Session 1: Beginnings
Lee Cronin, chemist
• Studies “inorganic biology” and self-organizing matter
• Inorganic crystal mimics life
• The physics of life may be encoded in the universe just like the physics of the stars
• What is life – life divides, competes, survives; life = energy and disorder
• (*Perhaps the line between organic and inorganic isn’t so well defined)
• Biology may just be chemical complexity
• Recipe for inorganic life – energy + information + container = evolution
• Molecular Darwinism – molecular shapes are in competition, they “want” to persist
• It is time for a General Theory of Evolution (vis a vis the Special Theory that applies only to biology)
• “Selfish matter” rather than “selfish gene”
• “Design by evolution” for all matter
• (*Does the term fitness even make sense in this context?)
• This new approach is happening now (in the next 2 years)
• In his mind, there is a 100% chance of other forms of life (non-carbon-based) out there on other plans
Annie Murphy Paul, science writer
• Explores how life in the womb shapes how we behave (fetal development)
• Fetuses learn the sounds of their mother’s voice, and in an experiment based on the patterns of infant sucking (vigor and speed), will prefers their mother’s voice over all others
• Other people’s voices may sound like adults in Charlie Brown cartoons from the womb
• Babies recognize theme songs of soap operas watched by their mothers (i.e. infant sucking will slow when they hear these theme songs again)
• Babies cry in the accent of their mother’s language (e.g. end in high note in French) – probably to endear themselves to the mother as well as give them a headstart in language acquisition
• Babies can smell and taste in womb
• They prefer familiar tastes (e.g. carrot juice and anise experiments where mothers will ingest the food during the last trimester and babies will show preference after birth)
• They learn about the outside world through their mother’s diet, stress levels and exercise – will the child face tribulations or will it be protected
• The siege of Holland in WWII that caused mass hunger over one freezing winter – people whose mothers were pregnant during the siege had more obesity, heart disease and diabetes, higher blood pressure, decreased glucose tolerance
• Fetuses prepare themselves for the environment they will face
• Fetuses in women who were pregnant and exposed to World Trade Center on 9/11 had biological markers for post-traumatic stress – i.e. prenatal transmission of PTSD
Rebecca MacKinnon, media activist
• Apple censored Dalai Lama app in China, Mark Fiore app (until he won Pulitzer), German magazine app, Palestinian protest app – all apps that go beyond the freedom of speech laws of the Constitution and often the local government itself (i.e. in the case of the German magazine)
• Private sovereignty in cyberspace – “Facebookistan”
• Upon storming of Egyptian State Security HQ, activists found transcripts of their emails, Skype messages, and documentation that American companies facilitated this
• Amazon webhosting dropped Julian Assange as a customer even though Assange had not been charged or convicted of a crime
• China presents awards to top 20 companies best at “self-discipline” (or censorship) – Baidu, China’s top search engine, was one of the recipients
• Relationship between citizens and government is mediated by Internet, which is predominantly operated by private firms
• How should private firms be held accountable?
Richard Wilkinson, social epidemiologist
• Inequality is socially divisive
• Life expectancy in rich countries is no longer related to national income per capita
• Life expectancy is strongly related to income within rich countries – i.e. relative social position
• Japan and Scandinavian countries have the least inequality, USA and Singapore the most
• Health and social problems are worse in more unequal countries – but neither health or social problems is related to national income per head
• Child well-being is better in more equal countries…but not related to national income per head (in developed world)
• People in more unequal countries trust each other less
• People in more unequal states in the USA trust each other less
• Mental illness is more common in more unequal societies
• Homicide rates are higher in more unequal US states and Canadian provinces
• Imprisonment rates are higher in more unequal countries – mostly related to punitive lengths and greater likelihood of applying the death penalty
• Children are less likely to graduate from high school in more unequal countries
• Social mobility is lower in more unequal countries
• Benefits of greater equality extend to all social classes – infant mortality rates are lower in more equal countries even in the highest income brackets
• The most stressful tasks are those with “social evaluative threat” (*e.g. public speaking)
Philip Blond, political thinker
• Facing the loss of the group delivery mechanism for services
• Western societies are not producing good groups – and therefore having trouble producing good individuals
• Collectivism and individualism converge – Russia is one of the most individualistic society he has encountered, while in the US, individualistic society demands a big government to pick up the pieces and offer protection for rights and borders
• The left has not saved us from poverty and the right has not delivered us prosperity
• Relationships are the key
• Groups are the primary human category – civilization began as a group.
• The crucial format for groups is agreement.
• Unless we can agree, we can’t even disagree – we’re just at war.
