All Episodes

[ Episode #11 // Temporal Blindness ]

Our education system creates the models we use to interpret information. A faulty model can lead to significant blind spots, especially in thinking about nonlinear problems. Do the cognitive models that you've developed allow you to understand the severe problems threatening our global civilization? How accurately can you recognize how trends will impact your society and your life? What is a reasonable response to dealing with 7 billion homo sapiens sapiens?

In Extraenvironmentalist #11 we speak with Jack Alpert of the Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab about the role that our cognitive models play in recognizing the severity of our global predicament. Seth and I discuss Jack's writings and his Nonlinearity and the Elephant Problem video. After talking about how to deal with scarce resources on a finite planet, we dive into how to deal with overpopulation, including Jack's approach for building public of rapid population decline through convincing grandmothers that fewer babies need to be born.

As always, let us know what you think about the episode through our email or voicemail, we'd love to hear from you! Especially if you think Justin's Alex Jones impression sounds far too constipated.

 

// Music (in order of appearance)
Purity Ring - Ungirthed via The Music Ninja
Mighty Mike - Lonely Yoshimi (The Police v The Flaming Lips) via AudioPorn Central
DJ Lobsterdust - Gotta Fly (Steve Miller Band v Amerie) via DJ Lobsterdust
MillionYoung - Perfect Eyes (Snoretex Mix) via A Heart is a Spade