Podcast link: http://mindfutures.libsyn.com/rss
On Episode 2 of The Consciousness Files I speak with futurist Tom Lombardo, Ph.D.
In this episode you will find out the best science fiction novel of all time, why cyborgs are an inevitable part of the future, why Ray Kurzweil’s idea of consciousness being uploaded onto computers is limited, and why the Benjamin Libet free will experiments are wrong in suggesting we do not have free will.
Tom Lombardo is the Executive Director of the Center for Future Consciousness, the Director of The Wisdom Page, the Managing Editor of Wisdom and the Future, and Professor Emeritus and retired Faculty Chair of Psychology, Philosophy, and the Future at Rio Salado College. He is a national and internationally recognized researcher, writer, and speaker, and he has published six books and over fifty articles on topics including: the history of scientific and philosophical thought; the future of education; future consciousness and contemporary futurist thought; and science fiction as the mythology of the future.
Tom is also an award-winning teacher and educator with over thirty-five years of professional experience in college teaching.
Tom’s web site is: www.centerforfutureconsciousness.com
PODCAST TIMELINE
4:40 Tom outlines his brand of futures – futures of consciousness, including wisdom.
6:30. How Tom first got into futures studies, seeing an Alvin Toffler book in a department store.
8:50. How Tom became interested in the subject of consciousness – with the mind-body problem.
12:00 Tom’s solution to “the mind-body problem.”
13:00 What is consciousness?
14:00 How Tom’s theory of consciousness can assist mainstream science.
16:00 The physical environment is not separate from our interpretation of it.
18:30 Tom’s book Mind Flight discussed.
20:20 What experiences have influenced Tom’s understanding of consciousness. How weight lifting played a part.
22:50. Meteorite synchronicities.
23:50 Olaf Stapledon’s novel “Starmaker,” and why it is the best science fiction novel ever.
27:30. Why Stapledon influenced Tom’s understanding of mind and the future.
29:30. Australian sci-fi writer Greg Egan, and his novel “Diaspora.”
33:00 Sexuality in Stapledon.
34:00 Tom’s critique Ray Kurzweil and the transhumanists. They focus on technology, but fail to consider mental and spiritual evolution.
38:10. Evolution moves towards greater complexity.
40:10 Cyborgs, mobile technology and the human future. Tom relates his enthusiasm for detachable body parts.
45:50. “The Last American”. Sci fi Novel written in 1880. Persians sail to New York City in the 23rd century, only to find it has been destroyed.
47:40. The evolution of consciousness and the current American political crisis.
50:20. America lacks cultural icons of higher consciousness expression.
53:10 How can we create a more positive attitude towards the future? Collapse may be required.
55:20 Who are the positive role models we can look up to?
59:20. Does the universe have any purpose? We have begun guiding evolution.
1:02:10 We are participating with the universe in its evolution.
1:08:10 The brain operates within a cosmic ecology.
10:10.40 Thomas Nagel’s argument about consciousness as being intrinsic within the nature of the universe.
1:12:10 Spinoza and the possibility of free will.
1:15.00 Critiquing Benjamin Libet’s free will experiments. Why Libet is wrong.
1:19:40 Tom’s recommended reading and contact details.
Theme music by bensound.com
