Metahumanism Pod

12/04/2025

A very problematic perspective. Antithetical in many ways to a responsible and ethical metahumanism that strives to adapt the humanistic core — dignity, autonomy, freedom — to the new technological and cultural realities.

For centuries we treated technology as a tool, but a new movement insists it is becoming the future of the human species itself.

Effective accelerationists call for speeding innovation to trigger a new phase of consciousness, while transhumanists like Harari and Kurzweil predict the merger of humans and machines, even the rise of a “digital God.”

Critics warn this is dangerous fantasy, forcing us to ask whether technology is redefining what it means to be human or simply offering sci-fi dreams in disguise.

Joining the debate are transhumanist pioneer Zoltan Istvan, physicist and consciousness researcher Àlex Gómez-Marín, philosopher of mind Susan Schneider, and Softmax co-founder Adam Goldstein.

Tap the link now to watch the full debate: https://iai.tv/video/the-worlds-most-dangerous-idea

11/24/2025

Spinoza may be considered the first truly modern philosopher, who questioned the theological framework of the medieval worldview. Descartes, who is often cited as the first philosopher of modernity, was still deeply implicated in that theological perspective metaphysically. The uniqueness of Spinoza's philosophy is much more relevant to contemporary times.

Happy birthday, Baruch Spinoza (Nov. 24, 1632 - Feb. 21, 1677).

Rationalist. Skeptic. Philosopher. Advocate for religious tolerance and freethought.

Baruch believed the Bible should be scrutinized in the same way as any other body of literature. He rejected Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, a scandalous view at the time. Many of his ideas laid the groundwork for modern biblical scholarship.

Baruch was raised in a Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Eventually he was dismissed from his synagogue as a heretic. During this time, he became friendly with some Mennonites in Amsterdam and The Hague. In fact, Dutch Mennonites were instrumental in getting his writings published.

Quotable quote: "How blessed would our age be if it could witness a religion freed from all the trammels of superstition."

Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Died in The Hague. He never converted to Christianity, but he is buried in the churchyard of the Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.

Photo: the Spinoza Monument, on the Zwanenburgwal, Amsterdam.

~The Marginal Mennonite Society Heroes Series

11/14/2025

Writing as the fundamental phenomenon grounding speech. It may have emerged later chronologically, but its function has subsequently evolved into something more foundational and central to all thought.

The famous debate between Derrida and Searle over the nature of language has come to symbolize the deep divide between the Analytic and Continental traditions of philosophy.

But, as Peter Salmon points out, the exchange does more than highlight the blind spots of a view of language that ignores literature, irony, jokes, and the subconscious. It also exposes the reluctance of many analytic philosophers to seriously engage with the other tradition.

“It seemed astonishing to Derrida that all of fiction, all of poetry, all the ways we ‘play’ with language, including jokes, should be ignored in our search for how language works,” Salmon observes.

Read more about this iconic philosophical divide from the link: https://iai.tv/articles/derrida-vs-searle-the-obscure-object-of-language-auid-2593

11/07/2025

Announcing the special episode about Ukrobuddhism. Dedicating it to the history of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic.

11/02/2025

The 2nd special episode continues examining the 7 levels of war, focusing on the ontological level: the 5 global scenarios of the Global Trends 2040 U.S. National Intelligence Council report, the ontological platforms of China, Russia, USA, and Europe, and the concept of Ukrobuddhism.

The 2nd special episode continues examining the 7 levels of war, focusing on the ontological level, 5 global scenarios, the ontological platforms of China, R...

11/01/2025

Metamodernism takes the postmodern critique seriously and turns it on postmodernism itself, recovering some ground from its deconstructive thrust and reconstructing a better foundation than that provided by modernism.

Postmodernism’s critique of everything from truth to art has left us in the intellectual wilderness.

Greg Dember argues that Metamodernism, a nascent movement which protects subjective experience from the ironic distance of postmodernism whilst rejecting the scientific reductionism of modernism, is the solution to our need for a new –ism.

"Postmodernism is a distrust of universalized narratives and a preoccupation with context, relationality and systems," argues Dember.

Dember is a writer, thinker and music maker. A Metamodernism researcher, he is the co-editor, with Linda Ceriello, of What Is Metamodern? a leading site documenting the metamodern turn.

Tap the link now to read his full article now: https://iai.tv/articles/metamodernism-a-response-to-modernism-and-postmodernism-greg-dember-auid-2682

11/01/2025