Podcast appearances and mentions of max more

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Our guest in this episode is Jordan Sparks, the founder and executive director of Oregon Brain Preservation (OBP), which is located at Salem, the capital city of Oregon. OBP offers the service of chemically preserving the brain in the hope of future restoration.Previously, Jordan was a dentist and a computer programmer, and he was successful enough in those fields to generate the capital required to start OBP.Brain preservation is a fascinating subject that we have covered in a number of recent episodes, in which we have interviewed Kenneth Hayworth, Max More, and Emil Kendziorra.Most people whose brains have been preserved for future restoration have undergone cryopreservation, which involves cooling the brain (and sometimes the whole body) down to a very low temperature and keeping it that way. OBP does offer that service occasionally, but its focus – which may be unique – is chemical fixation of the brain.Previous episodes on biostasis and brain preservation:The case for brain preservation, with Kenneth HayworthCryonics, cryocrastination, and the future: changing minds, with Max MoreStop cryocrastinating! with Emil KendziorraAdditional selected follow-ups:Oregon Brain PreservationThe costs of the services provided by Oregon Brain PreservationFocused Ultrasound: A Promising Tool for Cryonics - Tomorrow BioInvestigation of Electromagnetic Resonance Rewarming Enhanced by Magnetic Nanoparticles for Cryopreservation - LangmuirPre-epithelialized cryopreserved tracheal allograft for neo-trachea flap engineering - Frontiers in Bioengineering and BiotechnologyAldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation by Robert McIntyre and Gregory Fahy - CryobiologyOregon's Death with Dignity Act14-year-old girl who died of cancer wins right to be cryogenically frozen - The GuardianMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationOut-of-the-box insights from digital leadersDelivered is your window in the minds of people behind successful digital products. Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Our guest in this episode is Max More. Max is a philosopher, a futurist, and a transhumanist - a term which he coined in 1990, the same year that he legally changed his name from O'Connor to More.One of the tenets of transhumanism is that technology will allow us to prevent and reverse the aging process, and in the meantime we can preserve our brains with a process known as cryonics. In 1995 Max was awarded a PhD for a thesis on the nature of death, and from 2010 to 2020, he was CEO of Alcor, the world's biggest cryonics organisation.Max is firmly optimistic about our future prospects, and wary of any attempts to impede or regulate the development of technologies which can enhance or augment us.Selected follow-ups:Extropic Thoughts - Max More's writing on SubstackThe Biostasis Standard - Max's writings on "the latest in the field of biostasis and cryonics"Neophile - WikipediaThe Time of the Ice Box - Episode of 1970 BBC children's TV series TimeslipCryostasis Revival: The Recovery of Cryonics Patients  through Nanomedicine - 2022 book by Robert FreitasResearchers perform first successful transplant of functional cryopreserved rat kidney - news from the University of MinnesotaLarge Mammal BPF Prize Winning Announcement - news from the Brain Preservation FoundationThe European Biostasis FoundationAlcor Life Extension FoundationMusic: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain DeclarationWhat If? So What?We discover what's possible with digital and make it real in your businessListen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify High Street Matters: Accessibility - Unlocking the High StreetWe arm retailers with the key to unlock the potential of the high street... for all.Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- What would you say you... do... here?   Chris dunks on a doofy website for 40 minutes straight; it is also possible we learn some things about Transhumanism along the way.   --- *Search Categories* Anthropological; Science / Pseudoscience; Common interest / Fandom; New Religious Movement   --- *Topic Spoiler* Humanity+   --- *Further Reading*   https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity%2B H+'s website: https://www.humanityplus.org/ H+'s weird, tiny, self published "news articles" (also an example of their liberal/left leaning): https://www.humanityplus.org/news/transhumanists-condemn-police-brutality other sites in the H+ "webring": https://willeadership.io/ https://healthspanaction.org/healthspan-action-coalition/ H+ hosted zoom roundtable on Transhumanism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdjMoykqxys H+'s weird mission statement: https://www.humanityplus.org/about Max More's blog post on the definition of Transhumanism: https://www.humanityplus.org/philsophy-of-transhumanism Two articles from early 2000s on the left/right schism in Transhumanism: https://web.archive.org/web/20060313212747/http://www.twliterary.com/jhughes_utne.html https://web.archive.org/web/20061231222833/http://www.slate.com/id/2142987/fr/rss/ Notable Transhumanists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hughes_(sociologist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_More Extropianism? What's that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extropianism https://www.oed.com/dictionary/extropianism_n?tl=true   --- *Patreon Credits* Michaela Evans, Heather Aunspach, Alyssa Ottum, David Whiteside, Jade A, amy sarah marshall, Martina Dobson, Eillie Anzilotti, Lewis Brown, Kelly Smith Upton, Wild Hunt Alex, Niklas Brock Jenny Lamb, Matthew Walden, Rebecca Kirsch, Pam Westergard, Ryan Quinn, Paul Sweeney, Erin Bratu, Liz T, Lianne Cole, Samantha Bayliff, Katie Larimer, Fio H, Jessica Senk, Proper Gander, Nancy Carlson, Carly Westergard-Dobson, banana, Megan Blackburn, Instantly Joy, Athena of CaveSystem, John Grelish, Rose Kerchinske, Annika Ramen, Alicia Smith, Kevin, Velm, Dan Malmud, tiny, Dom, Tribe Label - Panda - Austin, Noelle Hoover, Tesa Hamilton, Nicole Carter, Paige, Brian Lancaster, tiny  

Wanna chat about the episode? Or just hang out? Come join us on discord!   --- To be what you want to be: isn't this the essence of being human? - David Zindell   Chris and Kayla take the next steps on the path of the unfolding season...and the unfolding of humanity's future.   --- *Search Categories* Science / Pseudoscience; Common interest / Fandom   --- *Topic Spoiler* Transhumanism   --- Further Reading https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/transhumanism#:~:text=Transhumanism%20is%20the%20position%20that,capacities%20beyond%20current%20biological%20constraints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism https://www.humanityplus.org/transhumanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_More https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM-2030 https://organicmachinecmp.home.blog/2019/04/10/transhumanism/ https://nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf https://www.amazon.com/Singularity-Near-Humans-Transcend-Biology/dp/0670033847   --- *Patreon Credits* Michaela Evans, Heather Aunspach, Alyssa Ottum, David Whiteside, Jade A, amy sarah marshall, Martina Dobson, Eillie Anzilotti, Lewis Brown, Kelly Smith Upton, Wild Hunt Alex, Niklas Brock Jenny Lamb, Matthew Walden, Rebecca Kirsch, Pam Westergard, Ryan Quinn, Paul Sweeney, Erin Bratu, Liz T, Lianne Cole, Samantha Bayliff, Katie Larimer, Fio H, Jessica Senk, Proper Gander, Nancy Carlson, Carly Westergard-Dobson, banana, Megan Blackburn, Instantly Joy, Athena of CaveSystem, John Grelish, Rose Kerchinske, Annika Ramen, Alicia Smith, Kevin, Velm, Dan Malmud, tiny, Dom, Tribe Label - Panda - Austin, Noelle Hoover, Tesa Hamilton, Nicole Carter, Paige, Brian Lancaster, tiny

Night vision. Superhuman strength. And… kale salad? In episode 95 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the weird world of biohackers, who leverage science and technology to optimize their bodies. The movement raises rich philosophical questions, from the blurry ethics of self-experimentation, to the consequences of extreme Cartesian dualism, to the awkward tension in our technological nostalgia for a pastoral paradise. If biohacking taps into the basic human desire to experience and investigate, it perhaps also pushes too far toward transcending our bodies. The stakes are political, metaphysical, and ethical — and your hosts are here to make philosophical sense of it all.Works DiscussedDave Asprey, Smarter Not HarderAlison Gopnik, The Philosophical BabyMirjam Grewe-Salfeld, Biohacking, Bodies, and Do-It-YourselfMichel de Montaigne, "Of Experience"Max More, The Transhumanist ReaderJoel Michael Reynolds, "Genopower: On Genomics, Disability, and Impairment"Smithsonian Mag, “200 Frozen Heads and Bodies Await Revival at This Arizona Cryonics Facility”Baruch de Spinoza, EthicsWashington Post, “The Key to Glorifying a Questionable Diet? Be a tech bro and call it ‘biohacking'"Patricia J. Zettler et. al., “Regulating genetic biohacking”Austin Powers (1997)If Books Could Kill PodcastOverthink ep 31. Genomics feat. Joel Michael ReynoldsSupport the show

In this stream I discuss the central philosophy to Transhumanism known as "Extropianism," which was developed by transhumanist philosopher Max More. Make sure to check it out and let me know what you think. God bless Superchat Here https://streamlabs.com/churchoftheeternallogos Donochat Me: https://dono.chat/dono/dph Join this channel's YouTube Memberships: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8JwgaHCkhdfERVkGbLl2g/join Intro Music Follow Keynan Here! https://linktr.ee/keynanrwils b-dibe's Bandcamp: https://b-dibe.bandcamp.com/ b-dibe's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/b-dibe Superchat Here https://streamlabs.com/churchoftheeternallogos Rokfin: https://rokfin.com/dpharry Website: http://www.davidpatrickharry.com GAB: https://gab.com/dpharry Support COTEL with Crypto! Bitcoin: 3QNWpM2qLGfaZ2nUXNDRnwV21UUiaBKVsy Ethereum: 0x0b87E0494117C0adbC45F9F2c099489079d6F7Da Litecoin: MKATh5kwTdiZnPE5Ehr88Yg4KW99Zf7k8d If you enjoy this production, feel compelled, or appreciate my other videos, please support me through my website memberships (www.davidpatrickharry.com) or donate directly by PayPal or crypto! Any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Logos Subscription Membership: http://davidpatrickharry.com/register/ Venmo: @cotel - https://account.venmo.com/u/cotel PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/eternallogos Donations: http://www.davidpatrickharry.com/donate/ PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/eternallogos Website: http://www.davidpatrickharry.com Rokfin: https://rokfin.com/dpharry Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/COTEL Odysee: https://odysee.com/@ChurchoftheEternalLogos:d GAB: https://gab.com/dpharry Telegram: https://t.me/eternallogos Minds: https://www.minds.com/Dpharry Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/W10R... DLive: https://dlive.tv/The_Eternal_Logos Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpharry/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/_dpharry

If you would like to support this podcast, click here.Max More is a philosopher, futurist, and former CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He is currently Director of Communications at Biostasis Technologies. Max wrote the first definition of “Transhumanism” in its modern sense.TIMESTAMPS0:45 - Why Max changed his last name to “More”2:45 - Max's early life and interest in cryonics and life extension8:00 - Extropian philosophy and Transhumanism9:15 - Cryonics explained26:06 - Hardest challenges in achieving indefinite lifespan33:16 - Humans don't like uncertainty 35:55 - We need more progress in AI39:05 - Climate change is massively exaggerated46:24 - Pancritical Rationalism and Karl Popper52:21 - Proactionary principle56:58 - Max's book on cryonics and final remarksEPISODE LINKSMax's website: https://www.maxmore.comMax's Substack: https://maxmore.substack.comArjun's X: https://x.com/arjunkhemaniArjun's Substack: https://arjunkhemani.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.arjunkhemani.com

"People who say 'Why should you live longer? That's not normal.' Go back a little bit. It was normal to die at 20 or 30, or 40 at best. So why is today's lifespan exactly right? That's obviously nonsense." On this episode of HYPERSCALE, I am joined by Dr. Max More, one of the founders of the modern philosophy of transhumanism, co-founder of the Extropy Institute, an organization crucial in building the transhumanist movement since 1990, and Ambassador and President Emeritus of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, one of the largest cryonics facilities in the world. Dr. Max is an internationally acclaimed strategic futurist who writes, speaks, and organizes events about the fundamental challenges of emerging technologies. Max is concerned that our rapidly developing technological capabilities are racing far ahead of our standard ways of thinking about future possibilities. His work aims to improve our ability to anticipate, adapt to, and shape the future for the better. Drawing on philosophy, economics, cognitive and social psychology, management theory, and other fields, he develops solutions and strategies for minimizing the dangers of progress and maximizing the benefits we stand to reap, especially when it comes to extending our lifespan beyond our current understanding, what he dubs the "status quo bias." Tune in as we pick the brain of one of the most renowned transhumanists of our time. FOLLOW ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/briarig       LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/briarlinkedin   TikTok: https://bit.ly/briartiktok  WEBSITE: https://briarprestidgeofficial.com 

Michael is head of philosophy at the University of Liverpool. His current work spans transhumanism, death & meaning. He has written a vast range of topics, including on whether non-human animals can have meaningful lives & "What It Is Like to Be a Bot". He says of his work: "As a philosopher, I am a generalist, which is a nice way of saying that I have done many different things & I am not really an expert on anything in particular." In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what's real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:42 Michael's Intro - What it means to be human, to live a good life, a meaningful life - Transhumanism & human enhancement - Meaning & life & death - When dealing with foundational, broad questions: "It is very difficult to be precise... I hardly ever feel that 'now I've got it'" 06:06 What's Real? - "It's much easier to point at something & disuss whether that is real" - "If you can name something then in some sense it must be real" - Raised #Christian & sent to Sunday school & Bible classes & regular confessions to the village priest - "I sort of believed there was a god when I was little" - A god watching me "a means of controlling me... Big Brother in heaven... it was just oppressive... a punishing god, a critical god" - "I didn't feel the presence... I just believed that there was something because I was told there was something" - "Very quickly I dropped my religious beliefs... as soon as I started to think for myself I became an #atheist" - "It just faded away... it was always superficial" - "Some people take me for a Christian because I share some of the intuitions religious believers have" - "I'm not entirely comfortable with calling myself a naturalist although I don't believe in anything supernatural" - "Naturalism is also very programmatic & ideological" - "There are a lot of things in this world that we cannot understand...& some naturalists are very confident that we can understand everything & that's there's no mystery... there is a lot of mystery." - Max More's #transhumanism ... pits science vs. religion - Origins of the universe & life & consciousness "we don't know!" Science might figure it out - it might not - "... whatever there is is part of nature" - Over-confidence vs. humility - The subjective & the objective - Plato & Parmenides: "being is more real than becoming"... "but we live in a world of becoming... how can that be less real?" - The "normative use of reality"... to "declare something else as not real... a term to deny something else its reality" - The denial of animal suffering "not so common any more" & the #cartesian model - "If you see an animal in pain you know it is in pain... it takes a lot of willful blindness not to acknowledge..." - "One of the reasons... why animals could not possibly feel any pain... because it would then be far too horrible how we treat animals... god wouldn't allow it!" - "If we assume the world is good & we see all the apparent suffering... then it cannot be... A moral reason behind denying the suffering of animals" - JW "An echo of a religious mode of thought that's then re-built in a humanist mode of thought" - "If we have evolved naturally... there's no reason to assume our brains are capable of understanding the universe... what possible use can it have?" - "A naturalistic perspective should actually teach us humility" 29:03 What Matters? ...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on FaceBook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Come join us there!

