Is humanity coming to an end? Or are we currently embarking on the next step of human evolution? Who knows.
Join hosts, John Holten and Eva Kelley, on an offbeat journey towards humanity's fate by asking some of the world's top innovators - and disruptors - their thoughts and opinions.
Featuring in-depth interviews with Bryan Johnson, Founder of Kernel; Harvard's Prof. Lawrence Lessig; Dr Phil Kennedy, and more.
Is your brain a machine? Are your thoughts and feelings just malware of the mind? But what is 'really' is a machine? Welcome listeners to the transhumanist fight of the century. In the blue corner, we have Eva meeting founder and CEO of Kernel, Bryan Johnson, straight from his office in LA. And in the red corner, John meets with writer Mark O'Connell in a cafe in Dublin. Time to get out the popcorn! Round One, ding-ding...
Eva has followed the story to Georgia, USA and tracked Dr. Phil down at his neurological practice. In the back of the surgery and after his original patients have left, Dr. Phil carries out some mind-blowing experiments - on himself, and others. Brain interfacing is a bold new frontier for our ability to understand our minds - and in turn, help us to communicate.
In this episode, John turns up to hear Eva has discovered a story she’s pretty certain will pique his interest. She starts to tell him about a transhuman hero by the name of Dr. Phil Kennedy, and it leads to some pretty interesting places by way of Belize. By the end of the episode, Eva will have left the building, getting on a Trans-Atlantic flight to follow the story….
John and Eva go down the rabbit hole and question what is reality itself and whether or not we are in fact in a large scale simulation. Possibly one made by aliens. Or indeed our future descendants. We are such stuff as dreams are made on - who is to say we aren’t?
In this episode, John and Eva stare up at the night sky and get deep. Some of those age-old stoner questions are posed: where are all the aliens? Are we alone in the universe? Could it be that we’re just pets in some zoo run by alien overlords? Does this mean everything we do is meaningless? And what has Jodie Foster got to say about it all? Time to get your SETI on, folks...
As the amazon burns and extinction rebellions rage, we start the life cycle by asking: is there going to be a future to speak of at all? Why is it that the apocalypse is no longer just the reserve of religion, but now dominates everything from our Netflix viewing to our conversations with friends and family?
15% of all human consciousness that has ever existed is present and happening today: as we speed up and grow ever more connected via the Internet, what are the implications for this massive digital shift? In this episode, renowned Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig discusses the present state of the digital landscape and its impact on notions of freedom and democracy. For good or for bad, how will this new era play out in the years to come? The last episode in Season One looks resolutely into the near future.