Talk of Today

Chamira Gamage is a Human Rights Advocate at Amnesty International who has been instrumental in campaigning and lobbying for the Assange campaign globally. He has taken a complex and at times unpopular case and ensured it was being given the attention it deserves, based on the core principles press freedom, freedom of expression, and the impact it has on us all, both now and in the future. Chamira is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Thinkrs, a critical thinking Chrome Extension and soon to come News App, which helps users consider context as they read in to help them be better informed.We cover: Chamira's backgroundThe backstory of Julian Assange and WikileaksHow has Assange been treatedWhy does this matter to all of usWhat can we doEPISODE LINKSChamira on TwitterAmnesty International's petitionWrite to the WhitehouseLetter to Australian Prime Minister Scott MorrisonThinkrs.ioSUPPORT:Contribute to coffee fundBack me on IdeamarketRate Talk of Today on Apple PodcastsPODCAST INFOPodcast WebsiteFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Dr. Peter Rohde is an ARC Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Quantum Software & Information at the University of Technology Sydney. Peter is also a mountaineer, musician, cryptoanarchist, and author of the recently released book "The Quantum Internet".EPISODE LINKS:The Quantum Internet‍Peter's websitePeter's TwitterSUPPORT:Contribute to coffee fundBack me on IdeamarketRate Talk of Today on Apple PodcastsPODCAST INFOPodcast WebsiteFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Tyson Yunkaporta is an Australian academic, arts critic, researcher, and member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He recently started the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, which is focused on applying Indigenous thinking to issues that complexity scientists and technologists are currently working on across domains including economics, governance, evolutionary dynamics, cognition, and the environment. Tyson is also the author of the world-view reconfiguring book 'Sand Talk' which served as the basis of our conversation. In the book, Tyson explores our global systems from an Aboriginal perspective and how this viewpoint could help us resolve some of the complex sustainability issues facing our world.In our conversation we cover:The indigenous notion of story and the problem with the narrative at the heart of Western civilisationThe value in true diversity, identity, and placeViolence and the need for its integration in societyWhy instead of pursuing growth we should seek 'increase'The need for humanity to retake our place as custodians of the land we're connected to.EPISODE LINKSTyson's Deakin University pageBook: Sand Talk‍Tyson's Podcast: The Other OthersVideo: Why the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab mattersSUPPORT:Contribute to coffee fundBack me on IdeamarketRate Talk of Today on Apple PodcastsPODCAST INFOPodcast WebsiteFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Jeremy is CEO of LBRY, a blockchain based protocol which is aiming to do what bitcoin has done for money for publishing. In that, rather than relying upon third parties to aggregate and distribute content, library has built a technology that allows this to be done peer to peer without fear of censorship or demonetisation. He's also CEO of Odyssee, a youtube-like video streaming platform built on LBRY technology. EPISODE LINKS:Jeremy on TwitterLBRY.comOdysee.comSUPPORT:Contribute to coffee fundBack me on IdeamarketRate Talk of Today on Apple PodcastsPODCAST INFOPodcast WebsiteFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Victor Kline is the Party Leader of the New Liberals in Australia. He's a Sydney based barrister specialising in the area of Refugee and Asylum Seeker Law. He's founder and director of the The Refugee Law Project as well as editor of the Federal Court Reports and Federal Law Reports.We cover:The need for an Independent Commission Against Corruption with teethThe moral crisis of our immigration policies and some potential solutionsAustralia's vast potential as an energy superpowerBrain drain, the crippling of Australian universities, and getting back on track to becoming the 'smart country'The plans the New Liberals have and the challenges they face.Why Climate inaction is actually unAustralianEPISODES LINKS:The New Liberals' WebsiteVictor on TwitterNew Liberals on TwitterSUPPORT:Contribute to coffee fundBack me on IdeamarketRate Talk of Today on Apple PodcastsPODCAST INFOPodcast WebsiteFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

In this episode I am once again joined by philosopher and economist Prof. Karl Widerquist, professor of philosophy at Georgetown University in Qatar. He was co-founder of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network, the first Basic Income network in the United States, and was also co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network from 2008-2017.He's recently coauthored a several of books, two of which served as the basis of our discussion. These are The Prehistory of Private Property which debunks three false claims commonly accepted by contemporary political philosophers regarding property systems, and the book Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy which explores how philosophers use and perpetuate myths about prehistory. While there's barely any mention of universal basic income in these texts, the conclusions that lead from them can be seen to be strongly support a social program like UBI.LinksKarl on TwitterKarl's WebsitePrehistory of Private PropertyPrehistoric Myths in Modern Political PhilosophyIndependence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to Say No (Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee)Support & ShownotesPodcast shownotesRate it on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on YouTubeBy me a coffeeFollow Sam on TwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Professor Karoline Wiesner, Professor of Complexity Science, discusses the field of complexity science, measuring complexity, information theory, entropy, zero entropy states, adaptability of complex systems, complexity science as a new way of doing science, measuring nonlinearity and complexity, complexity science and ethical reasoning.

