re being warned by scientists or their great-grandparents. Besides, the future is a distancing concept — someone else’s problem. Brain studies reveal that we relate to our future self the way we relate to a completely different person. We don’t identify that person as us. Perhaps this is a coping mechanism. If we truly ponder the horrific possibilities, everything becomes hyperbolic. We find it easier to imagine survival tactics for the zombie apocalypse than ideas to make the next ten years a bit …

The planet’s complex biosphere will survive us, one way or the other. Our own continuing participation, however, is in some doubt. Our aggressive industrial processes don’t just threaten the diversity of other species; they threaten us, too. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide lead to sharp declines in cognitive ability. Global warming not only displaces huge populations, but the higher temperatures can lead to everything from the spread of disease to increased social unrest. We are part of a complex system of feedback loops and interconnections, and must learn to approach our world with greater sophistication, empathy, and vision — not …

🌍 Author and lifelong community and climate activist Frank Brodhead helps us transform our rage and despair into hope and action. In his monologue, Rushkoff explores why film and television needs to embrace the human soul. “You can’t get to those questions with the best film technology alone. You need also to be able to embrace that weird extra special something about the human soul.” and recalls a discussion with Richard Dawkins and Naomi Wolf about moralism. Stream, support, and subscribe 🎶 Frank Brodhead | Team Humanwww.teamhuman.fmEp. 180 Author and lifelong community and climate activist Frank Brodhead helps us transform …

The problem with relying entirely on industrial approaches to the land, or anything, is that they oversimplify complex systems. They ignore the circulatory, regenerative properties of living organisms and communities, and treat everything in linear terms: inputs and outputs. They might maximize one season’s yield of crop, but at the expense of the soil matrix, nutrient levels, crop health, and future harvest yield. This then necessitates the use of more chemicals and genetic modifications, and the cycle continues. By current estimates, the earth will run out of topsoil (the layer of earth in which plants can grow) within sixty years. …

Admit it. Twitter isn’t quite as sensational without its leading troll, President Donald Trump. Online disinformation — perhaps the most compelling content available on social networks — is down 73% since he was banned. Not even the response to an armed attack on the Capitol or the fake news about antifa and Black Lives Matter having instigated it as a false flag event have been enough to stir up the social media landscape to previous frenzied levels of activity. And if social media is already suffering in the post-Trump era, imagine how boring cable news is going to be without …

Once we dispense with shame, we are liberated to experience the full, sacred, unlikely wackiness of being human. We are confident enough to leave the safety of the private computer simulation and jump into the wet chaos of social intimacy. Instead of marveling at the granularity of a VR world or the realism of a robot’s facial expression, we open our senses to the taste of the breeze or the touch of a lover. We exchange the vertigo of the uncanny valley for the exhilaration of awe. Read more from “How Our Healthy Longing for Awe Gets Exploited by the …

Environmentalism sometimes makes us feel like we humans are the problem. But we’re not. Humans are not a cancer on the planet. At the same time, we can’t ignore the fact that people are willful beings, capable of changing the natural environment to suit our whims and prone to dominating anything we deem threatening.How to Avoid Pitting Nature Against Progresslink.medium.comWe cannot dominate nature for much longer, but neither can we retreat from civilization

Is there a way to integrate western civilization’s ideal of progress with integral theory? Author of “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” and member of the Apalech Clan, Tyson Yunkaporta helps us explore on a new #TeamHuman. Stream, support, and subscribe 🎶Tyson Yunkaporta | Team Humanwww.teamhuman.fmEp. 178 Author of “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” and member of the Apalech Clan, Tyson Yunkaporta helps us reckon with the end of civilization.

Playing for Team Human today, R. U. Sirius, Nick Philip, Ani Phyo, and Jody Radzik, look back on the magical explosion at the intersection of art and technology in the early-1990s rave scene. This episode was recorded in High Fidelity , a real-time spatial audio software developed by Second Life co-founder Philip Rosedale. Stream, support, and subscribe now 🔊 https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/cyberia-reunion-in-high-fidelityCyberia Reunion in High Fidelity (feat. R. U. Sirius, Jody Radzik, Ani Phyo, and Nick Philip) | Team Humanwww.teamhuman.fmPlaying for Team Human today, R. U. Sirius, Nick Philip, Annie P.O, and Jody Radzik, look back on the magical explosion at the …