Après les darwinistes, je m'attaque aux transhumanistes. Et pourtant, je suis moi-même d'accord la théorie de l'évolution de Darwin et je suis transhumaniste à ma manière. Mais je dois reconnaître que les fondements sur lesquels reposent la pensée du transhumanisme sont bancales. Les pères de ce mouvement, parmi lesquels je placerai des gens comme Max More, Nick Bostrom ou encore David Pearce, sont ce qui m'apparaît être des techno hippies. Je laisserai de côté cependant Ray Kurzweil dont les ouvrages sont plus techniques et moins idéologiques et Julian Huxley qu'on tient parfois pour le père du transhumanisme mais que je vois plus comme une de ses inspirations ou prémices. Et ce n'est pas une simple question de sensibilité personnelle mais un désaccord profond sur le fond qui nous amène à penser le progrès, l'intelligence, la technique et la liberté de façon totalement différente. Alors penchons-nous sur les écrits de Max More qui est celui qui a donné son nom au transhumanisme et à l'extropie, nom qu'il a inventé pour mettre en avant que le transhumanisme n'est pas la recherche de la perfection, mais un processus d'amélioration procédant par essai-erreur. RAGE Site : rage-culture.com/ Tipeee: fr.tipeee.com/rage Twitter : twitter.com/RageCultureMag Discord : discord.gg/GXeSJ7XuNS Instagram : www.instagram.com/rage_cult/?hl=fr Telegram : t.me/rage_culture Facebook : www.facebook.com/RageCultureMag

Should cryonics be our plan A for life extension?  If so, how do you sign up to cryonics? In this episode of the podcast Emil Kendziorra and Max More answers all the most common (and uncommon) questions about signing up for cryonics.  Emil Kendziorra received his doctoral degree in translational cancer research. Between 2009 and 2019 he founded, grew, and then sold multiple medical- and tech startups by himself. In the medical field, he founded MedLanes, a service that provides medical home visits at the press of a button, even during Covid times.Max More is a philosopher and futurist who writes, speaks, and consults on advanced decision-making about emerging technologies. He is the current Ambassador and President Emeritus (as of February 2021) after serving almost nine and a half years as president and CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation.The process of cryonics involves SST – standby stabilization and transport, which is the emergency response to death. Then the team removes as much blood as possible from the body because it contains a lot of water, and replaces it with a cryoprotectant solution. Rapid cooldown comes next, then slow cooldown to cool and freeze the body so it can be stored in cryogenic dewars.Session summary: Emil Kendziorra, Max More | Cryonics Sign-Up Q&A + Demo - Foresight InstituteThe Foresight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees, and shares this work with the public. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize. Apply to Foresight's virtual salons and in person workshops here!We are entirely funded by your donations. If you enjoy what we do please consider donating through our donation page.Visit our website for more content, or join us here:TwitterFacebookLinkedInEvery word ever spoken on this podcast is now AI-searchable using Fathom.fm, a search engine for podcasts.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest host Chelsea Bird chats with Max More, Co-editor, The Transhumanist Reader, Ambassador & President Emeritus, Alcor Life Extension Foundation

Deux auteurs à la pensée radicalement opposée vont évoquer les idées d'entropie et de néguentropie, pour Bernard Stiegler, et d'extropie pour Nick Land. Ce dernier empruntera ce néologisme au père de l'extropianisme Max More, dont il regrette la paternité techno-hippie d'une idée si géniale. Nick Land défendra une vision accélérationniste et Bernard Stiegler appellera à une bifurcation écologiste. La différence entre leurs écrits réside plus sur une différence de point de vue que de constats. Les deux voient comme faustien le transhumanisme auquel amène l'accélération découlant naturellement d'un système capitaliste autonome compris comme un système cybernétique avec des boucles de renforcement. Mais si Nick Land veut laisser-faire ces processus qu'il juge inéluctable sur le long terme, Stiegler s'oppose frontalement au transhumanisme et au capitalisme qu'il tient pour des destructeurs de la société s'appropriant le “stade d'exosomatisation”. RAGE Site : rage-culture.com/ Tipeee: fr.tipeee.com/rage Twitter : twitter.com/RageCultureMag Discord : discord.gg/GXeSJ7XuNS Instagram : www.instagram.com/rage_cult/?hl=fr Telegram : t.me/rage_culture Facebook : www.facebook.com/RageCultureMag

