In 'We Who Wrestle with God', Dr. Peterson delves into the ancient, foundational stories of the Western world. He analyzes Biblical accounts of rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and triumph, such as the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel, Abraham, and Moses. The book explores how these stories stabilize, inspire, and unite us culturally and psychologically. It encourages readers to understand these narratives scientifically and spiritually, to become conscious of the structure of their souls and societies, and to see themselves and others in a new light.
In 'The Vision Revolution,' Mark Changizi delves into four critical areas of human vision: why we see in color, why our eyes face forward, why we see illusions, and why reading comes naturally to us. Changizi argues that human color vision evolved to understand the mental states and health of others through skin color changes, and that our binocular vision allows us to 'see through' cluttered environments. He also explains how our brains predict the future to catch moving objects and how optical illusions occur due to this predictive mechanism. The book is enriched with full-color illustrations and engaging visual exercises to demonstrate these concepts[1][2][4].
In 'Expressly Human: Decoding the Language of Emotion,' Mark Changizi and Tim Barber present a grand unifying theory that explains, from first principles, how emotional expressions evolved. The book provides a comprehensive and accessible explanation of this complex topic, making it easy reading for a general audience. It also aims to be humorous and engaging while delivering its scientific insights.
Jordan Peterson sits down with theorist and researcher Mark Changizi. They discuss the biological reasons for mass hysteria on the societal level, why we evolved to have color vision, and how we understand and interpret the patterns of the natural world.
Mark Changizi is a theorist aiming to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel, and see as we do. He attended the University of Virginia for a degree in physics and mathematics, and to the University of Maryland for a PhD in math. In 2002, he won a prestigious Sloan-Swartz Fellowship in Theoretical Neurobiology at Caltech, and in 2007, he became an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2010, he took the post of Director of Human Cognition at a new research institute called 2ai Labs and also co-founded VINO Optics, which builds proprietary vein-enhancing glasses for medical personnel. He consults out of his Human Factory Lab.
He curated an exhibition and co-authored a (fourth) book — “On the Origin of Art” (2016) by Steven Pinker, Geoffrey Miller, Brian Boyd, and Mark Changizi — at MONA museum in Tasmania in 2016, illustrating his “nature-harnessing” theory on the origins of art and language.
This episode was filmed on November 22, 2024
| Links |
For Mark Changizi:
On X https://x.com/MarkChangizi/highlights
On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/markchangizi
Website https://www.changizi.com/?_sm_nck=1
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast 
