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This week on the show I speak with physicist Geoffrey West (SFI) and evolutionary biologist Manfred Laubichler (ASU, SFI) about the transformations that our geosphere, biosphere, technosphere, and noosphere are undergoing as the “extended phenotype” of human innovation runs rampant across the surface of Planet Earth. These two distinguished scientists are some of the most profound thinkers I’ve ever encountered, helping midwife a new understanding of what it means to be human and a planetary citizen. I have wanted Geoffrey West on Future Fossils since well before I even started working for SFI in 2018, so this episode is the consummation of a years-long journey and I cannot be more excited to share it with you! It feels a little like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters, but <shrug> we live in an increasingly-intertwingled world, so let’s make the best of it! I wouldn’t be where I am today without these two fine minds and their important work. Enjoy…
“The consequences of the Anthropocene are the product of innovations, and yet somehow we think the way out is through EVEN MORE innovation. This is a predicament…Innovation has to be looked at critically. One of the interesting things in the history of life is the OPPRESSION of innovation.”
– Manfred Laubichler
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✨ Special thanks to my friends at Noonautics.org & Gregory Landua of The Regen Foundation for supporting both the show and pioneering research to make the world a better place!
✨ Your Anthropocene & Technosphere Syllabus:
More Is Different: Broken symmetry and the nature of the hierarchical structure of science.
Phil Anderson
Population growth, climate change create an ‘Anthropocene engine' that's changing the planet
Manfred Laubichler
Scale and information-processing thresholds in Holocene social evolution
Jaeweon Shin et al.
Policies may influence large-scale behavioral tipping
Karine Nyborg et al.
Teaching the Anthropocene from a Global Perspective (2014!)
Manfred Laubichler & Jürgen Renn
More from them:
Seminar: Co-Evolutionary Perspectives on the Technosphere
Anthropocene Campus | Technosphere / Co-Evolution, presented by Jürgen Renn and Manfred Laubichler
The Growth and Differentiation of Metabolism: Extended Evolutionary Dynamics in the Technosphere
SFI Community Event - Panel discussion on the Past, Present, and Future of the Anthropocene
Sander van der Leeuw, D.A. Wallach, & Geoffrey West, moderated by Manfred Laubichler
Welcome to the Future: Four Pivotal Trends You Should Be Aware Of
Ed William on the work of Dror Poleg
The Future is Fungi: The Rise and Rhizomes of Mushroom Culture
Jeff VanderMeer, Kaitlin Smith, & Merlin Sheldrake, moderated by Corey Pressman
Does the Ecology of Somatic Tissue Normally Constrain the Evolution of Cancer?
John Pepper at SFI
The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmares
Re: TESCREAL, coined by Timnit Gebru & Émile Torres
Complexity Literacy for a Sustainable Digital Transition: Cases and Arguments From Transdisciplinary Education Programs
Gerald Steiner
Relevant episodes from my past life as the host of SFI’s Complexity Podcast:
Olivia Judson on Major Energy Transitions in Evolutionary History
Melanie Moses on Metabolic Scaling in Biology & Computation
Chris Kempes on The Physical Constraints on Life & Evolution
The Future of the Human Climate Niche with Tim Kohler & Marten Scheffer
Scaling Laws & Social Networks in The Time of COVID-19 with Geoffrey West (Part 1)
Geoffrey West on Scaling, Open-Ended Growth, and Accelerating Crisis/Innovation Cycles: Transcendence or Collapse? (Part 2)
Reflections on COVID-19 with David Krakauer & Geoffrey West
Michael Garfield & David Krakauer on Evolution, Information, and Jurassic Park
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