Dr. Max More is a philosopher, writer, speaker and expert in Cryonics - the process of cryopreserving a body at the time of legal death in the hopes of reviving them in the future. Dr. More is the Ambassador for Alcor Life Extension, a non-profit in Scottsdale, Arizona practicing cryonics. Max received a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1995 from the University of Southern California after completing a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. Theo talks with Dr. More about what actually happens when someone decides to have their body frozen when they die. They also discuss the future of the world, the debate over “legal” death, and we ask Theo if he would preserve his brain for science.  Learn more about Dr. Max More: https://www.maxmore.com/ Learn more about Alcor: https://www.alcor.org/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com Podcastville mugs and prints available now at https://theovon.pixels.com ------------------------------------------------- Support our Sponsors: Click-Up: Get 15% off with code THEO at https://www.clickup.com  Better Help: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at https://www.BetterHelp.com/THEO Mint Mobile: To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://www.MintMobile.com/THEO Blue Chew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code THEO at https://bluechew.com  ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: http://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reinerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max: Hello, welcome back to The Recruitment Hackers Podcast. I'm your host Max Armbruster, and today on the show, joining us from, I believe Philadelphia. Ward, Christman. Hi Ward. Ward: Hello, great to be on. Thanks for having me.Max: My pleasure. So, are you in Philadelphia? Did I get that right?Ward: That's the, the general area. We're about almost an hour west of the country somewhat, but yeah.Max: In the pine trees somewhere?Ward: Actually not that many pine trees around here mostly of the big leafy kind that people love raking up and fall.Max: Okay. Well I met Ward a few years ago, in Boston, in an event organized by HR tech tank, where we were a strategic advisor. But today Ward is the co-founder and chief advisor for the HR tech alliances, which you can go on hrtechalliances.com and works with as an advisor to HR tech vendors around the world. And so, I hope we'll take this opportunity to talk to, to share some of your insights on the challenges felt by the buyers, which are the TA directors, and the TA departments all over the world. When dealing with vendors, and the fact that the HR stack keeps growing and growing, and it becomes more work to manage the integration, than it is to manage the vendors, actually I imagined at a pretty fast rate for some of them. So that's the direction in which this conversation will go. But before we go that word for audience, I'm sure they'd love to hear a little bit about your background and where, how you ended up being this matchmaker for the HR tech world which is quite a niche role, but I believe you're, you were a long time ago you were an engineer, and then an entrepreneur, an HR tech entrepreneur as well.Ward:  That's right. Yeah, engineering was great building plutonium factories and all kinds of weird stuff, but actually it wasn't for me. But somebody introduced me to the internet back in like 1989-99 range. And it was just text based and I thought this might go somewhere so I actually left engineering and started one of the first job boards. Before the web was even commercialized so I told them. But, yeah, it's coming up on 30 years and I ran a job board for, gosh, how many years was it nine years and then the.com crash.Max: I am logging into your LinkedIn profile, it says, from 92 to 2001 year you ran jobthat.com, so yeah that's nine years.Ward: Yeah, it was a great run and got a couple, you know, master level I think degrees out of it, you know, how to raise money what not to do, especially when the.com crash or 911 type activities. Max: Perfect timing.Ward: Yeah, exactly. So it's just like, you know, the COVID pandemic and all that stuff it's like yeah I kind of feel like I've been through the wringer a few times so we actually grew last year and you know it wasn't by accident, because there's just different ways to take on things but from a talent acquisition leader standpoint, obviously, those of you that are lucky to have your job, and are able to keep your technology if your budgets didn't get slashed that's wonderful. If you didn't, you know we're doing now to maybe rebuild it or is it with the coming recovery let's put it that way are you going to rebuild your tech stack and what are the what are good approaches or bad approaches we've seen it all over the years and you know it's it's great to have a chance to kind of have an open dialogue about how.Max: I think nothing is completely new,every mistake has already been made. And so you're, you're reminiscing without giving us specifics on some of the mistakes, you did a jobnet.com, a few decades ago. Coming into what was at the time, Armageddon, the end of the world, the.com, boom bust which was just when I was graduating from school, by the way, so I entered a market with high unemployment, no prospect, and everybody in my MBA was talking about the paradigm shift and the internet economy. And then as soon as I graduated, I mean I was talking like one of those startup guys but there was no startup jobs to be had anymore.Ward: Yeah. But they're, I mean they're out there now for sure and as you can imagine, in  recruiting tech. I mean how many of those are started by a staffing leader. If not internal and certainly a recruiting company or staffing company right. We're like, oh can do it better than bullhorn or whoever and, and then they build it and guess what the tools are so much easier every year. There's more and more tools that you can build your own thing. And some companies as we know, build their own ATS and stuff like that. Yeah, we have 457 ATSs that we are tracking down in our database, and I'm sure we're probably missing half of them on a global basis. So, why would a company build an ATS cheaper to go buy one especially if you wanted to own it.Max: It'd be cheaper to buy an ATS company you mean.Ward: Yeah, exactly. Right. It's so true. But, you know, I remember a few years back, Facebook recruiter called me and said hey we're building our own ATSs once you know your background and product and the product projects before IBM took over. Do you want to consider for this job and like you're building your own business to take out the market. I mean if it's take out the market. Yeah, talk about just gonna build it and run it in the house. Why would it. Why would you do that? Of course, you know, Facebook has a few engineers, I get it.Max: Yeah, they could build anything they want but Ward: And apparently you know the TA leaders are like, Well, why should we settle for whatever we can build around and they did it. I don't know if they're still good actually but Max: Google built their own ATS and Microsoft will probably end up buying an ATS so that was, that was the rumor that was being circulated by Chad and Cheese on their podcasts.Ward: So these things yeah they continue to happen. And, I mean, I remember six years ago I was running. I was on the blog squad for what was HR tech world now on leaf in Amsterdam and they're like oh hey we want to interview some, we want you to interview some of the folks here at the conference that are speakers and influencers today. Okay, great. And, again, why don't you interview Jason Averbook, and Josh Bersin, like, thanks a lot you know my first time to this event, gives me the two biggest names in the industry to interview on camera. It went great. But I remember talking to Josh Bersin I'm like hey, let's talk about consolidation for a minute right you got big fish even though the small fish. The way I see it, it's gonna keep happening but I see a future where there's more point solutions kind of being assembled in a way that people can use that they don't have to necessarily buy that pre canned giant offering that has everything in it. Right and he totally agreed he said he thinks it's going to get much much worse but more choices more Max: More fragmented.Ward: Yeah some of your listeners were like exactly right it's like well, all I need is a chatbot in our current providers is not on the roadmap for another year or two, we need it now. So where do we go look, you know, there's all these choices and there's new ones popping up all the time. That's just one tiny sliver of TA tech stack is helping roleplaying come to market. One of they needed referenceable clients so it helped them get their sales strategy set up and get some of those references with clients. I remember one of them. Because Brad is with Informatica. And like I said he really liked what he has to offer you know how's that gonna fit into your stack and I was expecting you know we've got five or six pieces right he said yeah we got 32 TA tech solutions today in house. This will be 33 a month we'll find a plan like are you kidding me. They were maybe 1000 people or something. How do you have 32? It's unbelievable how many solutions are out there. And that's not even the best.Max: But that's a testament to how easy it's become to buy and to start using, I mean, that would be impossible 20 years ago, when everything was on prem on premise to have 2010 solutions.Ward: Oh yeah, absolutely. Max: And most of our tracks are not a hard logs right so if they were not useful these 30 Solutions would probably lose the contract within the next year.Ward: Well, that's, that's one thing i mean he liked, he liked to play with new tech kind of guy which is great and he commanded the budget to play and that's wonderful. So many early stage companies love to have that. But if you're on the consumer side you're the head of talent acquisition and you're trying to figure out stacks a little wobbly why is that what his issue was in most is how do you get them to talk to each other so you're not doing double entry or triple entry or the data is flowing at the right time or if it's filling in. What we found that one of the reasons we exist, advising the vendor executives is a lot of mark don't even know they're supporting the same client, let alone working together. So our mission in life is to help them discover that. Who else is there supporting that client and get them to play nice in the sandbox, because there's always overlap right. And if there is overlap, how do you keep them from trying to point fingers at each other, and then anybody listening system errors. Like, oh yeah you go call one vendor and complain that hey that data is missing where to go or it didn't get there, while they're gonna say well it's somebody else's fault right and then you ask them and they're like well it was their fault,Max: Yes those meetings are happening all the time. And what's the overall trends that you're seeing the sort of five year tenure threads, is it that the vendors are becoming more often are more closed? Are they are they trying because, in 2020, there was consultation people wanted to, to become more essential for their customer, because as budgets were being slashed. They tried to hold on to, as much business as possible and so, in that, in that environment I guess it does not favor a very collaborative mindset because if the pie is shrinking, then everybody wants a bigger slice of it.Ward: Right.Max: But maybe that's maybe that's a bump on the road. Generally a more a more collaborative mindset and trend or am I being, or is that wishful thinking.Ward: Well, yeah, you're right, there's some people panic in the wrong place and I think, you know, last year taught many of us anyway. He had a strong partner network and if you're a consumer buyer these systems. If your vendors aren't playing nicely together in the sandbox. It's only going to get worse when stress levels go up, or if you do have to cut, you know, how do you how do you know what the cut, if anything, You know what's gonna. If it's like Jenga or something and you pull out the wrong piece, the whole thing could come collapsing right and so it's not easy but reality is yeah there's definitely some consolidation, driven by the buyers and I don't see that changing necessarily but what I also do see on the flip side is with more options for better point solutions, more mature point solutions ones that can evolve more quickly. I mean that's the main reason that big fish, eating small fish because they can't, the big ones can't innovate, they're like, Titanic they're, they're great at cruising across the ocean, but they can't maneuver like a smaller boat, that's where the point solutions can really showcase innovation adapt to the environment more quickly. And the only way the big ones are going to get that typically is through acquisition, consolidation. That just leaves a vacuum frankly for innovation to bubble up and take shape.Max: Yeah, it seems to me as technologists, that when I, when I hear about this consolidation that happens, and these mega mergers, from a couple of years ago from K1 and jobvite. And I think you were saying you were involved with withdrawal points. Be familiar this one. That's the the size and ambition of this is that this is a sales driven consolidation like I don't think any engineer came up with the idea. Let's bring all these things together, and it'll be a beautiful product at the end. The engineers will probably still, still wondering, what the hell happen to them, you know, right.Ward: Well, actually, we've been talking to a number of different investment groups lately. We're seeing the same thing they're where they're looking at that solution stack and think how do we stuck together solutions that can be an offering in the marketplace right and that's certainly what the job I roll up meant at least to me is how do you fill the gaps without building sides by your partner like some buying going on. Their partner strategies have always been kind of rollercoaster rides from what we've seen. Lot of opportunities I mean Alison, a lot of opportunity for them to really revamp their partner network and make a difference for the customers. Instead of trying to build everything and take tends to take longer than finding a partner. And your question earlier about openness versus closed, definitely seeing a trend more towards the open API's and different ways for the vendors to collaborate share the data, and sometimes invisibly to the customer which is maybe a perfect scenario right where hey if I hire somebody I just want that data to flow through our various system. I don't need to know exactly how it happens or what happens, it's gonna happen reliably save us time and effort, get people on board you know into the company.Max: And have you seen some of the employers talent acquisition, folks, start to build in-house system integration teams to serve as the glue between all of these systems is. Does, does a TA director and 2021 need to have an engineering team.Ward: They could, and the vendors don't get their stuff together. They might be the only way to fix it. Especially the bigger companies because they've got long term contracts they can't just rip and replace things so easily right, even with open API's and all that. There's a lot of investment, which is why legacy systems need to be named they're still chugging along. You look at the benefits, space, my goodness, they're still sending data back and forth, flat file CSV files. So recruiting, kind of, often the leader of the pack when it comes to using leveraging technology and open API's, butMax: It's a little bit more playful, and then perhaps because you're dealing with candidates instead of staff, so you have a little bit more freedom, but also perhaps because you're dealing with the markets, which is every town for every geography has its own dynamic and for the buyer, an opportunity to play and say, Well, I respect our global tech stack but here in dot dot dot, we do things differently, and I have to go. Because they have the budget to spend on advertising and if you can buy an ad in a local newspaper then you can also buy a support service, the same budget. So, That's something that we've been leveraging at Talkpush.Ward: Yeah, no, it's, it is charted. Now, more so than anything with work from home policies right we are becoming more global organizations across the board. And not at all HR tech are built to work in all these different local geographies and so forth, local laws all this stuff that varies from state to state sometimes let alone country to country so. And that's what's interesting too, you know, when, I used to do more consulting directly with the employers. If they were on a global footprint my recommendation is that if you need a system that's global, you might want to start looking at solutions built in Europe or something that are kind of more of multicountry enabled out of the box. Max: Yes, yes.Ward: Because that's how you operate, whereas in the US, it's like, oh yeah, you know, we got a 100 clients and it's English only, it's only domestic and going to other countries, it becomes a much bigger task than let's say European company I think often coming here to the states to support that.Max: Yeah that is actually a lot of European software company in our space which ended up going to the US, right, I mean a lot of the TA tech and HR tech spaces with entrepreneurs from America who are now Americans, but we're not always American, the CEO of Smart recruiters mountain, the founder of Phenom, you know a lot of companies. I'm sure more than half of the CEOs come from abroad, but they end up building American companies. And what I mean by that companies is that have the regulatory framework of US in mind, specifically on the candidate side. A lot of this is around the law employment opportunity, and diversity hiring, which does not work the same way outside of the US. You know, it's very strange for me to, I just took a survey. And  I was asked about my diversity metrics and I'm like I don't know who is the minority in my company, I don't even know I think I'm the minority I don't know. It's also it's just a different narrative outside the US. Ward: Yeah, remember we were trying to figure out who was the client. They had trouble getting all their resumes parsed properly and we had a good parsing partner it was nothing wrong there but all their resumes had pictures on them and the birth date. This was the golden role in that country you know that's just how it was done.Max: For sure.Ward: The parser wasn't expecting these kind of things yeah so yeah that's it is the global world. You have to really accommodate into one size fits all good luck.Max: I can't keep track anymore, which countries are we putting the pictures in and then which countries are we not putting the pictures in, and it's hard to keep track sometimes. Ward: Right. Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's different. So from a consolidation standpoint, certainly we're seeing a lot more we're even, whether it's consolidating or growing, you know the acquisitions sometimes it's the market share. Right, so, others have been buying companies abroad. And I think it's hard actually compared to investing a lot of money in developing new teams to try to make those relationships regarding to sell especially at the enterprise level and in any enterprise level type TA leaders listening is probably the same thing like hey if our abroad type operations want to make their own decisions about their solution if  it works for them, and we still get the global like metrics or whatever we need. Why not have a different ATS in every region or something if that's what it takes to get the right results and maybe aspire to consolidation but. And there's some interesting new groups coming out right now that are continuing to push the envelope of vendor collaboration and data analytics is a great example of one we just had a collaboration done in December on that, and some great innovative solutions presented to influencers in the industry and there's some interesting results from the scores and all that but the feedback that came in was was amazing from a competition standpoint, they realize hey, we've got, whether it be geography or industry or business units. You look at the bigger the company is the more likely they're going to have different systems running in house. How do you get that data across actually need to actually prove results, especially in talent acquisition.Max: Yeah.Ward: Third Party perhaps even just to help figure out what's there, what do we need to measure, what can you measure, what can you ask to be anonymous. So many rules. But if you don't measure it you can't improve it. Somebody's got to be paying attention.Max: Yeah, I really liked the analytics as perhaps the central function that needs to work with every country every geography and bring it all together. You of course also need to have a central employer branding function, low, you would also want to have a local element to that and of course you would want IT to have a central policy around data privacy and personal data for the company. But beyond that, I think, I think a decentralized model probably works best in talent acquisition. That, that's my opinion, and I will keep sharing it with everybody who's willing to listen.Ward: Yeah. It's hard to get it right everywhere so stick with best things you have and try to make them work together and you're listening and go for our vendors don't, they don't work together with each other. I mean that's the problem that we try to solve platform level for alliances and partnerships, but also on the advisory side because if you want to keep your customers you got to know what their situation is and the situation is they've got other systems in house, doesn't matter workday Oracle or any of the big shops it's even more so than because there's a lot of holes they know it and even if they don't have the holes that they think they have or don't you know they do they have more than they think they have and their partner networks, need to be strong and plug and play and as I said they can't deliver that companies are going to start, either hiring their own integration experts in house which is sad to see but if that's the only way to solve it so be it.Max: And to ask for help or advice on these tricky topics which no, no recruiter, got into recruitment, to do system integration and talk about alliances, like it just happened. So, a lot of them are probably asking for help but how do they get in touch with you.Ward: Yeah. So, I guess. Probably the best start would be Linkden but not the only word Chrisman I don't think on Linkedin but pretty easy to find. Yeah, it's, again, our job is to help vendors better collaborate with common customers and get a better result. So if you have vendors that are collaborating well and you want some help there let us know and make an introduction, we'll see what we can do.Max: I've a list. I've a list. I'll send it to you after we're offline. And before we part ways, I wanted to ask you one of my favorite questions is for you is to not think about your current job but think as a practitioner of somebody who's hired people, and as a manager and go back to the days when you made a terrible hiring mistake. I don't want names. I don't want to instant fix, I just want to know what was the terrible hiring mistake that you made and what can we learn from it.Ward: Wow, okay. Max: You got a few names I see your eyes are glazing.Ward: Yeah so yeah everybody has their own strengths or weaknesses. Right. But I guess one of my bigger mistakes was just believing that somebody had the technical skills that they said they did and just didn't totally fabricated and took a while to uncover that, delayed this was years ago butMax: Still remember it. Ward: Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like, I mean that's always the challenge how do you know until they get in front of you but thankfully these days there's so many wonderful tools that can either help assess their technical prowess, at least from a capability standpoint. What do they actually know and there's almost too much information out there now right so good tech partners that can help kind of cut through the details.Max: There are some engineers out there who are way better on paper, than in person, or in fact in reality so a good reminder for more to don't skip the technical assessments. It's absolutely time well spent. Even if it's, you know, if it's gonna avoid you one mistake out of 20. That's still a good investment. That's a good investment so add that to your workflow for every position where it's applicable. Right, thanks, thanks Warren. Great to have you. And, well, I'll send you that list of all my naughty partners very shortly.Ward: Sounds good, enjoy it. Thanks so much Max. Max: Thanks.Max: That was Ward Christman from HR Tech Advisor and HR Tech Alliances. You can connect with him on LinkedIn if you have one of those tech stack headaches they're trying to solve. And of course as you've heard from Ward, there are many companies that are dealing with dozens of different vendors. He was quoting one that had more than 30 different existing software providers on talent acquisition. And so I like to think of it as a trend which will continue to evolve and to enable our audience with more ideas and encourage them to try new tools. But when you do so, to always favor those providers that have open API, good documentation; otherwise you might be accumulating what could be called interoperability debt. That's the word I'm looking for?And just like you can have a technical debt, you can have interoperability debt, which is the concept that if you work with vendors who don't play well with other vendors it will end up costing you a lot of money. So I hope you enjoyed that.And if you did, please follow us on your podcast player of preference and share with your friends. Thank you.

In this episode, Max and Daniel speak with Dr. Max More. More is the Ambassador and President Emeritus of Alcor and is well known for his public media interviews, his excellent essays on the Cryonics industry, and his philosophical writings. In today's podcast, More and the gang speak about:One-minute elevator-pitches that you to use to explain Cryonics to the cryo-curious. The personality traits that make you more or less inclined to Cryonics.Difficulties in marketing cryonics.  The amazing things Alcor could achieve with much greater resources.The relationship between and among Alcor and other Cryonics organizations.Fostering community within the Cryonics movement.Promising new areas of Cryonics research.More's thoughts on the "Warren" equation and chances of Cryonics success.Our new overrated or underrated segment.We cover all these topics and more (!) in this exciting discussion with a titan of the community. As always, you can find us over on the Cryonics Underground Channel in the Cryosphere Cryonics discord chat server. If you're interested in donating to Alcor's current RAPID research initiative, you can join the server to be eligible to have your donation doubled. See the “Announcements” channel for details. You can also reach us directly by email at cryonicsunderground [at] the email service provided by everyone's favorite search company.