This episode is a bit of a wild one. It's a three hour discussion bringing together a unifying principle for life, the free energy principle (a topic I explored in greater detail in my conversation with Maxwell Ramstead), with several pernicious problems that have plagued us for years, like consciousness, free will, intelligence, and what the hell is going on when we take psychdelic substances. Leading us on a tour of these awe-inspiring, interconnected, mind-bending topics is the scientist Dr. Adam Safron. Adam is has recently finished a postdoc the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and has moved on to the John's Hopkins Centre for Psychdelics and Consciousness Research.His work brings together neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy from a complex systems perspective and is truly fascinating. His ultimate aim is is providing a multi-level account of the factors that help people to be adaptive, creative, and free in all aspects of their lives.One of his more recent projects has been developing a theory of consciousness, Integrated World Modeling Theory, which in the context of the free energy principle and integrated information theory, proposes that conscious experiences are what it is like to model an embodied self and world with coherent organization by space, time, and cause.In our conversation we cover:The Free Energy PrincipleThe Big 5 Personality trait model, and it's recent cybernetifactionIntelligence and why the artificial intelligence of the future might have to be embodied in order to reach its purported potentialAdam then takes us through his theory of consciousness, Integrated World Modeling Theory,Free willPsychedelics and the brainSupport & ShownotesPodcast shownotesRate it on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on YouTubeBy me a coffeeFollow Sam on TwitterLinksAdam on TwitterAdam on FacebookAdam on Google ScholarAdam on Research GateBook: Freedom Evolves by Dan DennettBook: The Big Picture by Sean CarrollSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Herb is co-founder and treasurer of the Democracy Earth foundation, a non-profit building a blockchain-based open source "liquid democracy" governance platform, with the aim of bringing blockchain-based tools for democracy to the world at large, as well as executive Director of the Independent National Union, a new organisation with the aim of strengthening political power independent from the two-party system to enable the Independent governing of American cities, states and nation.He's a serial software entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, having built and sold multiple companies mostly building systems where power purposefully shifts to the user through technology. When he learned of blockchain technology in 2012, considering it to be "the best invention since the Internet itself", Herb dedicated the rest of his career to social entrepreneurship.In our conversation, we cover:Sovereign identity and proof of humanity IDQuadratic votingCurrency, nation-states, and the blockchain revolution we will seeHow the Universal Basic Income token works, what the philosophy behind it is, and what the plans for it areWhat's wrong with politics in the US at the momentSupport & ShownotesPodcast shownotesRate it on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on YouTubeBy me a coffeeFollow Sam on TwitterLinksDemocracy.EarthProof of HumanityHerb's TwitterIndependent National UnionBook: Architecture of a Techno democracyBook: The Politics IndustrySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations

Today we're talking about climate change and the precarious position we are all in, threatened with the very collapse of our societies and the biosphere upon which they rest, all due to our inaction. Joining me to explore this sobering topic is Earth systems scientist Professor Will Steff. Will is a climate change expert and researcher at the Australian National University, Canberra. He's held many positions related to guiding our species back onto a sustainble climate trajectory. He was the Executive Director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute,he served as a Science Adviser to the Australian Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, he was a founding Climate Councillor of Australia's Climate Council, and has been an author and reviewer of five of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) assessments and special reports between 2000 and 2018.In our conversation, we cover:How bad is the current situation?Tipping pointsThe difficulty of modelling a system as complex as our climate and thus, the need for a great deal of humiltiy and caution when dealing with climate changeThe threat social collapse due to climate changeand why we really need to get our act together by 2030 in order to try and stablise the climate system. Support & ShownotesPodcast shownotesRate it on Apple PodcastsSubscribe on YouTubeBy me a coffeeFollow Sam on TwitterLinksWill's ANU PageAustralian Climate CouncilWhy we are facing a climate emergency talk by Will Game, Set, Match: Calling Time on Climate InactionPaulo Magalhaes' The Safe Operating Space TreatySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/talk-of-today/donations