EF2 SHOW NOTES
Looking to play or download the episode? Click here…(EF2) Intro: Life is a Near Death Experience Welcome to The EFP
What if You Could Reset Everything?
The big question driving Episode EF2 is… What if you could reset everything? If an opportunity came along that allowed you to completely reset your life and start all over again, would you do it? When you sum up everything in your life, would a complete reset come as a blessing or a curse?
Let’s take it a step further. What if you could take the rest of the world for the ride with you? All the way back to the very start — to the big bang or whatever the hell came first. Although reset won’t likely come in the form of a button-push, what if significant changes to your life were only a mindset-shift away?
dedication
DEDICATION: Episode EF2 is dedicated to George Carlin. Few others could make depressing facts about humanity so funny. Carlin was also proof that good comedians are the practical philosophers of pop culture. The difference being that instead of boring auditoriums and sterile college halls, we have dirty stages and gigantic piles of weed.
Carlin quickly moved from an amusing disc jockey to a provocative icon of everything wrong and right at the same time. Seven words you supposedly ‘can’t say’ were enough for Carlin’s arrest in the ’70s. A couple of years later, a lawsuit followed against a station that dared to air his infamous monologue. Carlin’s work spans over more than twenty comedy albums, fourteen TV specials, and several acting roles.
The more Carlin moved forward, the more his standups became both insightful and bitter. The transformation also changed his personality and reached its peak in the ’90s. Best known for social commentary and innovative wordplay, there wasn’t a topic Carlin didn’t talk about. Although many of the covered topics like politics or drugs aren’t as shocking today as before, they are still hilarious. He’d have a field day with all the nonsense on the table today that can be found in just an hour of cable news.
HOW GEORGE CARLIN INSPIRED EF2
The Carlin quote at the forefront of this episode highlights the troublesome irony of realizing that every day is–like it or not–a near-death experience which you might not survive. As this and another quote found their way into the episode, it’s clear his work had an impact on my worldview, at least as it presents itself in Episode EF2 (the introduction to the Evolve Faster Podcast). But besides the heavy topics he dissected in so few words, he was also one of the funniest people to ever stand on the comedy stage.
If you managed to miss Carlin’s great work, here are a few links that will provide a solid introduction to the mind of a comedic genius:
inspirations
INSPIRATIONS: Maynard James Keenan, best known as lead singer for bands like Tool, A Perfect Circle & Puscifer. Because really… Everything’s might be ok. Charlie Brooker, the creator of the famous TV show Black Mirror. No matter if his stories do come true, they provide us a lot to worry about while keeping it highly entertaining. Christopher Hitchens, for such a hardcore realist to provide us with one of the best definitions of the unknown entity – soul, because there’s no better metaphor. Friedrich Nietzsche, a philosopher whose attempt to define best what a human can be ended up falsely determining the worst a human can be. Episode EF2 was further inspired by The Reptilians, Viktor Frankl, VS Ramachandran, Aesop, Donald Trump, and Genghis Khan. For a full list of data and references, please see Intro Episode Show Notes.
Episode EF2 Summary
Same as every day, you’ll wake up faced with the ability to take several high-stakes gambles—change the world, change yourself or do nothing—three core options that are always right at your fingertips. The problem is you’re most likely on auto-pilot and not consciously aware of this potential you have each day. So instead, you will probably take another step into the comfortable yet dark cave of dissatisfaction; it’s safe, but also tightly shut with a limited supply of air.
But what if things were different? What if all it took to make a major change in your life was a simple push of a button? Would you do it knowing a simple motion could change everything, at the cost that it might also plunge you into the great unknown? What does it take to make such a broad yet straightforward action…bravery, or despair?
In this introduction to the Evolve Faster Podcast, we’ll ride an hour-long roller coaster of a thought experiment designed to challenge your normal modes of conscious life experience. We’ll look at a psychological tendency that makes it difficult for you to break out of the mental auto-pilot in which you rarely acknowledge the fact that you could die around the next curve. Next, we’ll investigate what it means to Evolve Faster as a metaphor for personal and societal change. Finally, we’ll examine where the podcast will go from here into the regular seasons–groups of 10 (or so) themed episodes, written and produced in a unique fiction-meets-nonfiction format.