Welcome to the Recruitment Hackers Podcast. A show about innovations, technology and leaders in the recruitment industry brought to you by  the leading recruitment automation platform.Max: Welcome back ladies and gentlemen, to the recruitment hackers podcast. I'm your host Max Armbruster and today exceptionally I have not one, but two guests, both coming from a company called Experian, which is not a travel website. They'll tell us about Experian and tell us about what they do  for this fast growing tech company. On the show we have Lena Lotsey, global employer brand director at Experian. Welcome to the show, Lena. Hello, thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. And, Chris Brady global TA director at the same company. Hi, Chris. Chris: Welcome. Max: Are you guys gonna interview each other? And so I can sit back, relax.Lena: Oh, we've done that before. It wasn't pretty, Chris: That's actually how she got the job. So, but I was interviewing her. Lena: There we go.Max: So, Lena you've been there for three years, so obviously Chris had, made a good hire there and the right decision and, it's always a big gamble, a big roll of the dice, especially with a sensitive area such as the employer brand.I don't know who should answer this question, but what was the impetus for creating this role? Okay.Lena: I'm happy to take a stab at that. As I understand it prior to my arrival, this role, as you say, didn't exist. So this was a newly created role. And, my background was actually in entertainment marketing, and I worked in LA on the agency side and worked with Netflix and, all of the movie studios for digital marketing campaigns. And one of the last projects that I worked on actually was with Google working on their life at Google campaign and working with their employer brand team. So I spent a year working on that and realized the similarities. Between entertainment marketing, and marketing your employer brand and how you find your fans, because they can speak on your behalf in a more trustworthy, genuine way, telling their stories and providing evidence of these pillars, whether it's, in my case, with entertainment, new show launching or film. But with the employer brand case with Google, using the employee stories to represent and provide proof points of the aspects of the EDP that Google was trying to get across. And their challenge was that people were intimidated by Google.So that was one of the many challenges that we had to overcome in working with their employer brand team. So in doing that, I realized how much I really loved it. So when Chris contacted me, I probably did think it was Expedia initially, and eventually I got back to him, And we chatted and he just sold me on what an incredible company Experian was.And it really has, I mean, I was sold as soon as I hung up the phone with him after that first conversation. So as director of recruiting and talent acquisition at Experian, I think Chris has this critical role of showcasing our company. And, representing it in a way that I think dispels preconceived ideas about what Experian is, if we're just a credit bureau and really, amplifying the fact that we are the leading global information services provider, that we have over 17,000 employees around the world, that we have our hands in many different verticals, auto and health, and, you know, convene these, the scale of the company.Was it a surprise to me all the awards that we've won as an employer? Around DNI, around innovation from Fortune and Forbes? I mean, there was just all this great information, coming at me. So I like to say we have an embarrassment of riches because it's so true. I think Experian is the best kept secret.And within as an employer and within our company, I think there are so many stories to tell and that's my job. So in this newly created role, basically I had to say, where do I start looking at all the regions? everyone who touches external comms in some way or social media in some way, where do we start to tell this story?And I want people to visit our site. Our career site or our social channels and come away with the same impression I came away with after my first conversation with Chris. Max: Yeah. So  you want to bottle up what you experience and make it available for the masses? Lena: Well said much more succinct now.I totally get that. and  I think that we can talk a little bit about the communication to candidates. And how do you use employees as ambassadors? I think we're just scratching the surface of what can be done there.  But, Chris since you managed to sell Lena on this vision, maybe, tell us a little bit about what you do and, well if you want to expand a little bit on what Experian does.Chris: Yeah. So, and I appreciate the opportunity to be on your podcast, and you can see why I recruited Lena, just, in the way that she describes all of the opportunities we have, you know, all of that information that she just stated is awesome. And we have so much of it, but we didn't have a central way that we could kind of train and have a consistent message across our recruiting function. So within talent acquisition, you have a lot of different people that are in siloed, different environments. And so I can't, if somebody is recruiting for auto, it might be different than decision analytics or credit services or consumer services.And so, that was one of the things that we worked on last year is a pitch book. So an actual document that the recruiters could reference and say, okay, if I talked to somebody last week, it's the same experience. and when I started back in 2012 as a consultant, I was working as, just kind of helping with some talent mapping.And trying to figure out which locations we should hire these specific technologists, as well as help with some projects. And I came from an executive search background. So, I was on my own for 14 years. So it was so interesting that I was always helping people fix their staffing problems, but I would kind of approach things from the outside.And so coming from the inside, I'm like, wow, there's so much information, but I was going through all this data that we had of all these great points. And I'm like, does nobody know about them? And when they asked me to help with that social media, that was the first thing I started looking at is like, okay, we need somebody to actually know that's what they're doing.And that's why I kind of reached out to Lena, when we kind of  built the role and then figured out, Hey, if we want to bring somebody in, that's going to change things we should probably look outside our industry because we could hire people from a competitor, but we're going to get the same thing, the same ideas, same thoughts.Max: Yeah. I've got to say, in my time, in this talente solution space, 10 plus years, some of the best people I've seen were kind of people who are just dropped into talent acquisition coming from another function entirely or another industry, even from finance or from sales, of course, sales and marketing, very effective transitions and people who look at the process and say, now, why are we using this? Why are we using that? Why are we still using this form? Can we get rid of this step? And there's, you know, it breaks a few egos, to get that stuff that work done, but it's usually quite helpful. one thing that I've noticed, talking about breaking things...I've noticed that a lot of international markets are not making the same use of the ATS. Well, as the colleagues in North America, because they find that it's a bit cumbersome for candidates. And I'm wondering whether you've adapted your candidate journey to international markets to reflect some of that experience and these different expectations for the candidate.Chris: Yeah.  I think, from an executive leadership standpoint, most organizations want one system because of our reporting and they can look at all the data across the whole world. But on the other hand, you really need specific separate approaches, from a technology standpoint, some things that will work better in Brazil may not work in the U S or in Costa Rica, and that's not going to work in APAC. And so for us, I think, we try to have a consistent approach across the team, but play to the strengths. I know in the UK and other areas you have to deal with compliance issues and where they're different in the U.S.It's definitely not a one size fits all, but the training, the collaboration, like I was part of our CRM implementation and the first time I tried to do it, it was like, hey, we have this Salesforce license that we could use. Do you think you could custom build something? I spent probably four months of my life, it was at least twice a week for four hours each time trying to work with a developer. To build something custom. And this was a long time ago. And, I found out pretty quickly that this is not going to work because of all the nomenclatures of a sales system, taking that for recruiting. So then when we went and purchased a CRM, I think the biggest thing that we found was that, you know, the training, how do you do that?And how do you get people excited about it?And then have a consistent approach, because, what I tag in the U.S as, San Jose, it's San Jose, California, but San Jose in Costa Rica is a different place. So we need to figure these things out ahead of time. Max: Yeah. And the compliance layer is for sure, also another layer of complexity and people consume media differently. Right? In each place. So going back to the employee story and communicating, and experience brands the content needs to be published across multiple channels, I assume. And the channels that work in one place, work less than another. Lena, how do you manage this like a little media empire?Lena: I like that from now on, we're using that. We have global social channels, so we have our Experian life, social channels on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and then we have our Experian LinkedIn account. And one of the first things I did is virtually sat down with each of the regions and identified: who was doing this off the side of their desk at this point. And we started to move people in which, mostly recruiters were doing this off the side of their desk, like, you know, lane, the track as they ran. And so being able to identify who my resources were in each region and who could actually dedicate some time to taking a step back and putting together a content strategy.So what type of content works in your area? What will especially resonate when it comes to, employer value proposition and what are the subtle nuances and sometimes not so subtle of what may appeal to someone in Bulgaria that won't necessarily in Allen, Texas. Making sure that we were creating content that had real employee faces in it real stories and hit on things that were going to resonate locally and regionally was a big part of our content strategy. And then what we did is created a calendar that we all were able to collaborate on so that we have this through line of global content, but then we also have regular regional content that's coming out. And to underscore how important it was that we start to globalize our content, we created a campaign that was easily localized, which we called what's your next. And that resonated both internally with employees, what their next personal goal and professional goal, was. And then also externally what's your next, in your career? So externally with candidates. And this really had legs.It resonated in each region. So we were able to start to embed this visual identity of our employer brand across the social channels and unify the content globally while still having that regional flavor in the content. And at this point now we have about 35 people that touch our employer brands and our social media channels.Just the social media channels that are part of the candidate experience around the world. So now we have plenty of our heads together to be able to drive the strategy in each region. But yeah, initially it was overwhelming because like I said, what works in one place isn't going to work in another.So it really came down to not trying to take on that as one person and think, you know best, but really putting your ego aside. Coming to each region, rather identifying who your resources are and then saying, how can I help you amplify your local message globally?Max: Well, I can't tell you how many companies I've come across who have kind of like cut the legs and arms of their foreign operations because they said, no, we've gotta centralize all branding decisions. I guess that's how you give them freedom, right.You create a theme and then you let them build around that. And then of course they have to follow, like we said, local regulations. Chris: I think the other thing too Max is that like, what Lena's done is the fact that she's focused on talent acquisition is a huge game changer for us because a lot of companies, organizations have their branding team, but it's more focused on corporate branding and it's not specific to the talent that you're bringing in.And so that has allowed us to show up at conferences in areas where we really want people to leave and know, hey, this is what Experian is and really understand what our messages. I mean, we had a great experience last year at the Grace Hopper experience, which is the Grace Hopper celebration is about 21,000 women technologists all in one place.And, you know, with Lena to be able to come there, and be live tweeting and we're doing all kinds of contests and what a difference that is versus, you know, recruiters trying to do things that they think, “Oh yeah, Hey, I have a, Facebook, you know, profile and I have you know, 10 friends. So I must be really good at this.” And you have no idea how many people were applying when I posted that role that were recruiters that were like, “Hey, I think I know how to do branding.” Definitely a big change for us and, congrats to Lena for taking us into the next level of innovation.Max: Bringing somebody from entertainment is probably a very inspired choice. I guess you needed to put a layer of polish on some of the employee generated content, maybe?Lena: Yeah, a lot of the direction when I first started was just to make us cool. Quote, unquote, so very specific. So taking a look, talking with each of the recruiters again, within each region and saying, what is the hardest sell about Experian?You know, again, going back to what are your pain points? How can I be a resource? But really that's how we approached it. So when you sell Experian, what are the things people are most surprised to know about that? That we're innovative, that we consider ourselves a tech company, you know, these types of perceptions because we've been around for over a hundred years that we want to either dispel certain perceptions or reinforce. That helped me map out my strategy. So, okay. These are our priorities. That if we want to be seen as an innovative company, then we need to hear from our innovators, right?So let's reach out to our technologists. And then I would work with the recruiters who are your top technologists, who are your great hires in the tech space that we currently employ. Let's have them tell their stories and let's do that on stack overflow and let's look at different ways to attract tech talent. So that's just one example, but the recruiters really are the gatekeepers. They have been a wealth of information of giving you the truth. This is the honest truth of how people feel, the pluses and the minuses. We need more of this and less of that. And that's my job is to try to do that through an authentic storytelling way.I'm looking at the experience, which it looks like it's your set of a hundred plus shows. Max: I had no idea the company was that old, I don't know if this is your Experian or another company that I'm looking at. Lena: That's the old logo top. There you go. That's our new one.Max: So then the newest logo. When, when did that come out? The rebrand and, you know, were you there?Chris: Yeah, it's been, it's been around, 7 years. You know, the other thing too, while you're looking at that is having a creative, I don't know if you want to call it almost like a recruiter toolkit. Hey, I'm going to post something on LinkedIn. Do we have any display, you know, any kind of creative assets that we can use? is such a difference versus just, here's the link and here's your crappy job description and hopefully people are interested. Because we want to take advantage of the leaders in the organization,that have large networks in specific technology pockets and use those. So I want to tag other people in my posts, but I want to make sure that they're focused on a specific network of people. And it's not just like somebody that doesn't fit the exact skills because otherwise you're just creating more volume and more applicants for your recruiting team to go through. Max: More work for everybody. And so that little toolkit, you talked about a pitch book and, I guess you're also talking about creative contents, animated gifs and that kind of stuff, videos. Yeah. Lena: And also taking a look at opportunities to microbrand. So using your email signature, one of the first things we did is curate it, hi-rez awards logos for our employee resource groups and encouraged the recruiters to link out to our social channels, have a link to our career site that we're hiring. But also these awards tell a story at a glance, so taking advantage of those visuals and all those different touch points throughout the day when you're exchanging emails that you're able to amplify that story. Max: I'm sure they work. I mean, that's how I buy my wine. I see this one award on the bottle. I'm like, okay, it must be okay then.Okay, well, love to hear your thoughts on how the world has changed in 2020, and looking at it not from a traumatic standpoint and we're all shaking today  as the election results are going to come in soon. But thinking more about it from an opportunity standpoint, I'm sure your talent pool is changing and the way you're looking at where to hire is changing, tell us a little bit about that and how this new work from home world has affected your TA strategy. Chris: I think from a recruiting standpoint, it's  both an opportunity, but then a challenge, I think in both things, because a lot of businesses were under the assumption and across probably the world that we need these people to have butts in seats, like they literally need to be in an office. How are they going to be successful without that? That's one mentality, but then you have the other mentality of, as long as they have internet and understand how to collaborate that piece of it, is always going to be successful. One of the things that I find super interesting right now over the last six months, the written communication and listening skills are so important.Like when you're looking to hire a recruiter or just because they're doing those recruiting strategy meetings and it's not in person. And sometimes you can't, you know, when I was on the outside as a recruiting search professional, I would try to learn how can I learn this culture and tell other people about it?Because if I don't know about it, what am I going to say, hey, it's a great company. They're going to pay you a lot of money. And, you can start next week, you know, Yeah. Right. and so I had to get good at the pitch of each company, but when you're inside and you see all the things and you're like, okay, I feel like the talent of managing people that are virtual is going to continue to grow.And you will see that over the next couple of years. most organizations now, the Amazons, the Googles, are all saying, you don't ever have to come back into an office if you don't want to. We've had a good opportunity virtually for a long time. Like I started, like I said, in 2012, I think I went two years before I actually put my foot in an office.I don't know if they're afraid of me. Maybe I came across as a little scary. But I think that in this time I've been promoted three times and I've been virtual the whole time. I do travel. Max: That's working for you. Chris: Yeah. It's working for me. But Lena, you know, I mean, they always say that you recruit people that are like yourself, but that was one of the things that I knew for the role that she was going to go into and build out.It's a global role. You can't be expected to be in the office these hours and then work all through the night. And you've got all these different stakeholders that are across the world. So I think that piece of it, I knew with her coming from the entertainment and that social media agency background, she was used to working, but it was communication style, I think was a piece of it. And then also. Tactical versus strategic. Can you do both and be good at both? So, and Lena, you can talk about that. Lena: Well, I was going to talk about, and answer your question Max, around how COVID-19 has, kind of playing into our approach and our strategy and our tactics. And  the very first thing we did is global comms gave us a directive to lead with empathy. So everyone who touched communications, whether with potential candidates and we gave recruiters guidance on how to talk to candidates during this time, with each other, with leadership, and just with consumers, with clients. It was “lead with empathy” was the overarching directive.And what this allowed us to do is crystallize how we were going to present ourselves that we are a strong company. Like I said, over a hundred years old, that we have weathered storms before that we are stable, and that after a time period, we're still hiring, we're currently hiring right now. So it was important for us to lead with empathy in our conversations.Like our recruiters were saying, we understand this may be not top of mind for you right now to be approached about an opportunity for your career, but I just want you to know I'm impressed with your background. And I would love to connect if you feel comfortable with that or, you know, virtually obviously. But really having a shift in our tone that we were a leader in this space that we were confident that we were stable. and that Experian is a company that you can rely upon. Also taking a look at how we cared for our people during this time, we immediately went into action. We have an aspire ERG employee resource group that built this beautiful guidebook that week to week had themes and resources, both internal and external resources to make sure that our people were taken care of.We transitioned our entire customer service team, in three weeks, something that would have taken 8 to 10 weeks to do, prior to this, but our IT department just worked around the clock to make sure that our employees could seamlessly start working from home. And that they had what they needed in place.So taking care of each other, emotionally, making sure that we were set up to continue to be successful. We had enhanced COVID sick, time benefit beyond what was required. And our return to office plans, there has been transparency, suite communication, which has been very reassuring to see our global CEO, Brian Cassin and our North America, CEO, Craig Boundy and Justin Hastings our CHRO  in North America, from their homes, connect with us and say that we're in this together and really make us feel that we were being supported and that we were safe. The fact that our CHRO  was texting me, just saying, I want to check in on you, you know, how many employees was he reaching out to so that you didn't feel alone , during this time?So I would say it has affected how we communicate both internally and externally. We also launched some social media campaigns, like the stay safe campaign and all of the resources, the free resources and dashboards and heat maps that we have for consumers, that are all free of charge, also for the healthcare industry, for the government.So  using this as an opportunity to show all the different ways that Experian can help our communities and help the world at large deal with this pandemic has been incredibly gratifying to be a part of. And also being able to share those stories, across social and with each other and make sure that we're all aware of these stories so that we can share them.Like Chris mentioned earlier, a lot of people don't know everything that Experian does. Experian people don't even know everything that we do. So that's also part of our goal.  It's so much easier to recruit if, like Chris said, how am I going to sell the culture if I don't understand the culture?So it's so much easier to recruit if you're aware of all of these proof points of what a great company Experian is for its community, for its people. And, all the more reason in addition to like Chris said, we pay, well, can you start next week? So in addition to that, being able to have work with purpose, I feel  that's what I do and what the recruiters do go hand in hand, because I can constantly share actions that we're taking that show that we have worked with purpose.And then hopefully  when the recruiters come in and reach out to an amazing candidate, they can say, okay, I've seen what you've been doing, I've been following your social channels and, we'd like to get to a place where, it makes that conversation, that much easier, like when you get a call from a Netflix and you're like, I'm in, when can I interview, right? That's  my goal for Experian.Max: Of course. So I think that was probably a very, very timely move. I've certainly heard, other employers struggle in 2020. Because people were afraid of going back to work when we went back to the office. So leading with empathy, I'm sure has helped to build your talent pool, and create a bonding experience for your entire team. A way to join in on the experience during a time of a crisis, and to face that time together. Which will certainly help you in retention next year, which will probably be a new area of focus. Lena: Yeah. We're already seeing that. You're absolutely right about that. Chris: We actually had a talent summit that we brought everyone together and this was pre COVID. So this was October of last year. And, the timing couldn't have been better on map because we brought everyone together. We kinda got everybody unified. This is where we're going. This is the direction we're going. And it's one thing to say, hey, we're a people first company, but it's another thing to actually follow through with that.I think we kind of set that groundwork and then just followed through and we already kind of knew what we needed to do, so interesting times for sure. Max: Good timing. And I really liked your advice, Chris, on finding managers who are strong at the written word, because working asynchronously across multiple time zones as your team is doing, the rest of the world is so important.So, yeah I think the written word is making a strong comeback. Chris: I can do probably our podcast on resume writing and Lena: What not to do. Chris: Then two pages, I mean, and you know, but that kind of goes to that being concise. And you're really just trying to get your foot in the door.And you need to do the same thing with recruitment messaging. You know I constantly get people reaching out and asking things and whether they know I'm a developer or maybe they have a TA job, but less is more. It's amazing to me, but if you think about that, 144 characters, If it's more than that people aren't going to respond.And the average recruiter looking at our resumes, probably taking less than 20 seconds, it's probably less than 10. And that's what I would definitely tell people as they continue to grow their TA function is: try to teach or even put on your career site that, this is what we're looking for, and this is kind of the best practices, and I would highly recommend people with resumes less than two pages please. Max: And that applies for us toor right Lena? Short content, bite-sized content for a short attention span. Lena: Yeah, I was going to say you learn that lesson pretty quickly with content marketing, what works, and less is always more. Being as impactful as you can, as quickly as you can works across the board.And I think one of the things Experian does really well when it comes to recruiting is taking a look at our job descriptions and doing research around what words may be perceived differently by women than they may by men. Looking at the psychological,  looking at things like that. Also sharing the learnings about  content marketing or SEO with our recruiters, for instance, on your LinkedIn profile. That very first sentence about you is the most important thing. That's what comes up in your, in Google search when a candidate searches your name or, you know, even if a recruiter were to search Google, a candidate's name, the first thing that's going to come off is that, for your LinkedIn profiles, that first sentence, you know, tidbits like that. Going back to what Chris was mentioning about arming our recruiters with the toolkit, things they can put in their signature. As I mentioned, creative, that's impactful quickly, like we're talking about, and also some of these tips and tricks around, building their personal brand and making sure they're optimizing that on platforms like LinkedIn. Max: Wonderful. Well I think that's a lot of great tips for the audience and thank you very much. Lena and Chris for sharing. I'll throw in my own personal tip, if you're writing your LinkedIn profile, do not talk about yourself on the third person, it's awkward.Lena: No only Trump seems to be able to get away with that. Max: Oh, the politics are back in yes! Lena: I brought it back. Max: Okay. Well, enjoy election nights. Lena and Chris, thanks for spending the last minutes pre-election with me and with our audience, by the time they listened to this show, of course, we may have a new president in the U.S or an old one, either way a good show for everybody to watch, and I hope, they enjoyed the time we spent together as well. hope to reconnect soon. Chris and Lena: Thanks for having us max. Thank you, max.Max: That was Lena Lotsey and Chris Brady from Experian a few years ago, Chris brought in, decided to hire someone to manage the global employer brand for Experian and decided to make the unconventional choice to bring in talent from outside the industry. He decided to bring in someone from the entertainment world, who could create content and distribute content and build stories that could inspire talent acquisition teams globally. That was Lena. And I think inspiration for a lot of companies on how to build employer brand and look for talent, where you would normally look. Hope you enjoyed this three party interview and that you'll come back for more. Please subscribe to the Recruitment Hackers Podcast, and please feel free to contact me if you'd like to be interviewed with your colleagues as well. Three's a party happy to welcome you and your friends on the show, just contact me at hello@talkpush.com.Thank you.

