Curious on Earth (2025)

Some topics and keywords: deep time, cognition, creativity, mental health, technology, religion, play, ecology, sexuality, slowing down, AI, wisdom, cold swimming, reality tunnels, movement, stillness, psychedelics, antifragility, conscientiousness, beginner mindset, political polarization, pratītyasamutpāda, magic, music, game b, altered states of consciousness, commitment, BJJ, decentralization,

energy policy, dance, language, adulting, drug policy, meditation, metamodernism, meaning crisis, neurodiversity, emergence, honesty, sensemaking, animalness, (post)rationality, media, death, love.

25/11/2024

(in Finnish: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116690026)

How about a pedagogically perfect – an infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely charismatic and infinitely patient – AI tutoring system that would be so skilled in getting us to learn and understand anything that it would, in its brilliance, replace humans, first as teachers, and then, eventually and unavoidably, also as parents?

The reason I'm asking is that such a direction does not seem at all impossible, and I have a hunch that a growing number of people consider it a more than welcome trajectory.

But extremely techno-optimistic visions of a near future with unimaginably powerful AI systems superseding human interactions and controlling more and more of our realities (and perhaps eventually sidelining humans completely) are not our predetermined destiny. Other kinds of paths can be imagined. While we may not want to (or even be able to) turn away from these technologies in general or using them for learning purposes in particular, it may be possible to build their nature, design and goals on a wiser foundation. Thus emerges a vision involving AI tutoring systems that don't override human values and aspirations but actually support our flourishing and help us be in deeper contact with each other and life in general.

Wisely built AI systems might help individuals and institutions alike to grow in a direction that also starts to enable the solving of the impossibly difficult metacrisis that we face.

The metacrisis is a comprehensive, multifaceted crisis that encompasses various interconnected global challenges, including crises related to ecology, economy, communication, energy, geopolitics, institutions, psychology and religion.

Philosopher of education and futurist Zak Stein understands the root and true nature of the metacrisis as something deeper than these manifestations: it is a crisis of the human mind and culture, of our ability to connect with and make sense of the world and reality.

Fundamentally, then, the metacrisis is a crisis of education. In Zak's thinking, which has been significantly influenced by philosopher and psychologist John Dewey, education permeates everything. The way he thinks about education is very much connected to the German concept of "Bildung" (which is similar to the Finnish concept of "sivistys"). Optimally, education is not just knowledge transfer: Education cultivates the ability to think critically, to adapt to life's diverse challenges and to perform moral reasoning. It cultivates being in a deeper and more authentic relationship with reality.

Education is not identical to "schooling". Besides schools, education happens everywhere: In our media and technology, our economic system, science, our legal codes, churches and even advertising. And of course, in our families and all of our interactions. But these don't always or inevitably accomplish the function of education in the more profound sense that Zak is aiming at.

If we want to grow to be people who are able to truly face the metacrisis, there is a lot of reimagining to be done.

I encountered Zak's work in the same circles as cognitive scientist John Vervaeke, complexity educator Nora Bateson, metamodern theory artist Hanzi Freinacht and systems thinker Daniel Schmachtenberger, who've all had a profound effect on my thinking and being. Thus, it's no wonder that his approach piqued my interest. Starting with podcasts, I initially found Zak somewhat hard to follow, but reading his book Education in a Time Between Worlds (and slowing down the speed with which I listened to his podcast interviews) made his thinking more accessible for me and left me with a thirst for more.

Last March, Zak generously offered his time to sit down with me for an episode of the Curious on Earth podcast. As I was working on a book release and a related art exhibition (Psykedeelit ja luovuus kotimaisessa kuvataiteessa), last spring was an unusually busy and stressful period for me, which is why I wasn't able to get the episode out back then. As I've slowly worked through the backlog of projects left unfinished, I finally got to preparing the episode for publication, so here it is at last!

Besides the topics mentioned above, we talk about the necessity of both centralized and decentralized, both hierarchical and nonhierarchical approaches that solving the metacrisis will require – in addition to love, and pondering upon the value of a tree.

We reflect on the double-edged sword of postmodern thinking that, while illuminating necessary critical perspectives on modernity, has also contributed to hindering our ability to think clearly and perceive what's truly valuable in life.

Lastly, we discuss the liberating and informative effect of not needing to have a public opinion on every current issue, in social media or elsewhere – of feeling free to openly say that you don't know.

