Matt Segall on Culture as The Lifeblood of The Machine Economy

Mar 14, 2025

Matthew David Segall, an Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, dives into the fascinating intersection of culture and technology. He discusses the difference between organisms and machines, questioning our approach to AI and emphasizing a unified cosmic process. Segall explores how cultural activity and market systems can coexist, advocating for a more profound understanding of money as a spiritual technology. The conversation also touches on our responsibilities toward our creations, urging a collaborative bond between humanity and machines.

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INSIGHT

Culture Feeds Economic Value

Culture supplies the values that money communicates, so markets don't determine what we should value.
Playful cultural creativity is the metabolic fuel that feeds economic activity.

ANECDOTE

How A Childhood Crisis Shaped A Scholar

Matthew Segall traces his philosophical path back to confronting mortality at age seven and a formative high-school teacher.
He shifted from journalism to cognitive science and became a transdisciplinary scholar at CIIS.

INSIGHT

Process Thought Reframes Computation

Whitehead frames reality as iterative decision-making, enabling a form of 'process computationalism.'
That view lets us treat emergence as self-assembling, open-ended learning rather than fixed rule-following.

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