• The Church as a cultural movement in the 10th century used soft power to disarm Europe – by creating taboos and thereby suppressing violence (and chaos) in Europe
• Then, monarchs desiring absolute power asserted their authority over religion and created European racism – i.e. new groupings; we continue to live with the implications of this today
• Asset inequality is much more dramatic than income inequality (100X vs. 4-8X)
• 1% of Americans have more wealth than the bottom 90%
• “Big Society” is a bottom-up economy and society – self-defining neighborhoods, lcal power to take over budgets
• (Chris Anderson: Is “Big Society” the right name? It evokes almost the opposite impression from that intended)
Lee Cronin, chemist
• Studies “inorganic biology” and self-organizing matter
• Inorganic crystal mimics life
• The physics of life may be encoded in the universe just like the physics of the stars
• What is life – life divides, competes, survives; life = energy and disorder
• (*Perhaps the line between organic and inorganic isn’t so well defined)
• Biology may just be chemical complexity
• Recipe for inorganic life – energy + information + container = evolution
• Molecular Darwinism – molecular shapes are in competition, they “want” to persist
• It is time for a General Theory of Evolution (vis a vis the Special Theory that applies only to biology)
• “Selfish matter” rather than “selfish gene”
• “Design by evolution” for all matter
• (*Does the term fitness even make sense in this context?)
• This new approach is happening now (in the next 2 years)
• In his mind, there is a 100% chance of other forms of life (non-carbon-based) out there on other plans
Annie Murphy Paul, science writer
• Explores how life in the womb shapes how we behave (fetal development)
• Fetuses learn the sounds of their mother’s voice, and in an experiment based on the patterns of infant sucking (vigor and speed), will prefers their mother’s voice over all others
• Other people’s voices may sound like adults in Charlie Brown cartoons from the womb
• Babies recognize theme songs of soap operas watched by their mothers (i.e. infant sucking will slow when they hear these theme songs again)
• Babies cry in the accent of their mother’s language (e.g. end in high note in French) – probably to endear themselves to the mother as well as give them a headstart in language acquisition
• Babies can smell and taste in womb
• They prefer familiar tastes (e.g. carrot juice and anise experiments where mothers will ingest the food during the last trimester and babies will show preference after birth)
• They learn about the outside world through their mother’s diet, stress levels and exercise – will the child face tribulations or will it be protected
• The siege of Holland in WWII that caused mass hunger over one freezing winter – people whose mothers were pregnant during the siege had more obesity, heart disease and diabetes, higher blood pressure, decreased glucose tolerance
• Fetuses prepare themselves for the environment they will face
• Fetuses in women who were pregnant and exposed to World Trade Center on 9/11 had biological markers for post-traumatic stress – i.e. prenatal transmission of PTSD
Rebecca MacKinnon, media activist
• Apple censored Dalai Lama app in China, Mark Fiore app (until he won Pulitzer), German magazine app, Palestinian protest app – all apps that go beyond the freedom of speech laws of the Constitution and often the local government itself (i.e. in the case of the German magazine)
• Private sovereignty in cyberspace – “Facebookistan”
• Upon storming of Egyptian State Security HQ, activists found transcripts of their emails, Skype messages, and documentation that American companies facilitated this
• Amazon webhosting dropped Julian Assange as a customer even though Assange had not been charged or convicted of a crime
• China presents awards to top 20 companies best at “self-discipline” (or censorship) – Baidu, China’s top search engine, was one of the recipients
• Relationship between citizens and government is mediated by Internet, which is predominantly operated by private firms
• How should private firms be held accountable?
Richard Wilkinson, social epidemiologist
• Inequality is socially divisive
• Life expectancy in rich countries is no longer related to national income per capita
• Life expectancy is strongly related to income within rich countries – i.e. relative social position
• Japan and Scandinavian countries have the least inequality, USA and Singapore the most
• Health and social problems are worse in more unequal countries – but neither health or social problems is related to national income per head
• Child well-being is better in more equal countries…but not related to national income per head (in developed world)
• People in more unequal countries trust each other less
• People in more unequal states in the USA trust each other less
• Mental illness is more common in more unequal societies
• Homicide rates are higher in more unequal US states and Canadian provinces
• Imprisonment rates are higher in more unequal countries – mostly related to punitive lengths and greater likelihood of applying the death penalty
• Children are less likely to graduate from high school in more unequal countries
• Social mobility is lower in more unequal countries
• Benefits of greater equality extend to all social classes – infant mortality rates are lower in more equal countries even in the highest income brackets
• The most stressful tasks are those with “social evaluative threat” (*e.g. public speaking)
Philip Blond, political thinker
• Facing the loss of the group delivery mechanism for services
• Western societies are not producing good groups – and therefore having trouble producing good individuals
• Collectivism and individualism converge – Russia is one of the most individualistic society he has encountered, while in the US, individualistic society demands a big government to pick up the pieces and offer protection for rights and borders
• The left has not saved us from poverty and the right has not delivered us prosperity
• Relationships are the key
• Groups are the primary human category – civilization began as a group.
• The crucial format for groups is agreement.
• Unless we can agree, we can’t even disagree – we’re just at war.
• The Church as a cultural movement in the 10th century used soft power to disarm Europe – by creating taboos and thereby suppressing violence (and chaos) in Europe
• Then, monarchs desiring absolute power asserted their authority over religion and created European racism – i.e. new groupings; we continue to live with the implications of this today
• Asset inequality is much more dramatic than income inequality (100X vs. 4-8X)
• 1% of Americans have more wealth than the bottom 90%
• “Big Society” is a bottom-up economy and society – self-defining neighborhoods, lcal power to take over budgets
• (Chris Anderson: Is “Big Society” the right name? It evokes almost the opposite impression from that intended)
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