And truth: How humans throughout the ages have been knowing and saying things that are important and true – way before the dawn scientific expertise. This is still relevant.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/6OOCLUijhZQ
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/curiousonearth/9-zak-stein
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4g4tx6c
Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/3AV7xM8

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/curiousonearth

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22/11/2023

"The hi-tech that allows us to have a relatively high life expectancy, we paid for by selling our forests. We turned our biodiversity into money to buy a good health system and a good school system."

A civilization whose foundation is built on unsustainable grounds will, by definition, not survive. This defines several aspects of the ways humans currently live on this planet, and of course doesn't exclude Finland. Huck Middeke is one of the many people who are working hard to figure out what it takes to live in ways that don't destroy life and thus lead us towards the termination of civilization. Huck is a survival expert, wilderness guide and an all-around fascinating human. He's known for, amongst other things, his lower impact living experiments, including his past four years of living year-round in a yurt in Joensuu (which he, somehow, doesn't consider especially interesting).

I got the honor of having Huck on as guest number seven of my Curious on Earth podcast. This is the second CoE episode that I've done live – those familiar with my Ihmisiä, siis eläimiä podcast will recognize the setting. I find this approach infinitely more enjoyable than video calls!

In our long conversation, Huck shares the backstory of the yurt, of his interest in activism and sustainable ways of living, and of how he started to question the wisdom and even viability of things we tend to take for granted. He talks about the importance of being able to pass on sustainable – really sustainable, not just "more sustainable" – ways of living to our offspring, which most of us don't really know how to do or even learn. We discuss "normal" lifestyles as a form of addiction. We talk about whether the drive to spread and push limits is a fundamental and innate human (or animal) need. Huck describes his relationship with the wild, and gives us a view into the wilderness retreats that he offers. Amongst other things, we discuss barefoot walking, resilience hubs and, both being parents, fatherhood.

We also talk about Huck's ventures in what someone might consider a surprising interest for him – the super yacht scene, i.e., people spending fortunes in gigantic luxury boats. Furthermore, we talk about how, if living in overshoot is by definition unsustainable, we're still able to carry on doing it. We discuss the tension between sustainability and increasingly omnipresent complex technology. I present Huck with challenging questions regarding whether a hi-tech civilization is unsustainable on principle, and whether some kind of hi-tech civilization may still exist on this planet a hundred, a thousand or a million years from now.

And what about... how much time do you have to get out of a car sinking in a lake? This is one of the questions we talk about as Huck shares his wisdom regarding survival. What are survival situations? What are the six most relevant survival priorities? Huck also describes the STOP tool (stop, think, observe, plan) that can be useful for navigating such survival situations (which he understands us to currently exist in) with a level head, and the related "full moon full stop" ritual/practice that he's developed based on this tool.

Huck is not just a theorist; I'd say he's definitely a practical guy that happens to have a strong understanding of the theoretical side, too. Though the topics he deals with have their grim dimensions, Huck engages the world with a spirit of curiosity. He talks about how he doesn't want to push anyone to follow his lead or accept his conclusions: he's much more interested in leading by inspiring, trying out new (and old) things and remaining open to the ever-unfolding mystery of life.

A quote by Nancy Newhall that Huck paraphrased during our conversation seems like a nice thing to end with:

"The wild holds answers to questions we have yet to learn to ask."

Youtube: https://youtu.be/y3iB_zHRE4o
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/curiousonearth/7-huck-middeke
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3G9TQHZ
Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/3MTqly2

Patreon: http://patreon.com/curiousonearth
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18/09/2023

Suspecting he was a cop, they made him strip naked and humiliated him. He got beaten up in a public bathroom and was chased around by a lunatic armed with a knife. Totally unprepared, he had to snort an enormous amount of speed in order to avoid blowing his cover. By utilizing the "unpredictable madman" strategy, he just barely escaped being run over by a car. And he manipulated vulnerable people to get his job done, one of whom considered him the only friend he had in this world. Eventually, he realized that he was making things worse for all parties involved and realized he was suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder – with scars that still haven't healed.

For years, Neil Woods worked as a pioneering undercover cop in the UK. Having put people behind bars for a total of over a thousand years, he was very skilled in what he was doing. However, as years went by, he started to have doubts about the impact of his work. As the police got more innovative and efficient, the criminals got ever more brutal. Fighting the war on drugs also seemed to have the effect of increased corruption of both the police and, more broadly, the whole of society.

