In this conversation, Rufus interviews Zak about his early learning journey, exploring the corruption of graduate education, the sacredness of measurement for ancient man and what kind of new wise agency is needed amidst existential risk and all pervasive information warfare.

Listen above or watch the episode here:

About the episode:

In their second interview, Rufus explores Dr. Zak Stein's formative experiences of education, music and standardised testing. They explore the sacred and esoteric history of measurement in the pre-modern world compared with today. Zak Shares on what he learned conducting research into the all-pervasive landscape of propaganda and information warfare for the Consilience Project. They close exploring the possibility of 'a new archetype of wise agency' which, unlike previous monastic wisdom traditions, is deeply responsive and engaged with worldly agency, politics, power and strategy.

This conversation supports the recent book First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come. See detailed notes on the book and our summary here.

Chapters

00:00 Zak’s Early Education Experience

09:46 Zak’s Journey Through Jazz Musicians

14:33 Ken Wilber and Developmental Psychology

17:44 The Creation of Lectica & Entering Harvard Without a GPA

24:02 What Happened to Developmental Psychology at Harvard?

28:00 The Academy Is Broken & the Frame of Institutional Decay

31:47 Government and Industry Cannibalize Graduate Education

39:29 The Problem of Metrication & Civilizational Collapse

45:35 The Magic of Measurement for Ancient Man & Measurement as a Sacred Act

58:18 Consilience Project’s Findings on Psychological Warfare

1:01:00 Rufus: Culture War, Printing Press, and the Modern Age

1:03:45 Information War Erodes the Possibility of Truth

1:20:00 How Can a Second Renaissance Counter Propaganda Culture?

1:22:45 The “Long Game” of Wisdom in the Past vs. the Need for Active Engagement in the Metacrisis

1:24:12 The New Archetype of “Wise Agency”

1:32:00 How Do We Use Power Wisely?

About Zak Stein

Dr. Zachary Stein is co-founder of the Civilizational Research Institute, the Center for World Philosophy and Religion and Lectica, Inc, and is a widely sought after and award winning speaker. Zak is a leading authority on the future of education and contemporary issues in human development. He was trained at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and education, and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. Dr. Stein is the author of several books and many peer-reviewed papers, including most recently First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come, by Zak Stein, Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber writing under the name David J. Temple.

About Rufus Pollock

Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Find out more about his work on his website: rufuspollock.com.

Production by Jacob Kishere & SENSESPACE Studio

Get full access to Life Itself at news.lifeitself.org/subscribe

Ronna McDaniel Takes One for The Team I Matt Lewis Reacts