In this installment of the Future Grind podcast host Ryan O'Shea speaks with Nell Watson, an entrepreneur and machine intelligence researcher whose work primarily focuses on protecting human rights and creating ethical AI. She currently serves as AI Faculty at Singularity University and works with the IEEE on AI initiatives. She also chairs EthicsNet.org, which crowdsources datasets to teach pro-social behaviors to machines, and CulturalPeace.org, which seeks to craft Geneva Conventions-style rules for cultural conflict. Nell serves as Senior Scientific Advisor to The Future Society at Harvard, and holds Fellowships from the British Computing Society, and Royal Statistical Society, among others. They discuss AI value alignment, the role for humans in AI, rules of engagement for the culture wars, the COVID-19 pandemic, and much more. Both Nell and Ryan are going to be speaking at the Humanity Plus Post-Pandemic summit on July 7th and 8th, 2020. This free digital event will be themed around A Future Free of Disease and Destruction, and they'll be joined by some of the leading figures in futurism and transhumanism including Dr. Ben Goertzel, Dr. Max More, Dr. Natasha Vita-More, Dr. Anders Sandberg, and more. You can register here. Show Notes: https://futuregrind.org Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/future-grind-podcast-science-technology-business-politics/id1020231514 Support: https://futuregrind.org/support Follow along - Twitter - https://twitter.com/Ryan0Shea Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ryan_0shea/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RyanOSheaOfficial/

Quando falamos sobre transexualidade, estamos falando de gênero, e portanto, estamos falando de relações de poder, controle e hierarquização social. Como nossa liberdade morfológica (Max More), enquanto pessoas trans, é afetada pelo cistema? No episódio de hoje ouvimos o áudio de Felipe, que nos convida a pensar sobre a validação dos desejos de modificação corporal sem o atrelamento do diagnóstico de disforia de gênero.

Hey Everybody! I love the L Word SOOOOO MUCH. The original series is so important to baby Becky. Generation Q is getting me really excited and I really hope they deliver more serious drama for many more seasons!!!   Where the hell is Max? More importantly, where the hell is Max's baby!?!?! Why is Bette a cheater, and Tina isn't?! Is Jenny really dead!?!? Was she murdered ? Was it suicide?  I think Nikki did it TBH she was so weird My thoughts on the theme song are in the episode... My version of the theme song is in the episode... LMFAO there is no theme song to Generation Q because they got burned so bad they stopped having a theme song entirely.

Transhumanists Max More & Natasha Vita-More discuss their contributions to the field of transhumanism, the philosophical concept of morphological freedom, and how we can work to leverage advanced technology for human enhancement. Dr. Max More is an internationally acclaimed strategic philosopher widely recognized for his thinking on the philosophical and cultural implications of emerging technologies. Max’s contributions include founding the philosophy of transhumanism, authoring the transhumanist philosophy of extropy, and co-founding Extropy Institute, an organization crucial in building the transhumanist movement since 1990. Since the start of 2011, he has served as President and CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the world’s leading cryonics organization. He also developed the “Proactionary Principle”—a tool for making smarter decisions about advanced technologies by minimizing the dangers of progress and maximizing the benefits. Find out more: https://alcor.org/profiles/more.html Dr. Natasha Vita-More is one of the most recognized world figures whose research covers the potential future of humanity. The scope of her work covers science, technology, and socio-political issues of the advances in technology. She has been called “an early adapter of revolutionary changes” (Wired) and a “role model for superlongevity” (Village Voice), and featured in over two dozen televised documentaries on emerging technology, human enhancement, and life extension. Her pioneering writing on “Ageless Thinking”, her innovation “Primo Posthuman” a cross-platform whole body prosthetic, and her current work on the “Regenerative Generation” have vigorously established a strong incentive to many. Find out more: https://natashavita-more.com -- Credits -- Produced by Futures Podcast Recorded, Mixed & Edited by Luke Robert Mason -- Social Media -- Twitter: @FUTURESPodcast | #FUTURESPodcast Instagram: @futurespodcast Facebook: @FUTURESPodcast -- Recording Equipment (Affiliate Links) -- Zoom H6 Handy Recorder Zoom LiveTrak L-8 Shure SM58 Dynamic Vocal Microphone RØDE Procaster Broadcast Dynamic Microphone RØDE PSM1 Microphone Shock Mount RØDE PSA1 Studio Microphone Boom Arm RØDE DS1 Desktop Microphone Stand

US Transhumanist Party presidential candidate, Rachel Haywire comes onto The Age of Transitions radio show alongside JG Michael of Parallax Views. Rachel talks about some of the problems she has faced from within transhumanist circles. There are a few people within the movement who have no interest in bestowing the benefits of high technology to the masses.  topics include: transhumanism, politics, US Transhumanist Party, WTA, h+, Humanity Plus, Singularity, technology, neuro diversity, elitism, Natasha Vita More, Max More, Alcor, life extension, Ben Goertzel, Singularity Institute, Ai, Michael Vassar, intellectual property, billionaires, anarchy

Bobby calls in to the show to talk a little bit about technology, where it is headed, and what it may all mean.  topics include: Ai, machine learning, big data, quantum computing, IT, processing power, military, government, Jacques Ellul, Who Made Who, Natasha Vita More, Max More, Lucifer, occult

