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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wisconsin Public Radio

Prx, Philosophy, Knowledge, Wpr, Ttbook, Wisconsin, Society & Culture

4.7 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some 500 years ago, the Scientific Revolution transformed civilization. It paved the way for new technology and commerce, but it also created a worldview that set humans above and apart from the rest of nature, leading to the abuse of the planet’s resources. Today, a new scientific paradigm is taking shape; an understanding that all life on Earth — from the tiniest bacteria to the largest ecosystem — is interconnected. Call it biocentrism or “Gaia 2.0.” Anne and Steve travel to the Island of Knowledge in Italy to meet a new generation of scientists and philosophers.

Original Air Date: April 05, 2025

Interviews In This Hour:
Why the human imagination is both our greatest gift and weapon — Just how smart is a robot dog? — How Galileo helped create the modern world — The new science of 'planetary intelligence'

Guests:
Peter Tse, Marcelo Gleiser, Adam Frank

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, and welcome back to To the Best of Our Knowledge. I'm Anne Strangeamps. So I want to set up
0:06.8	today's show by taking us back roughly 500 years to the beginning of the scientific revolution,
0:13.0	which created a way of looking at the world that we kind of take for granted right now,
0:18.4	a way that sets humans above and apart from the rest of nature, from the
0:22.9	rest of life. So this way of thinking transformed civilization ushered in technology and commerce and
0:29.8	everything else we're familiar with. But it also set the stage for the use and abuse of the
0:35.9	planet's resources, with, we now know, devastating
0:39.5	consequences. So today, a new scientific paradigm is taking shape, a new understanding that all
0:47.1	of life on Earth, from the tiniest bacteria to the largest ecosystem, is inextricably intertwined.
0:54.3	You can call this biocentrism, or Gaia 2.0,
0:57.6	or the re-sacralization of the planet.
1:00.2	Question is, what kind of future does it promise?
1:04.2	Keep listening. From WPR.
1:11.6	It's to the best of our knowledge.
1:23.6	I'm Anne Strange Champs.
1:25.6	And I'm Steve Paulson.
1:26.6	And today we're headed to an unlikely site for a scientific revolution.
1:31.3	Have you seen the olives on the trees are really good.
1:34.3	Yeah, there are a few.
1:35.3	A 16th century church on a Tuscan hillside where a remarkable experiment in thinking is taking place.
1:42.3	An effort to craft a new scientific paradigm.
1:49.0	Humanity is essentially at a crossroads, right? Our very project of civilization is at risk, and I'm not the first one to say that, obviously.
	...

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