171 - Eric Wargo on Precognitive Dreamwork and The Philosophy of Time Travel

This week we welcome back anthropologist and science writer Eric Wargo, for a conversation about his book Precognitive Dreamwork and The Long Self — as well as: how tautology (not paradox) rules a time travel universe, what it means to become a time-faring species, the future of precognitive technologies, the concern of a quantum computing financial singularity, why lying to yourself about your own future-sight might be of evolutionary benefit, why retrocausalists don’t believe in randomness, how culture is a tesseract and dreams are future fossils, the controversy of divinatory astrology, and how pre-shocks of future traumas explain some of the more puzzling facts of history.

✨ Housekeeping:

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If you like thinking about mind-expanding future technologies, I recommend you check out David Kelley’s WeFunder for a new human-AI symbiosis governance system that seems like it could shake things up in a good way. If you know people who like to fund tech projects, this one seems worth checking out. (David’s Transhumanity.net is a supporter of the show.)

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✨ Discussed:

• Listening FF 117 with Eric Wargo FF 124 with Norman “Dr. Blue” Katz FF 150 with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens FF 156 with Stuart Davis Complexity Episode 9 with Mirta Galesic

• Reading NPR - Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say Nautilus - This Tenet Shows Time Travel May Be Possible Johnjoe McFadden - Quantum Evolution Jonathan Zap - Crossing The Event Horizon Jacques Vallee - The Invisible College Ted Chiang - Stories of your Life and Others Ted Chiang - Exhalation Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five Timothy Morton - Hyperobjects Russell Targ & Jean Houston - Limitless Mind Jessica Flack - “Coarse-Graining as a Downward Causation Mechanism”

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