February 24, 2018

The Idealist 006 - Becoming Other People 🤡

The Idealist 006 - Becoming Other People 🤡

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot even explain it to myself.” * - Gregor Samsa*

Another reasonable time gap between writing, this time enforced by my inability to write. No writer’s block per se, rather the unfortunate consequence of my lack of balance and a subsequent broken arm. But fear not, I have now fully recovered without even having to have a replacement robo-radius to rely upon.

Celebrating my return from being a one-handed automaton, I wanted to take a look at the process of transformation, and how we become other people, sometimes in an instant, sometimes as a result of years of personal development and sometimes as a result of an experiment by mad scientists…

This is no pseudo-new-years-resolutions “I’m going to be a better person” note. There will be no 15 tips to make your morning routine flawless. Replacing overly-optimistic annual personal to-do lists is a more open invitation to change…

1. 💉 You’ve probably read about this one already, that Scientists have been able to edit the DNA inside of a living person’s body, but stop and think about it for a second. This is such a major change, an upheaval for humanity and evolution of all living species. The more I read about this topic, the more I understand that we are on the verge of programmable biology. In an analogy, we are in the late 1940s at the invention of transistor, with computing capability, massive cost-reduction and decentralisation through smartphones/Internet yet to come. So many possibilities (and pratfalls) that will come tumbling towards us…
2. 🤯 One of the areas where we’re rapidly gaining greater insight into changing ourselves is through the understanding of the brain and in particular how targeted and controlled drugs can facilitate certain reactions. So, this podcast on microdosing LSD is a fascinating insight into how stigmatised substances could potentially be used for beneficial purposes from treating depression, improving connectedness/attention, as well as, y’know, breaking down the doors of perception maaan (and who, in our current climate, wouldn’t want to take a quick break to another astral plane).
3. 🤔  After reading this Aeon article I took on the challenge of reading some Kierkegaard. I didn’t get particularly far but on the topic of personal identity and existential transformation, this essay was a good start. Choice quote: ‘Infinitude’s despair is to lack finitude, finitude’s despair is to lack infinitude.’
4. 🤬  Sometimes you have to change yourself just to get through the day. And that’s why the Asshole Survival Guide might just be the book you need. I certainly found a few chuckles and a few tips. Try the a16z podcast if you’re short on time but knee-deep in assholes.
5. 🇷🇺  It’s not all futurism on the mind, sometimes the mind wanders curiously backwards. Here is a great example of the transformative nature of power and its corrosive and corruptive effects in an excellent New Yorker article on how Stalin became Stalinist.
6. 🤖  Want to avoid the transhumanist reduction? A lot of questions float around on all sides of this murky issue and, firmly coming down on one of those side is Joi Ito, from MIT’s Media Lab, who has written a compelling manifesto against the technological singularity.
7. 👻  Are you ready to make the ultimate transformation? To transform to the other side? Here in this fascinating project, Frank Kolkman creates death simulation machine using virtual reality to help people face that next, final step.
8. 🌤  And to end on a lighter note, if anyone tells you 2017 was a terrible year (and in many respects it sure seemed like it), then let’s change our attitude. 2017 was a great year, and here’s 99 reasons to prove it.

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IDEALIST IN THE PAST FLASHBACK

• I just discovered that Sam Harris (he of Issue 1 fame), collects an (impressive set of book recommendations), some from him, some from his readers and some from podcast guests. Dive in and find your next 5 years worth of reading material…
• Remember the unidentified object flying through our solar system from The Idealist 005 🌖? Well, turns out it got a badass name (“Oumuamua”) and, even more excitingly, it might have been an alien spacecraft!. How this wasn’t front page news, I have no idea.
• A podcast recommendation and a flashback to the relentless positivity of Issue 3, Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd is charming, thought-provoking and all about ideas - just up my street. Maybe yours too…
• Paperclip flashback! Quite Interesting on Twitter: “Have you ever wondered how paperclips are made?”

Pop Fact Footnotes!

• syzygy - In astronomy, a syzygy is a straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies in a gravitational system. It is also a pretty rad no-vowel-word, one which I discovered in Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem.
• You might have noticed dated references to a broken arm and new years resolutions. This is a result of discovering a half-written draft, forgotten in the haze of working on another new project. But more on that later…

One final note: if you like this newsletter and fancy spreading the word, send it on to a friend or two or throw a tweet out there. There’ll be another one before long…