So buckle your philosophical seatbelt, pull down your psychological shoulder harness and lock up your kids (ok, don’t do that). Hope you’re ready to see how well your stomach can handle this existential joyride of exploring some of the foundational content for the podcast. The other goal is to prepare us for the upcoming Season One of the Evolve Faster Podcast.
references
Bill Vallicella, Cognitive Dissonance or Doxastic Dissonance? maverickphilosopher.typepad.com, https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2014/06/cognitive-dissonance-or-doxastic-dissonance.html (accessed: 2 December, 2017)
Brooke Donald, Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online. ed.stanford.edu, https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-researchers-find-students-have-trouble-judging-credibility-information-online (accessed: 2 December, 2017)
Hannah Keyser, Why Do Ostriches Stick Their Heads in the Sand?. mentalfloss.com, http://mentalfloss.com/article/56176/why-do-ostriches-stick-their-heads-sand (accessed: 1 December, 2017)
Leonid Perlovsky, A challenge to human evolution—cognitive dissonance. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3622034/ (accessed: 1 December, 2017)
Pasko Rakic, The Development and Shaping of the Brain. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234146/ (accessed: 2 December, 2017)
Robin Wright, Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?. www.newyorker.com, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-america-headed-for-a-new-kind-of-civil-war (accessed: 28 February, 2017)
Saul McLeod, What Happens to the Brain During Cognitive Dissonance?. www.simplypsychology.org, https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html (accessed: 5 December, 2017)
Thea Buckley, What Happens to the Brain During Cognitive Dissonance?. www.scientificamerican.com, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-to-the-brain-during-cognitive-dissonance1/ (accessed: 1 December, 2017)
episode quotes
Any of these quotes make you think? If so, please support the show by sharing…
Do you see ‘one step closer to death’ as something to fear…or a challenge to overcome? — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
Go to the mirror in the bathroom and look at that person in the eye. Are you really living a life you desire…and one you designed for yourself? — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
Is a civil war around a core topic a survivable event inside the skull of one person? Who fires the first shot? And who raises the flag of surrender to end the conflict? — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
You will struggle to modify your philosophical outlook and psychological faculties without a practice to incrementally upgrade both — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
If your brain is comfortable with all of its positions, you’re probably not challenging yourself — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
Our brain suffers from a massive evolutionary hangover. — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
We fear change because change is hard. And we fear hard things because we might fail. But what if change is good? What if certain kinds of fear are good? And what if failing is actually really, really good? — Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
(EF2) Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction: George Carlin joked that life is a near-death experience. But what if this clever wit is actually concealing the meaning of life itself? And if you could access this truth using some tricks to completely reset your mind, life, and soul, would you have the guts to do it?
What if you could reset…everything? –Evolve Faster Podcast Introduction (EF2)
Season One: The journey begins as we embark on 11 episodes on big questions relating to MIND. What is the truth? Can we trust reason? Why do we have emotions? Does happiness define the good? What is identity? What is creativity?
(EF1) Trailer: The Evolve Faster Podcast (Extended) Trailer
(EF2) Intro: Life is a Near Death Experience: Welcome to The Evolve Faster Podcast
(EF3) S1-E1: All Aboard the Experience Machine: Destination…Unknown (Season One, Episode One)
(EF4) S1-E2: The Decapitation of Reason: A Skeptic’s Guide (Season One, Episode Two)
(EF5) S1-E3: The Truth is Clay in the Hands of a Sculptor (Season One, Episode Three)
(EF6) S1-E4: Information Mainlining and the Folly of Modern Wisdom (Season One, Episode Four)
(EF7) S1-E5: Sleight of Mind: The Black Magic of Rhetoric (Season One, Episode Five)
(EF8) S1-E6: Without a Compass: All Who Sail the Seas of Identity Are Not Lost (Season One, Episode Six)