During his last visit to Finland last spring, I got the opportunity to do a podcast with this captivating storyteller. Today, I'm proud to present the first Curious on Earth episode that was recorded face-to-face instead of virtually. In our discussion, Neil tells the story of how he got started as an undercover cop. He talks about the 90s and the waves of moral panic in that led to an escalation of the war on drugs. He talks about the everyday experience of doing undercover work, the highs and lows, the secrets he had to keep from family and loved ones – some of whom abused him. He also talks about street people, the addicted souls who tried to survive on their life's stage that was often set up by years of childhood neglect and abuse.

And he talks about weaponized empathy and the moral injuries he inflicted on himself by taking advantage of some already very disadvantaged people, and by not being honest to the realities and effects of what he was doing. He talks about his encounters with mortality and the effects that the militarization of police and society has on safety. He also recounts an experience where a weird hunch told him not to allow a cop to join his team: that particular cop was later revealed to be a mole working for a local cartel.

During our conversation, I also ask him whether he thinks that the effects of cannabis legalization have so far been a disappointment; about his thoughts about Prince Harry's use of psychedelics; and how he eventually decided to quit his job and focus his attention on changing society – and, in some people's eyes, became a despicable traitor and a public enemy.

In addition to writing captivating books with JS Rafaeli, Neil is now working with The Law Enforcement Action Partnership, an organization for current and former police, judges, and other criminal justice professionals, who advocate for drug law and criminal justice reform. This was not the first conversation that I've had with him, and I've heard some of his stories several times, but somehow, they never seem to get old. Often, they're simultaneously sad and hilarious. But they're always very human – and very powerful.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/kBokFgQ6gP4
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curiousonearth/6-neil-woods
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PFz5JZ
Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/44UarK4

Patreon: http://patreon.com/curiousonearth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiousonearth
Instagram: https://instagram.com/curiousonearth

16/08/2023

New episode out – with a whopping length of five hours!

Preventing minor forest fires easily leads to major ones eventually breaking out. Barbra Streisand suing a photographer for posting a snapshot of her home online ended up drawing hundreds of thousands of people to view the photo, instead of the handful that had seen it before.

Even good plans tend to bring unintended and unexpected consequences. Some of them will be black swans that are impossible to predict but some you can prepare for.

As I imagine most of you know by now, I find psychedelics a thoroughly fascinating yet also tricky subject. As their contact with our cultural mainstream keeps intensifying, one of the most important questions to ask is "how to think constructively about the inevitable unintended consequences of psychedelic mainstreaming". This is one of the starting points for the work of Jerónimo M.M. who works as a social innovation director at the ICEERS Foundation (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service).

I first met Jeronimo back in 2019 in the Breaking Convention conference in London. Hearing his lecture, I was instantly impressed by his brave and challenging approach to the topic. He's not afraid to ask hard and provocative questions that he has no definite answers to.

In addition to his work with ICEERS, Jeronimo is a documentary filmmaker who has traveled extensively through South America, researching a broad range of ayahuasca practices. He's an independent researcher and lecturer. He's also got work experience in user interface design, which makes sense here: the contexts in which psychedelics are used can also be thought of as interfaces between them and the people who interact with them.

On topics related to the wiser handling of the hard-to-categorize phenomenon of psychedelics, he's become one of my favorite thinkers. Back in March, we had a long podcast discussion on the present and future of ayahuasca, psilocybin and other psychedelics, initiation rituals and what we can learn from previous encounters with things that don't really fit our pre-existing concepts. Since my summer holiday is now over, I finally got around to finishing production on the episode.

Topics we cover include:

* The tension between preserving and adapting cultural practices
* The challenges of integrating ethnobotanicals in new cultures
* The dark side of glamorizing indigenous traditions
* "Ayahuascas" instead of "ayahuasca"?
* Abuse in the psychedelic scene
* Ayahuasca as an adaptogen
* Innocently disrespectful psychedelic tourists and scifi author William Gibson's starfish parable
* What comes after the psychedelic renaissance?
* How does ayahuasca compare to other risky activities?
* Wise responses to moral panics
* The dangers of "ayahuasca told me"
* Santo Daime, União do Vegetal and other ayahuasca churches
* Why psychedelics are hard to fit in a box

As a culture, we really don't know how to handle psychedelics yet. It's easy to start squeezing round pegs into square holes without even noticing you're doing it. We need to keep asking better questions.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/4NRy2fQQi2A
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/curiousonearth/5-jeronimo-mm
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3OD1IG3
Apple podcasts: https://apple.co/44jXKbe

Patreon: http://patreon.com/curiousonearth
Facebook: https://facebook.com/curiousonearth
Twitter: https://twitter.com/curiousonearth
Instagram: https://instagram.com/curiousonearth

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