HELEN WHITNEY, WRITER, DIRECTOR, PRODUCEREmmy and Peabody award-winning, film producer, director and writer Helen Whitney has been a prolific creator of documentaries and feature films. Her compelling subject matter has included topics such as youth gangs, presidential candidates, the McCarthy era, mental illness, Pope John Paul II, Great Britain’s class structure, homosexuality and photographer Richard Avedon. Among the actors she has worked with: Lindsay Crouse, Austin Pendleton, David Strathairn, Brenda Fricker, Teresa Wright, Estelle Parsons.Throughout her career, she has maintained a deep interest in spiritual journeys, which she first explored with her documentary The Monastery, a 90-minute ABC special, about the oldest Trappist community in the Americas. Whitney followed this film with a three-hour Frontline documentary for PBS, John Paul II: The Millennial Pope, and in 2007 she produced The Mormons, a four-hour PBS series that explored the richness, complexities and controversies surrounding the Mormon faith. Following the Sept. 11 attacks, she produced Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero, a two-hour documentary that examined how religious belief – and unbelief – of Americans was challenged and altered by the spiritual aftershocks of 9/11. The film has been repeated numerous times since it first aired in 2002, and it was a PBS featured presentation on the 1st and on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.One of Whitney’s recent works examines the power, limitations, and in rare cases, the dangers of forgiveness through emblematic stories ranging from personal betrayal to genocide. This film involved shooting throughout America, and such countries as South Africa, Germany, Rawanda, The three-hour series, Forgiveness: A time to Love and a Time to Hate, aired on PBS in 2011 and it also inspired Whitney to write a book of the same title, with a forward written by the Dalai Lama.The filmmaker has also received an Academy Award nomination, the Humanitas Prize, Emmys, two DuPont-Columbia Journalism Awards and many other recognitions for her work. She is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and has presented her films and lectured at universities, museums and churches around the country (including Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Brigham Young, Stanford, the National Cathedral, the Corcoran Gallery, the Minneapolis Art Institute). Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, a two-hour feature documentary, features fascinating, unexpected voices from various walks of life: old and young, believers and nonbelievers, the dying and the healthy, well known and obscure. Among them: Caitlin Doughty, an alternative mortician and bestselling author with her own YouTube following; Adam Frank, an astrophysicist and NPR commentator, Gabriel Byrne, renowned actor of stage and screen; Jim Crace, award-winning novelist and environmentalist; Max More, a cryonicist and futurist; Stephen Cave, a British philosopher; Phyllis Tickle, a near-death experience spokesperson and religious historian; Pastor Vernal Harris, a Baptist minister and advocate for hospice care in African-American communities; Jeffrey Piehler, a Mayo Clinic heart surgeon. However varied their backgrounds, all are unified by their uncommon eloquence and intelligence, and most important by their dramatic experience of death. Each of them has been shocked into an awareness of mortality–and they are forever changed. For them death is no longer an abstraction, far away in the future. Whether through a dire prognosis, the imminence of their own death, the loss of a loved one, a sudden epiphany, or a temperament born to question, these are people who have truly ‘awakened’ to their own mortality.Into the Night creates a safe smart place that allows people to talk about a subject of universal importance. It is the conversation we yearn to have, but too often turn away from in fear and distress. Yet our culture is at a critical turning point, driven in part by the baby boomer generation that is insisting on a new openness and on this deeper conversation. Our film speaks to this emerging movement with a novel approach meant to provoke searching conversations, both private and public.Ultimately the film is meant to raise questions, not to provide answers. How could it? Death is “that undiscovered country,” as Hamlet so famously described it, “from whose bourn/No traveler returns.”https://www.intothenightdoc.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The pivotal story around Transhumanism is between those who believe in a soul or a spiritual connection to those who are essentially atheists and believe that once we die we exist no more.  Hence the need for people who do not want to die and cease forever, is that they continue their life by endeavoring to shift their consciousness into a machine or robot. This interview neatly intersects with last weeks interview with Roy Harlow on Artificial Intelligence - AI - so if you enjoy this interview - you will really get a hit from Roys powerful interview. This is one version of how Transhumanism is perceived: The Transhumanist agenda is more than just Artificial Intelligence (AI), or robots taking over human jobs, or transgender restrooms at public facilities to accommodate an ever growing push for uniformity among the masses. Transhumanism is Posthumanism. It is humanism with the optimism taken out, a movement that advocates for the transformation and the “advancement of humanity through technology” that runs the gamut from nanotechnology to AI. This paradigm is not limited to gadgets and medicine but also molds social, economic, cultural, institutional design, language, and the psyche. To be clear, Transhumanism is a manufactured endpoint to human evolution… Rosanne Lindsay, ND This is the Technocratic viewpoint: Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase. Transhumanism is a loosely defined movement that has developed gradually over the past two decades. Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values. Max More (1990) The conjoining of man and machine? Today’s technologies are becoming so much part of our daily life, many futurists and technologists see a time when humans will merge with machines, or is it that machines will merge with humans?  We already have heart pacemakers, artificial knees, ear pieces, teeth implants etc, whilst the list becomes longer each year. So the gulf between “human” and “machine” is closing. Machine learning has enabled virtual reality to feel more “real” than ever before, and AI’s  replication of processes that were once confined to the human brain is ever-improving. Both are bringing technology into ever-closer proximity with the human body. Bringing in Balance? Regarding the human condition, there is a lot of focus placed on basic computational skills of our left frontal lobes - but it needs to be balanced by emotional intelligence which is part of our intelligence and in more common parlance our heads and hearts have to be working together - and that is true intelligence What is Soul and what is Consciousness? So, what is soul and what is consciousness? We need to extend this debate - hugely - what is the primacy of consciousness to the extent - is consciousness all there is?  That beneath the subatomic realm into the quantum field - does this connect at the deepest level into - consciousness? Sir Arthur Eddington said, ‘the stuff of the universe is mind stuff’ whilst Sir James Jeans said; ‘the universes was one great thought.”   Robin mentions that we also need to consider that our intelligence also involves compassion, care and love and it is so important as we embark in this new era of the computerised realm and that we must not lose our humanity - which is hugely important for our survival as a species and our planet’s  survival as a habitat for biota, but we also have a responsibility of guardianship - as well as for our flora and fauna - and that is only sensible because they look after us.` ‘Out of the body” and “near death” experiences confirm that humans have a detachable consciousness. (Soul Travel?) ‘Out of the body’ and ‘near death' experiences are now experienced by more and more people  (as the world population expands) We have to cover the important information of ‘near death’ and ‘out of the body experiences.’ as the information that the experiencer relays, after the event is incontrovertible There is now ample data on people from all cultures and all walks of life experiencing looking down at their bodies, be it a sports field, a car crash, a heart attack or stroke or being operated on in a hospital. The question then who is that ‘I’? That from a standpoint of soul or a spiritual body signifies that even the non material or non corporeal body can ‘not only see, but remember as well.’ See Dr’s Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Who have spent their life times researching this astounding subject. Then from the doubters viewpoint - that all people who say such things is that they were hallucinating and that the mind is playing tricks on them. Even though the people who were looking down on their bodies remember very clearly all the very concerned conversations that were happening as the doctors frantically worked at keeping their body alive. Telling them afterwards what exclamations were said and what particular actions and even mistakes were made. That upon ‘coming back’ - come out of it and they know it was ‘ Not time for them' - and they also never fear death as being the end. After experiencing these paranormal events, they become infused with compassion as well as a knowingness that will never allow them to doubt - and that life after death is a certainty. The ‘Precautionary Principle’ If we are going to be ‘smart’ about all this - we need to be cautious as to how machines ‘blend’ with humans - if that’s the right word says Robin. What about purpose, compassion and intent - what does it feel to be full and feel joy and fulfilment? Do we through our unknowingness allow certain things to filter into our consciousness - our ordinary day awareness - and conversely what are we finding out and also letting in. Are we conduits or walking antennae? Many mystics would agree. Like when we are asleep or meditating. What are the processes? Like at one end of the colour spectrum we have infrared and the other end - ultraviolet - animals and insects perceive certain colours and hear certain sounds that are of a different frequency - yet we humans cannot. So as we embark into augmenting what it is to be human into machines - we humans may be so unknowing especially of what is life and the ‘feelings’ of what it is to live, to have children and to die  That this all may be sublimated by the workings of an austere stark, machine intelligence. The Transhuman Perspective Covering Ray Kersweil of Google as one of the more out there proponents of Trans humanism - and his statement is about the great coming ‘singularity’ where computer intelligence will completely leapfrog/bypass human intellect and capabilities.   Breakthroughs in biological engineering are coming so fast we can’t predict how they will develop going forward. Crispr, a new type of gene editing technology is transforming our ability to design and edit the genome, was completely unanticipated; experts thought it was impossible ... until it wasn’t. Next-generation gene sequencing is decreasing in price, far faster than Moore’s Law for processors. In many ways, bioengineering is moving faster than computing. Today most promising of nine broad approaches to mortality and aging are genome stability, telomere extension, epigenetics, proteostasis, caloric restriction, mitochondrial research, cell senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and intercellular communication. So with Silicon Valley awash with ideas and scenarios  - especially how to integrate nanotechnology into the human body, you can see the artificial excitement of Transhumanism as tantalising for those who either don’t believe in soul, or those that just want to tinker and make fast, big money. The philosophical ramifications are huge with this current momentum of the fusion of science, technology with biological processes. However, will it be one we sincerely trust that will address societal inequities, the retention of the richness and diversity of our natural systems and indigenous cultures, rather than the somewhat simple and sterile dysfunctional futures depicted by many science fiction writers and futurists. We have to recognise that our navel, our belly button connects us to the magic of the past of spiralling DNA, the family tree and the lineage of species  and not only celebrate our diversity within nature - but to honour it and reconnect with the sacred in all of this. All the way back to the accreting gases and cosmic dust to the molten metals of an early forming Mother earth and before that - to stardust and the big bang, the so called ‘source of it all.’ 5 G the Fifth Generational Wireless and Computer Network Technologies 5 G Wifi comes up again as a major component and enabler to AI and robots by numbers - allied to the internet of all things  - working on wavelengths in millimetres - needing antenna and relay stations every 50 metres or so - outside everyone’s house - connecting everything to everything - driverless cars totally under control - all ambulances given right of way and it is all under control. But, if you are a suspect - the driverless car could, upon a command, lock all the doors and windows and drive you to the local police station. However with 5 G as most people have smartphones, we are all tracked and could be ‘corrected’ remotely - and sadly even our brain waves monitored. Yet, a spin will be put on all this to tell us how very helpful this technology is going to be. First the hand hold phone, then the glasses and the watch - then the body suit and finally the tiny implant under our skin. The ubiquitous use and interface with these technologies is going to be everywhere. Meanwhile quantum theory entanglement - that every thing in theory is connected within the universal - or background field, is omnipresent yet little understood, is also present. Back to 5 G - we will have faster download speeds - so that information is streaming in at us from all directions so that we find we are more than triangulated into a frequency storm of microwave data and information. So the health question is what effect is it having on our bodies? But let’s have the discussion - let’s open this whole story of trans humanism and 5 G as they are essentially all connected - and bring all the information to the world public. Transhumanists, virtually all being atheistic - see the total zenith - the hopeful evolutionary capacity - as being held in our heads and our brains. (note that the heart brain and the gut brain are definitely not included in this equation.)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdneZ4fIIHE     The Heart's Intuitive Intelligence: A path to personal, social and global coherence Eastern Philosophies and Acupuncture Robin talks about the process of emotions etc plus the Eastern philosophies and understanding of the human body - being energetic first and material second - like in acupuncture, that is connected by hidden meridians that Western Science still has huge difficulties with. That through meditation - and getting our brain out of the way - allows our creativity to come through. That we need to be in a state of peace and compassion Whereas transhumanists who do not appear to enter deep states of meditation and enter other deeper realms of consciousness - instead think that by marrying up to computer chips etc that by this technology - they will instead not miss out in other ‘aspects’ of life.  There is a wanting of more - before it is too late and they die - to then basically wipe their hard drive and end the program. Another aspect is that in wanting to get people interested in this tech program is to have people dissatisfied with their life - to want more by way of a computer chip upgrade. And that sets the scene for addictive activities. See last weeks interview with Roy Harlow. Hence the global encouragement for hand held machines and smart phones so that the youth become wedded to these technologies - so that they will not put them down - that they may pick them up hundreds of times a day - pearing in for a magic formula so as to find happiness and fulfilment. Then you are convinced that you don’t need to hold it in your hand -and have it as glasses - i.e google glass, to Apple Watch on your skin and finally what about a little tiny implant - the size of a rice grain - that can hold huge amounts of information with heaps of up-loadable space - and if you do - you can receive benefits from certain other hi tech corporations - with big discounts to nightclubs and drinks or be able to jump the queue and get into a rock concert before most others. That may morph very quickly to rebates on home rates, no or lower charges for credit cards - all sort of methods to lure the unsuspecting into being chipped and unknowingly becoming like Manchurian candidates for the future. Addictions Robin mentions that addictions are born daily out of loneliness and emptiness - we are never satisfied.  And it is the younger folk - who have missed out on any understanding of the great religions and spiritual teachings that will be targeted by AI and any compelling story about Transhumanism -  the selling point - ‘get it while it’s hot.” All these scenarios. The interview also covers Rupert Sheldrake and ‘phantom limbs’  and ‘feelings of being stared at from behind.’ 5 G comes up again - many doctors are not satisfied that it is safe - whilst many professionals are relegating it to the field of not being important.   We are not taking a precautionary - ‘first do no harm” - stand  - primum non nocere   Is the Latin word that Doctors use. It is the babies that will be the easily affected by 5 G plus Cats and dogs and bees to the bacteria on our skin. 5th Generation networks are a world wide deployment - being done nearly all at once Cognitive dissidence on a massive scale is happening and an almost cult like behaviour ‘en masse’ is upon us. That we can impose this technology on our body and TOTALLY improve our lives as a result, is what we are being programmed with. Robots are now in health systems in the UK talking to patients - devaluing the face to face communications between carer and patient. Robin talks about ‘human inter-relations - as a doctor to a patient - and sharing a commitment to care - empathy.  However 5 G does penetrate the skin. The proponents of 5 G say that it does not penetrate the skin very far - however they have a very poor understanding of the ecosystem off the human body - That our skin with billions of invisible bacteria covering us - and we are being irradiated from telephone towers 24/7  plus it is affecting our fertility. Mothers Love comes up as well. 1984 and Brave New world - a fusion of these two stories is now taking place.   Have a listen. This article is not anti atheist per se - My parents were a cross between agnostics and atheists and they were very good, honest, warm, caring people. I have numerous atheistic associates and we by and large see eye to eye on many political, environmental and cultural issues. I interviewed James Lovelock of bringing to us the Gaia Hypothesis many years ago and he said that he was quite happy for his body to return to Mother Earth at the end of his life time, with no expectations of anything else. Tim

Charles Kuck, an immigration attorney, breaks down President Trump's immigration plan. Denise Pope of Stanford explains how parents can help stressed teens. BYU's Blaine Griffen studies starving polar bears in the Arctic. Author Dick Lehr has a YA novel about a wrongful murder conviction. Jeremy Straub of North Dakota State Univ believes self-driving cars could prevent terrorist attacks. CEO Max More explains why Alcor preserves bodies to be brought back to life.

University of Maryland's Danielle Citron discusses cyber harassment. Graham Thorincroft, Kings College, on why the depressed don't seek help. President and CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Max More, on cryonics. University of Michigan's Nicole Villapiano gives insight on opiate withdrawals among babies. Phil Windley, BYU, discuses securing information on the Internet. Author of "Calvin," Martine Leavitt, explains how Calvin and Hobbes inspired a novel about schizophrenia.

Leading transhumanists Elon Musk and Max More want to explore other planets and establish colonies in space. But while Musk wants to send astronauts to Mars, More wants to upload the minds of explorers into a hard drive on a rocket and then use a 3-D printer to create bodies--avatars--to carry them around once it arrives at the Red Planet. What they don't realize is that all of us are transhumans--or at least we will be if we've accepted Jesus Christ is Lord. As Paul wrote, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Also: Astronaut Edgar Mitchell emailed Clinton insider John Podesta that the Vatican knows about ETs (confirming Tom Horn's Exo-Vaticana research) that want to give us zero point energy technology; secret X-37B space plane marks 500 days in orbit; and White House wants all federal agencies to launch "DARPA-like" programs to develop artificial intelligence Special thanks to Grace-Anne the Shih Tzu and her "momager" Camille Beck for this week's SCIENCE!

