Episode Notes

[00:00] The Importance of Questioning

[01:21] Introduction to Curated Questions

[02:20] Meet Kevin Kelly

[03:56] Kevin Kelly's Mentor: Stewart Brand

[05:33] The Role of Questions in Intellectual Traditions

[06:47] Disequilibrium and Growth

[10:21] Embodied Questions and Exploration

[11:11] Balancing Exploration and Exploitation

[11:50] The Inefficiency of Questioning

[15:53] The Abundance Mindset

[18:39] The Inevitable and Quality Questions

[19:26] Hill Climbing vs. Hill Making

[22:28] The Challenge of Innovation

[24:13] The Beauty of Engineering and Innovation

[24:34] Navigating the Frontier of New Technologies

[25:33] The Role of AI in Question Formulation

[26:43] Challenges in Advancing AI Capabilities

[29:11] The Long Now Foundation and the 10,000 Year Clock

[29:56] Transmitting Values Over Time

[31:03] Ethics in AI and Self-Driving Cars

[33:26] The Art of Questioning

[34:04] Photography: Capturing vs. Creating

[36:12] The Inefficiency of Exploration

[38:36] Daily Practice and Long-Term Success

[40:17] The Importance of Quantity for Quality

[43:22] Final Thoughts and Encouragement on Questioning

[46:24] Summary Takeaways

Resources Mentioned

Wired Magazine

Whole Earth Review

WELL

Hackers Conference

What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly

The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

Cool Tools Project

Long Now Foundation

Stewart Brand

Socratic Method

Koan

René Descartes

Conde Nast

Vouge

Olivetti Typewriter

Trolley Problem

Terry Gross

Lex Friedman

Tim Ferriss

KK.org

Kevin2Kelly on Instagram

Recomendo Newsletter

Excellent Advice for Living

Beauty Pill

Producer Ben Ford

Questions Asked

When did you first understand the power of questions?

Can I do that?

Can that be something that you can learn?

How did questions function differently between Eastern versus Western intellectual traditions?

What role do you think embodied questions those we explore through doing rather than thinking play in developing wisdom?

What's on the other side of the hill?

What happens if you go to the end?

What's the origin of this?

How should one think about the exploratory in one's life?

Is there anything that you would add to your list of 15 statements that define what makes a quality question?

Is there a qualitative difference between the questions humans are asking and the questions our AI systems are beginning to formulate?

What do you think would help them get there?

Any idea on a forcing function on how we get them [LLMs] to ask the better questions so that they might improve in that direction?

What were some novel questions that broke your brain at the time in thinking about this 10,000-year clock or beyond?

What's it good for?

What would you use it for?

What else could you do over the long term for 10,000 years?

How do you transmit values over time?

How do you evolve values that need to change, and how do you make a difference?

How do even know what you don't want to change?

What do you want to continue?

What's the most essential aspects of our civilization that we don't want to go away?

What are the rules?

What is the system?

How do you pass things along in time and not change the ones you don't wanna change, and make sure you change the ones that are more adaptable so they can adapt?

What do you think about questioning itself as an art form?

How has being a photographer influenced the way you question reality, visually compared to verbally?

Are you a photographer that takes photos or makes photos?

What will happen?

What will happen next?

What are your right now questions that you are wrestling with or working with in your life?

Can someone else do what I'm trying to do here?

Am I more me in doing my art or more me in doing the writing?

Do you have any other thoughts or encouragement about questions that we haven't explored?

What makes a good question?

How do you ask a good question?

What questions do you dwell on to be in purposeful imbalance?

What is your practice in embracing the inefficient nature of questions to achieve breakthroughs?

What are the new hills you can build and frontiers you can explore?

How can you use your curiosity and humanity to pursue questions that trend toward the fringes?