Humans On The Loop 134 - Anthony Thogmartin on Mind, Music, and Technology
Multi-instrumentalist musician Anthony Thogmartin of Papadosio [band], EarthCry [solo project], and Seed to Stage [music production tutorials] joins us for the first time since Episode 10 to talk about navigating the exponentially expanding body of human knowledge, how interfacing with different media technologies yields new minds and selves at the intersection, and the profound creative evolution he and his band have undergone by embracing tools like Ableton Live. For the ten-plus years I’ve known him, Anthony’s optimism and enthusiasm have inspired me to seize the day and strive for new horizons, and whether or not you make music I have no doubt this conversation will inspire you as well.
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Mentioned:
Ishi Crew, Complexity Explorers Facebook Group, Scott E. Page, Mirta Galesic, SpaceWeather.com, Neal.Fun/deep-sea, Caitlin McShea, InterPlanetaryFest.org, Sam Brouse, Korg Minilogue, Ableton Push, Meow Wolf, Jessica Flack, The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, Darwin’s Pharmacy by Richard Doyle, Gary Weber, Erik Davis, A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, Plato, Thoth, Technopoly by Neil Postman, America Before by Graham Hancock, Wile E. Coyote, Star Trek, Google Translate, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Microdose VR, Android Jones, Anson Phong, Sennheiser, Magic Leap, David Block, Phaedroid, Glitch Mob, Mi.Mu gloves, Oculus Quest, Google Duo, Burning Man, Sweet Melis, The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr
Discussed:
The value of long-form media and the conversation as ways of deepening our engagement with an accelerating world.
Neurodiversity and the “social molecule,” and how being different together is good for all of us.
“The only reason we [human beings] made it is because we’re good at talking to each other.”
Our understanding of the planet is not just expanding outward, but also inward…not just into the vastness of space but deeper into the oceans and crust and into inner space.
The more attention you pour into things, the more finely differentiated they become, and things get bigger on the inside than they are on the outside.
Earthcry’s concept album Identity Mitosis and its multimedia storytelling about a conversation between AI and Gaia long after the extinction of humankind.
What does the future look like without us?
Living at the bottleneck between the complexity of the micro and the macro.
The self as a plural ecosystem and the conscience as the voice of various unconscious neural motifs erupting into consciousness.
Awakening as the abandoning of episodic autobiographic memory and the vice grip of the default mode network.
The egoic self as a kind of electrical phenomenon, and possibly a kind of auxiliary or emergency preservation mode (not our natural state of balanced health).
Metabolic ontology and the possibility of reality itself changing with the states of the extended body-mind in psychogenic networks.
The cybernetic self and how performing music is also being a part of the music technology ecosystem.
The dependency of thought on the mediation of technology…handwriting vs. typing, etc., and how different selves emerge in different contexts.
Polarization and our refusal to understand one another.
Generation gaps in technological fluency.
Is the Universal Translator not RUNNING Starfleet?
Letting Ableton Live take over Papadosio.
YouTube vs. Instagram.
Moore's Law and miniaturization in music performance, and moving with the current of technological evolution rather than against it.
Michael’s open call to developers to help us create software for controlling music and visuals simultaneously with a gestural interface in virtual reality…
…and Anthony’s disclaimers about why this hasn’t happened yet.
Augmented reality versus virtual reality and how evolution is co-evolving with the human body and mind (not just people adapting to technology).
What matters depends on the scale at which you’re paying attention.
Future Fossils Theme Music:
“God Detector” by Evan “Skytree” Snyder feat. Michael Garfield
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