**Summary:** In Episode #201 Ari shares the Less Doing Podcast with Max More of [Alcor](http://www.alcor.org/), a company that will put you into cold-storage—literally—through cryogenic freezing. Listen as Ari and Max talk about the scientific and philosophical challenges of cryogenics, as well as how Alcor operates as a _truly_ “long-term” business. **Time Stamped Show Notes:** - 11:06 – Introduction of Max More of [Alcor](http://www.alcor.org/) - 11:19 – What Alcor does - 12:40 – The process for preservation - 12:54 – The two main parts of the Cryonic procedure—freezing and reanimation - 13:42 – There is evidence that the brain is being preserved under reasonable conditions - 14:01 – Electron microscopes used to analyze the health of frozen animal brains - 14:29 – Medical grade anti-freeze - 14:38 – Ice Crystals damage cells but do not destroy them - 15:36 – Eventually, we will have a cure for aging…it's not a question of IF but WHEN - 16:52 – There are two different ways to cryo-freeze someone—the head or the whole body. - 17:28 – If you want to survive and come back, most of the essentials are contained within the brain - 18:35 – The gut-brain connection and Cryo-Freezing - 19:30 – Creating the custom body - 19:55 – Why have a brain?—Why not download the brain onto a thumb drive - 21:14 – The business side of Alcor—they're operating on a 100+ year timeline - 22:01 – Already 43 years old and is a registered 501c(3) - 22:22 – Given a long-enough timeline, things WILL go wrong - 22:40 – There is no electricity for Alcor's cold storage, they just need fresh liquid nitrogen - 23:51 – Max's _Top 3 Tips to be More Effective_ - 24:07 – Maintain a good diet - 24:34 – Practice regular exercise - 25:02 – Keep stress to an absolute minimum—learn how to relax - 25:45 – [www.alcor.org](http://www.alcor.org/) **5 Key Points:** 1. Eventually—your body will quit on you, no matter the treatment—cryogenics is the only “live-forever” option we currently have. 2. Good Diet + Regular Exercise – Stress = A long, Happy Life. 3. Freezing is the easy part of cryogenics—it's reanimation that's proving exceedingly difficult. 4. Are you your body, or just your brain?—it's a highly challenging philosophical question. 5. The way biotechnology is progressing, there will undoubtedly be cures for aging in the future. **Resources Mentioned:** - [How to Eat Healthy](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/12/how-to-eat-healthy/) – Article from Barking Up the Wrong Tree featuring strategies to help people make better dietary decisions - [Good Doctors Bad for Health?](https://t.co/4AR23YqbfY) – Why having an excellent healthcare professional might be counter productive - [16 Excel Formulas to Change Your Life](https://t.co/dkX7MZC3l5) – Excel formulas that will change your life for the better - [Teleport](https://t.co/whYxhWDZZ1) – Bring your friends and family to you - [Evernote for Creativity](https://t.co/FdIbX3eNpP) – 9 ways you can use Evernote to boost your creativity - [Hire Peter](https://t.co/OLF9JPospc) – AI based legal services - [Skulpt](https://t.co/k924GUj0l8) – Measure Body Fat and Muscle Quality - [Virtual Interview Platform](https://t.co/sLgX4aS3Fu) – Built to test talented coders - [Retracted Papers](http://retractionwatch.com/the-retraction-watch-leaderboard/top-10-most-highly-cited-retracted-papers/) – A publishing of some oft-cited sources that have since been retracted - [Better Time Management](https://t.co/NusV4RoDQQ) – From Barking Up the Wrong Tree, 5 secrets to better time management - Call 1-844-i-do-less – Toll-Free number, Press “0” to speak with a Less Doing Certified Coach - Text DOLESS – Text DOLESS to 33733 **Special Announcements:** [Leave Us a Review!](https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ari-meisel-less-doing/id605938952?mt=2&uo=6) Hey Less Doing Podcast Listeners, we want to hear from YOU! Visit us on iTunes and leave a review or subscribe to the podcast if you're not already a --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

Last month I had the privilege of visiting Max More at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 and located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is the world leader in cryonics, cryonics research, and cryonics technology. [Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the […]

Libertarian ideas have been a major theme in The Conversation. They were introduced in our second episode by Max More and have since been elaborated upon by David Miller, Robert Zubrin, Tim Cannon, and Oliver Porter. But while libertarianism has been discussed frequently, it has always been a secondary theme within episodes about, say, transhumanism or space exploration. But libertarianism is too intriguing to discuss obliquely, so we're pulling it out of the background and exploring it in a full episode. We were especially interested in the logical conclusion of libertarian thought and, for that, we turned to Walter Block. Walter Block is a self-described anarcho-capitalist, chair of the Economics Department at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Senior Fellow at the libertarian Mises Institute. Block is also the author of numerous articles and several books, including Defending the Undefendable and The Case for Discrimination. Connections to earlier episodes abound as Block calls John Zerzan crazy, suggests Gary Francione commit suicide, and lambastes the ideas of John Rawls that were advanced by Lawrence Torcello. Whatever you think of this episode, you'll certainly remember it.

Libertarian ideas have been a major theme in The Conversation. They were introduced in our second episode by Max More and have since been elaborated upon by David Miller, Robert Zubrin, Tim Cannon, and Oliver Porter. But while libertarianism has been discussed frequently, it has always been a secondary theme within episodes about, say, transhumanism or space exploration. But libertarianism is too intriguing to discuss obliquely, so we're pulling it out of the background and exploring it in a full episode. We were especially interested in the logical conclusion of libertarian thought and, for that, we turned to Walter Block. Walter Block is a self-described anarcho-capitalist, chair of the Economics Department at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Senior Fellow at the libertarian Mises Institute. Block is also the author of numerous articles and several books, including Defending the Undefendable and The Case for Discrimination. Connections to earlier episodes abound as Block calls John Zerzan crazy, suggests Gary Francione commit suicide, and lambastes the ideas of John Rawls that were advanced by Lawrence Torcello. Whatever you think of this episode, you'll certainly remember it.

Phyllis Tickle founded Publishers Weekly's Religion Department and has written numerous books about modern American Christianity, including "The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why." Phyllis begins our conversation by describing 500-year social, cultural, and religious cycles in parts of the world influenced by Abrahamic faiths. Building upon that, she asserts that our current historical moment lies at the edge of two such cycles. The upshot of this is a breakdown in traditional understandings of authority and a period of chaotic exploration. Emergence Christianity, like other emergent faiths, is developing as a response to this period of transition. Though religion has been a regular theme in the background of The Conversation, this is our first episode dedicated entirely to it. As a result, we introduce a lot of new themes and you will hear fewer explicit connections to earlier episodes. Having said that, there are some interesting ties between Emergence Christianity and the income gap which harken back to Chuck Collins, Francione-like questions of purity versus pragmatism, and more Tim Cannon and Max More-style transhumanism than you'd ever expect.

Phyllis Tickle founded Publishers Weekly's Religion Department and has written numerous books about modern American Christianity, including "The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why." Phyllis begins our conversation by describing 500-year social, cultural, and religious cycles in parts of the world influenced by Abrahamic faiths. Building upon that, she asserts that our current historical moment lies at the edge of two such cycles. The upshot of this is a breakdown in traditional understandings of authority and a period of chaotic exploration. Emergence Christianity, like other emergent faiths, is developing as a response to this period of transition. Though religion has been a regular theme in the background of The Conversation, this is our first episode dedicated entirely to it. As a result, we introduce a lot of new themes and you will hear fewer explicit connections to earlier episodes. Having said that, there are some interesting ties between Emergence Christianity and the income gap which harken back to Chuck Collins, Francione-like questions of purity versus pragmatism, and more Tim Cannon and Max More-style transhumanism than you'd ever expect.

John Fullerton is the founder of the Capital Institute, a group dedicated to the modest task of rethinking the future of finance. Prior to his work at the Capital Institute, he was the Managing Director of JPMorgan. If there is a moment that encapsulates my conversation with John, it is when he suggests we need a new word to express the interconnected environmental/economic system. Applying an investor's sense of risk management to climate change, John sees our economic status quo as reckless and self-destructive. If we remain transfixed by our model of infinite growth in a finite system, John warns, we are likely to destabilize the natural capital underpinning our economy. If you're hoping John will swoop in with an easy solution here, you're wrong. Transitioning away from an economy based on infinite growth is immensely risky in its own right. Efforts to stabilize the climate would come at the cost of leaving immensely valuable natural resources in the ground, devaluing many of our most important companies, and causing economic havoc. This yields a choice which, John concludes, isn't a choice at all: economic turbulence with a radically altered climate or economic turbulence without a radically altered climate. As The Conversation grows larger and connections multiply, it is becoming harder for me to choose which connections to highlight. Here are a few that I haven't linked back to recently: John is skeptical of the technological/market optimism voiced (however cautiously) by Colin Camerer. At the same time, his association of life with goodness takes us back to Chris McKay. Without any prompting by me, he cites the precautionary principle in a way that supports Carolyn Raffensperger and questions Max More.

John Fullerton is the founder of the Capital Institute, a group dedicated to the modest task of rethinking the future of finance. Prior to his work at the Capital Institute, he was the Managing Director of JPMorgan. If there is a moment that encapsulates my conversation with John, it is when he suggests we need a new word to express the interconnected environmental/economic system. Applying an investor's sense of risk management to climate change, John sees our economic status quo as reckless and self-destructive. If we remain transfixed by our model of infinite growth in a finite system, John warns, we are likely to destabilize the natural capital underpinning our economy. If you're hoping John will swoop in with an easy solution here, you're wrong. Transitioning away from an economy based on infinite growth is immensely risky in its own right. Efforts to stabilize the climate would come at the cost of leaving immensely valuable natural resources in the ground, devaluing many of our most important companies, and causing economic havoc. This yields a choice which, John concludes, isn't a choice at all: economic turbulence with a radically altered climate or economic turbulence without a radically altered climate. As The Conversation grows larger and connections multiply, it is becoming harder for me to choose which connections to highlight. Here are a few that I haven't linked back to recently: John is skeptical of the technological/market optimism voiced (however cautiously) by Colin Camerer. At the same time, his association of life with goodness takes us back to Chris McKay. Without any prompting by me, he cites the precautionary principle in a way that supports Carolyn Raffensperger and questions Max More.

Chuck Collins directs the Institute of Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has also co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and Wealth for the Common Good, a network of wealthy individuals who embrace fair taxation to support the broader good. He is also the author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It and joined Bill Gates, Sr. to co-author Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. I learned about Chuck through David Korten, only to realize that I already had Resilience Circles—another project he is affiliated with—on my list of potential episode themes. At this point you have probably guessed that Chuck and I spent a lot of time talking about wealth and class, but it's hard to cover those issues without digging into assumptions about human nature. Are we individualistic and selfish? Social and communal? All of the above? Chuck gives us a glimpse into how he pitches economic equality to the 1%, a pitch that involves the importance of the social and ecological commons while recognizing the importance of individual determination. Education makes an appearance and Chuck stresses that, in addition to the social/civic education Lawrence Torcello discussed, we need to remember that we are embedded in an ecological system. Resilience Circles make a brief appearance and new economies come up towards the end of the conversation. You'll probably notice more commonalities and contrasts with plenty of other thinkers. Obviously there are a fair number of similarities between Chuck and David Korten, though our conversations focused on very different themes. Equally interesting, how do Chuck's assertions about human nature and brain science pair with Colin Camerer? Priscilla Grim and Cameron Whitten have discussed class without sharing the environmental concerns of other thinkers in the project, but Chuck suggests that an awareness of the ecological commons is key to encouraging a robust sense of the social commons. It is easy to find contrasts between Chuck and libertarian-leaning thinkers like Max More and Ariel Waldman, but he also shares their appreciation of individual agency.

Chuck Collins directs the Institute of Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good. He has also co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and Wealth for the Common Good, a network of wealthy individuals who embrace fair taxation to support the broader good. He is also the author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It and joined Bill Gates, Sr. to co-author Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes. I learned about Chuck through David Korten, only to realize that I already had Resilience Circles—another project he is affiliated with—on my list of potential episode themes. At this point you have probably guessed that Chuck and I spent a lot of time talking about wealth and class, but it's hard to cover those issues without digging into assumptions about human nature. Are we individualistic and selfish? Social and communal? All of the above? Chuck gives us a glimpse into how he pitches economic equality to the 1%, a pitch that involves the importance of the social and ecological commons while recognizing the importance of individual determination. Education makes an appearance and Chuck stresses that, in addition to the social/civic education Lawrence Torcello discussed, we need to remember that we are embedded in an ecological system. Resilience Circles make a brief appearance and new economies come up towards the end of the conversation. You'll probably notice more commonalities and contrasts with plenty of other thinkers. Obviously there are a fair number of similarities between Chuck and David Korten, though our conversations focused on very different themes. Equally interesting, how do Chuck's assertions about human nature and brain science pair with Colin Camerer? Priscilla Grim and Cameron Whitten have discussed class without sharing the environmental concerns of other thinkers in the project, but Chuck suggests that an awareness of the ecological commons is key to encouraging a robust sense of the social commons. It is easy to find contrasts between Chuck and libertarian-leaning thinkers like Max More and Ariel Waldman, but he also shares their appreciation of individual agency.

Among other things, Douglas Rushkoff is a media theorist, author, and documentarian. His books include Life, Inc. and Program or be Programmed, while his documentaries include Frontline's The Merchants of Cool and The Persuaders. Our conversation started with Rushkoff's concept of "present-shock" and moved into a larger discussion of the relationship between market thinking, quantification, and what is ultimately measurable and knowable. Connections, you ask? There are lots, especially with Timothy Morton, Wes Jackson, and Frances Whitehead. We also talk about transhumanism a fair bit, so expect some contrasts with Max More and Tim Cannon. Equally important, albeit less obvious, are the nuanced differences between Rushkoff and thinkers like Chris McKay. But to quote LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it.

Among other things, Douglas Rushkoff is a media theorist, author, and documentarian. His books include Life, Inc. and Program or be Programmed, while his documentaries include Frontline's The Merchants of Cool and The Persuaders. Our conversation started with Rushkoff's concept of "present-shock" and moved into a larger discussion of the relationship between market thinking, quantification, and what is ultimately measurable and knowable. Connections, you ask? There are lots, especially with Timothy Morton, Wes Jackson, and Frances Whitehead. We also talk about transhumanism a fair bit, so expect some contrasts with Max More and Tim Cannon. Equally important, albeit less obvious, are the nuanced differences between Rushkoff and thinkers like Chris McKay. But to quote LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it.

Priscilla Grim is one of Occupy Wall Street's organizers, co-founder of the website We Are the 99 Percent, and co-editor of The Occupied Wall Street Journal. We talk about her politicization, the current economic system, and the tension between class and environmental concerns. There are predictably strong contrasts with the libertarian philosophies of David Miller and Max More but, in one of the more unexpected connections in the project, Grim takes an attitude towards natural resources that is close to Robert Zubrin and far from Jan Lundberg and Wes Jackson.

Priscilla Grim is one of Occupy Wall Street's organizers, co-founder of the website We Are the 99 Percent, and co-editor of The Occupied Wall Street Journal. We talk about her politicization, the current economic system, and the tension between class and environmental concerns. There are predictably strong contrasts with the libertarian philosophies of David Miller and Max More but, in one of the more unexpected connections in the project, Grim takes an attitude towards natural resources that is close to Robert Zubrin and far from Jan Lundberg and Wes Jackson.