(EF9) S1-E7: I Feel Therefore I am: Capsized by the River Emotion (Season One, Episode Seven)
(EF10) S1-E8: The Road to Happiness is Inked in Suffering (Season One, Episode Eight)
(EF11) S1-E9: When the Lights Go Out: The Blinding Light of an Artificial Future (Season One, Episode Nine)
(EF12) S1-E10: Wired to Fail: Leveling Up in the Game of Life (Season One, Episode Ten)
(EF13) S1-E11: The Bloody Fingerprint of Creativity (Season One, Episode Eleven)
(EF14) BTP: Behind the Evolve Faster Podcast - The Making of a Speculative Fiction Meets Philosophical Nonfiction Podcast
(EF15) AMA: Ask Me Anything: About Scott Ely and Evolving a Philosophy for Life
(EF16) BTP: On Creative Writing, Video Games and the Future of the Evolve Faster Podcast (About Antonio Rozich)
(EF17) BTP-EF3: What Am I Supposed To Do Free Will and Other Everyday Problems Behind the Podcast of Episode EF3
(EF18) AMA-EF3: The Mystical Allure of Converting to Buddhism and Speculating about Quantum Mechanics Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF19) BTP-EF4: Head Transplantation and Finding Inspiration for Speculative Fiction - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF4
(EF20) AMA-EF4: The Declining Value of Information and Taking Risks to Determine What is the Truth Ask Me Anything of Episode EF4
(EF21) BTP-EF5: Should Lying be Made Illegal and the Importance of Figuring Out Why You Believe What you Believe --Behind the Podcast of Episode EF5
(EF22) AMA-EF5: Defeating Fake News and Critical Thinking as the Superpower the World Needs Most Ask Me Anything of Episode EF5
(EF23) BTP-EF6: Scaling Mount Wisdom Without Suffocating Under an Avalanche of Ego Behind The Podcast of Episode EF6
(EF24) AMA-EF6: Is Less Really More When it Comes to the Pursuit of Wisdom or is Ignorance Bliss - Ask Me Anything of Episode EF6
(EF25) BTP-EF7: The Power of Propaganda and Rhetoric to Divide Us and the Quest for a Better World - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF7
(EF26) AMA-EF7: The Impossibility of Honest Politicians and Protecting Our Kids from The Most Insidious Fake News Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF27) BTP-EF8: Who are You and is it Possible to Upgrade Your Identity as an Adult? - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF8
(EF28) AMA-EF8: Drugs, Consciousness Manipulation and Cheating Your Way To a Better You - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF8
(EF29) BTP-EF9: Waging War Between Reason and Emotions and the Importance of Leaving Things Unresolved Behind the Podcast of Episode EF9
(EF30) AMA-EF9: Emotional Manipulation Tribalism and Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Think Before you Feel - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF9
(EF31) BTP-EF10: Dharma Modifying Negative Thinking and the Never-Ending Pursuit of Happiness by Embracing Suffering - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF10
(EF32) AMA-EF10: Mind Control Through a Well Chosen Tattoo and the Unlikely Case of Being Happy Enough - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF33) BTP-EF11: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF11
(EF34) AMA-EF11: On Perfection, the AI Alignment Problem, and the Possibility of Quantum Leaps of Creativity - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF11
(EF35) BTP-EF12: Cryptocurrencies Gaming and Leveraging Failure to Help Us Define Who We Are - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF12
(EF36) AMA-EF12: Pyrrhic Victory and Finding the 10% of Your Mind that Defines Who You Are - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF12
(EF37) BTP-EF13: Where Creativity Comes From and How to Find Your Uniquely Bloody Fingerprint - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF13
(EF38) AMA-EF13: Flow, Creative Improvisation and Other Altered States of Consciousness Ask Me Anything for Episode EF13
(EF39) S2-E0: LIFE, UPGRADED: Welcome to Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast
(EF40) S2-E1: Dehumanized: The Search for Self in the Devil’s Looking Glass
(EF41) S2-E2: Transhuman Fallibility: The Existential Risk of a Superhuman Future
(EF42) S2-E3: Civil Individualism: Loneliness Atop Mount Empowerment
(EF43) S2-E4: Evil Urges: The Fiery Duality of Human Nature
(EF44) S2-E5: Reality Unchained: Smashing the Icons of Social Delusion
(EF45) S2-E6: Weaving Society’s Web: Purpose in a Future Without Work
(EF46) S2-E7: Empathetic Distortion: Rigging the Scales of Justice
(EF47) S2-E8: Infinite Regress: Drawing Back The Veil of Perception
(EF48) S2-E9: Checkmate: A Child’s Guide to the Good Life
(EF49) S2-E10: The Domino Effect: The Momentum of an Unstoppable Future