56. Jonathon Keats (Experimental Philosopher) – The Trickster/Castles in the Sky

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2016

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Experimental philosopher" and science writer Jonathon Keats, who famously created pornography for plants and sold real estate in the alternate dimensions proposed by string theory, believes that we "need to ascend to the meta level" to find creative ways of reopening closed conversations. His new book You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future, explores the myth and the relevance of a self-mythologizing sometime genius, sometime crackpot whose vast imagination holds some keys to solving the massive problems we now face as a species. On this week's episode of Think Again–a Big Think Podcast, Jonathon and host Jason Gots discuss social taboos, Fuller's legacy, the "mediated" nature of contemporary life, the power of comedy in society, and so much more. Surprise discussion clips in this episode: Jim Gaffigan on political correctness in comedy, Dan Savage on sex education, and Mary Roach on diharrhea in the armed forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, I'm Jason Gots and you're listening to Think Again a Big Think
0:03.7	podcast.
0:09.6	Since 2008, Big Think has been gathering and sharing big ideas and little doses from some of the most
0:17.1	interesting and creative thinkers on earth.
0:19.7	On the Think Again podcast, we take ourselves out of our comfort zone,
0:24.2	surprising me and my guests with conversation starters
0:28.7	that we didn't necessarily come here prepared to discuss.
0:31.6	Today I'm very, very happy to be joined by an old friend
0:35.1	of Big Thinks and mine, Jonathan Keats.
0:38.3	He's been called an experimental philosopher, conceptual artist.
0:43.3	He lives multiple lives.
0:45.3	In his life as an experimental philosopher, he holds up a kind of a warped mirror
0:49.3	to the sort of thing that we do here at Big Think,
0:52.3	asking questions like, can I genetically
0:55.7	engineer God in a petri dish?
0:57.7	Can I make a movie that house plants would enjoy?
1:00.3	Could I sell real estate in a parallel dimension?
1:03.4	In his other life, the reason he's here today, Jonathan is also a great science writer.
1:09.2	His latest book is about inventor, scientist, eccentric genius,
1:13.6	Buckminster Fuller, who like to be known as Bucky, and what we may still have to learn from him.
1:19.6	It's called You Belong to the Universe, Buckminster Fuller and the Future. It's from Oxford University Press.
1:25.6	Welcome to think again, Jonathan. Thank you.
	...

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