Tim Cannon is a co-founder of Grindhouse Wetware, a group of open-source biohackers in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. What does that sentence mean, you ask? Biohacking is the process of augmenting the human body to do new things, whether with technology or biology. Max More introduced the theme of transhumanism back in Episode 2, but Tim is going to take the idea and run with it—the Grindhouse crew are actively developing and implanting technologies in themselves now.  Tim and I don't dwell on current augmentation technologies for long. Instead, we plunge into a conversation about the nature of humanity and why he wants to leave biology behind. As always, questions of value crop up and we oscillate between nihilism and iterative, socially constructed moralities. Determinism, inevitability, and collective versus individual rights are also major themes. You'll hear lots of connections with other conversations. Tim directly responds to the neoprimitivism of John Zerzan, but he also offers an indirect critique of Max More by discussing the political (and classist) implications of human augmentation. If all that makes you feel like your head is about to explode, may we suggest Grindhouse's Thinking Cap to over-clock your brain?

Tim Cannon is a co-founder of Grindhouse Wetware, a group of open-source biohackers in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. What does that sentence mean, you ask? Biohacking is the process of augmenting the human body to do new things, whether with technology or biology. Max More introduced the theme of transhumanism back in Episode 2, but Tim is going to take the idea and run with it—the Grindhouse crew are actively developing and implanting technologies in themselves now.  Tim and I don't dwell on current augmentation technologies for long. Instead, we plunge into a conversation about the nature of humanity and why he wants to leave biology behind. As always, questions of value crop up and we oscillate between nihilism and iterative, socially constructed moralities. Determinism, inevitability, and collective versus individual rights are also major themes. You'll hear lots of connections with other conversations. Tim directly responds to the neoprimitivism of John Zerzan, but he also offers an indirect critique of Max More by discussing the political (and classist) implications of human augmentation. If all that makes you feel like your head is about to explode, may we suggest Grindhouse's Thinking Cap to over-clock your brain?

Carolyn Raffensperger, JD, is the executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network and the author of Precautionary Tools for Shaping Environmental Policy and Protecting Public Health and the Environment. Not surprisingly, she is well known for her work on the precautionary principle, but her thought ranges across a wide variety of questions that address the relationship between law and the environment. This is the first substantive discussion of law in The Conversation but, as always, we range over a variety of other topics including science as a social institutions, the tension between the individual and the collective, and spirituality. Utilitarianism is a large part of this conversation and Carolyn argues that it is the invisible idea beneath much of our socially and environmentally reckless behavior. Carolyn's episode connects to a large number of other conversations in the project, from moments of resonance with Timothy Morton and Wes Jackson to a sharp critique of Max More, David Miller, and Robert Zubrin. The back-and-forth between More's proactionary principle and Raffensperger's precautionary principle is especially intriguing. The episode concludes with a suggestion that The Conversation is not amongst our interviewees, but between interviewees and audience. Does Carolyn's critique destroy the hypothesis beneath this project? Rest assured, Micah and I will discuss.

Carolyn Raffensperger, JD, is the executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network and the author of Precautionary Tools for Shaping Environmental Policy and Protecting Public Health and the Environment. Not surprisingly, she is well known for her work on the precautionary principle, but her thought ranges across a wide variety of questions that address the relationship between law and the environment. This is the first substantive discussion of law in The Conversation but, as always, we range over a variety of other topics including science as a social institutions, the tension between the individual and the collective, and spirituality. Utilitarianism is a large part of this conversation and Carolyn argues that it is the invisible idea beneath much of our socially and environmentally reckless behavior. Carolyn's episode connects to a large number of other conversations in the project, from moments of resonance with Timothy Morton and Wes Jackson to a sharp critique of Max More, David Miller, and Robert Zubrin. The back-and-forth between More's proactionary principle and Raffensperger's precautionary principle is especially intriguing. The episode concludes with a suggestion that The Conversation is not amongst our interviewees, but between interviewees and audience. Does Carolyn's critique destroy the hypothesis beneath this project? Rest assured, Micah and I will discuss.

Dr. Wes Jackson is the founder and director of The Land Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to rethinking agricultural practice and creating new farming systems which result in conservation and ecosystem resilience. Wes's conversation begins with soil and rapidly expands to address how we make choices about the massively complex and intertwined systems we live within--there is definitely a resonance between Wes Jackson, Timothy Morton, and David Korten. The problem of scientific fundamentalism also arises and Wes presents a thorough critique of many ideas put forth by Robert Zubrin and Max More (would Colin Camerer fall into that category? You tell us). Hubris, creativity, limits, and the fallacy of unlimited growth are all major themes as well.

Dr. Wes Jackson is the founder and director of The Land Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to rethinking agricultural practice and creating new farming systems which result in conservation and ecosystem resilience. Wes's conversation begins with soil and rapidly expands to address how we make choices about the massively complex and intertwined systems we live within--there is definitely a resonance between Wes Jackson, Timothy Morton, and David Korten. The problem of scientific fundamentalism also arises and Wes presents a thorough critique of many ideas put forth by Robert Zubrin and Max More (would Colin Camerer fall into that category? You tell us). Hubris, creativity, limits, and the fallacy of unlimited growth are all major themes as well.

Dr. Robert Zubrin is the president of The Mars Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the exploration and colonization of Mars. We begin by discussing why space exploration and colonization is good but, as with my conversation with Chris McKay, Robert and I use space as an entry to discussing issues back on Earth. A major theme of this conversation is environmentalism, which Robert classifies as a form of anti-humanism, offering a strong anthrpocentric response to the biocentrism of Jan Lundberg and David Korten. This flows into a conversation about how we define progress and where we find value, in which John Zerzan's ideas make their inevitable cameo. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of Robert's mixed feelings about the transhumanist ideas discussed by Max More.

Dr. Robert Zubrin is the president of The Mars Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the exploration and colonization of Mars. We begin by discussing why space exploration and colonization is good but, as with my conversation with Chris McKay, Robert and I use space as an entry to discussing issues back on Earth. A major theme of this conversation is environmentalism, which Robert classifies as a form of anti-humanism, offering a strong anthrpocentric response to the biocentrism of Jan Lundberg and David Korten. This flows into a conversation about how we define progress and where we find value, in which John Zerzan's ideas make their inevitable cameo. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of Robert's mixed feelings about the transhumanist ideas discussed by Max More.

David Miller is a state representative and mineral explorer in Wyoming. Rep. Miller was the architect of Wyoming's House Bill 85, the so-called "Doomsday Bill," which created a committee to study Wyoming's response to a collapse of the US Federal Government. Our conversation spans themes from across the entire project, from the transhumanism of Max More to the primitivism of John Zerzan to the scientific optimism of Ariel Waldman. This conversation also grows naturally out of the previous conversation with Dr. Joseph Tainter. Similar themes of debt and complexity arise and Rome makes another appearance, but the context is different this time. The episode concludes with Micah and Aengus discussing the role of facts in the project and if one can be a technological positivist without opening the door to transhumanism.

David Miller is a state representative and mineral explorer in Wyoming. Rep. Miller was the architect of Wyoming's House Bill 85, the so-called "Doomsday Bill," which created a committee to study Wyoming's response to a collapse of the US Federal Government. Our conversation spans themes from across the entire project, from the transhumanism of Max More to the primitivism of John Zerzan to the scientific optimism of Ariel Waldman. This conversation also grows naturally out of the previous conversation with Dr. Joseph Tainter. Similar themes of debt and complexity arise and Rome makes another appearance, but the context is different this time. The episode concludes with Micah and Aengus discussing the role of facts in the project and if one can be a technological positivist without opening the door to transhumanism.

Dr. Joseph Tainter is an anthropologist and historian who has studied collapse in numerous ancient civilization and penned The Collapse of Complex Societies. This is our first deeply historical episode and Dr. Tainter begins by offering his definition of complexity and taking us through the story of Western Rome's collapse. Extrapolating from the past, Dr. Tainter paints an alarming scene of our possible future. In our conversation, he critiques the primitivism of John Zerzan, the transhumanism of Max More, and the technological optimism of Ariel Waldman and Colin Camerer. What are we left with? Not optimism, not pessimism but, perhaps, Ragnarok.

Dr. Joseph Tainter is an anthropologist and historian who has studied collapse in numerous ancient civilization and penned The Collapse of Complex Societies. This is our first deeply historical episode and Dr. Tainter begins by offering his definition of complexity and taking us through the story of Western Rome's collapse. Extrapolating from the past, Dr. Tainter paints an alarming scene of our possible future. In our conversation, he critiques the primitivism of John Zerzan, the transhumanism of Max More, and the technological optimism of Ariel Waldman and Colin Camerer. What are we left with? Not optimism, not pessimism but, perhaps, Ragnarok.

Cameron Whitten is, in his own words, a "shameless agitator" from Portland, Oregon.  He became politically active during the Occupy Portland movement and, at twenty, made a bid to become the mayor of the Rose City with endorsements from the Green Party and Oregon Progressive Party.  As of this posting, Whitten is on day 44 of a hunger strike designed to spark the Portland City Council to address issues of housing inequality. We spoke about Occupy, equality, and the idea of The Conversation.  For Whitten, The Conversation is a first step to addressing issues of class inequality, which he considers the greatest crisis our era.  This marks the first extended discussion of class in The Conversation, but it is worth juxtaposing Whitten's view next to the belief in incremental improvement that pervaded my talks with Max More, Colin Camerer, Chris McKay, and Ariel Waldman. Interestingly, Whitten also brushes aside the issue of population growth that has surfaced in conversations from Jan Lundberg to John Zerzan.  There are abundant resources, Whitten claims, rather the question is of distribution.

Cameron Whitten is, in his own words, a "shameless agitator" from Portland, Oregon.  He became politically active during the Occupy Portland movement and, at twenty, made a bid to become the mayor of the Rose City with endorsements from the Green Party and Oregon Progressive Party.  As of this posting, Whitten is on day 44 of a hunger strike designed to spark the Portland City Council to address issues of housing inequality. We spoke about Occupy, equality, and the idea of The Conversation.  For Whitten, The Conversation is a first step to addressing issues of class inequality, which he considers the greatest crisis our era.  This marks the first extended discussion of class in The Conversation, but it is worth juxtaposing Whitten's view next to the belief in incremental improvement that pervaded my talks with Max More, Colin Camerer, Chris McKay, and Ariel Waldman. Interestingly, Whitten also brushes aside the issue of population growth that has surfaced in conversations from Jan Lundberg to John Zerzan.  There are abundant resources, Whitten claims, rather the question is of distribution.

Today my guest on Singularity 1 on 1 is transhumanist strategic philosopher Max More. (As always you can listen to or download the audio file above or scroll down and watch the video interview in full.) As the CEO of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation Dr. More has a full schedule. Never-the-less he generously managed […]

The state of statist intellectuals; victims of bad, contradictory memes For example - UN Plaza: The Soft Underbelly http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/18763 An interesting blogger discussion - Science Saturday: Just a Theory; Ancient violence and the fear of being eaten http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/18623?in=42:39&out=60:37 It's important to address politics from first principles--and to define one's terms If intellectuals thought logically and didn't take collectivistic memes for granted, they'd improve society immensely Individuals (or groups of them) logically don't have the choice to nullify others' choices What is the origin of human conflict? Not respecting others and their property, courtesy of sacrificial and statist memes The fact that most people comply with governmental edicts doesn't minimize the ills of government Other political insanity from around the world... China nabs website staff for erotic audiobooks http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/china_arrests_four_erotic_audio_books/ "Authorities" are basically authoritarian sociopaths Society consists of individuals using their own volitional mechanisms, which no one has the right to contradict Authoritarian sociopaths' demise will happen when their "legitimacy" is undermined The doctrine of self-sacrifice leads politically to sacrificing individuals for the so-called "good of the collective" (i.e., for other individuals) Australian censorship board site pwned (http://classification.gov.au) http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/87mqb/australian_censorship_board_site_pwned/ http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/9880/miscs.jpg Saudi clerics urge TV ban on women, music http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29826511/ Somehow, the authoritarian sociopaths are able to convince the oppressed that their edicts are good and must be followed Extropianism means living the most flourishing lives possible, maximizing our potential via technological innovation (http://www.extropy.org/principles.htm) http://www.extropy.org/conferences.htm Liberty and Responsibility: Inseparable Ideals by Max More http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/liberty-and-responsibility-inseparable-ideals/ We must be careful not to romanticize America's founding; the Constitution only applied to those who agreed to it, and plenty of authoritarian sociopathy and collectivistic memes were present The parasitical legal profession lives off the meme of statism and strips people of their common sense and resources License is not responsibility; so, it undermines liberty "Without the liberty to choose our own actions and make our own choices, we lose the qualities of responsibility and virtue that make us uniquely human...Only freely chosen actions reflect character." M.M. The idea that governmental officials protect your rights is merely part of their public-relations scheme "Interventionism and welfarism act as a tax on responsibility." M.M. Politics, being the fourth branch of philosophy, deals with how individuals should treat each other; the only logical (i.e., non-contradictory) politics is voluntarism, or complete liberty http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/politics.html People naturally desire to be responsible in a society that respects their property Evil--the initiation of force--nullifies the capacity for humans to make choices To engage in voting, a process that is fundamentally irrational, is nonsensical and counterproductive It's Time to Get Passionate About Not Voting by Stewart Browne http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/browne/browne1.html "To all libertarians, I now pose the dilemma of Your Own Personal Bailout: If you could vote for or against a nice big government check written specifically for you, on a secret ballot, knowing full well that every day people all around you are voting to take large chunks of taxpayer change for themselves, what would you do? This, in a nutshell, is the problem with democracy.  It is also why we advocates of liberty will never bring about lasting change via electoral politics." S.B. The Internet is spreading the libertarian memes far and wide, but government cannot be reduced or abolished via the ballot box We are essentially being ruled by moral imbeciles, the least productive, least creative, and least respectful people To pander to the governmental memes via the voting process is to ruin our culture, our society, and our economy Remember the bumper sticker - Dont Vote: It Just Encourages The Bastards bumper music "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/times-they-are-changin to comment, please go to http://completeliberty.com/magazine/category/91697