SynTalk

By SynTalk

What's SynTalk about?

f(q) = Who owns the past? (#TSTP)

SynTalk is a freewheeling interdisciplinary talk show with a philosophical approach to understanding the world from a long term perspective.

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SynTalk episodes:

03.23.2024
#TTTC (The Transformations To Complex) --- SynTalk
Is pencil complex? Is computationally hard complex? Is ‘i’ a weird number? Why wasn’t Hamilton able to multiply triples? Are we just a bunch of neurons and connections? Is our ability to think (& do mathematics) an emergent phenomenon? Is...
03.05.2024
#TLAN (The Learnable And Not) --- SynTalk
Are you a master of your emotions? How do banks learn to loan better? Is king less queen = boy less girl in the word2vec world? Does your ‘body’ sometimes feel inferior even when you do not think so? Do...
02.03.2024
#TEHN (The Eternal Human Nature) --- SynTalk
Do you have the courage of a Spartan? Are we all partly anarchists? What are we truly? What do we value? Are Reason and Nature entangled? Is there a hierarchy of beings above/below human beings? What do Gods have that...
12.09.2023
#TAOTA (The Audition Of The Audible) --- SynTalk
‘How’ are you hearing what you are hearing? Is hearing decoding? Do you already know what’s next? Would it have helped to have an accompanying video? Do we ’need’ to be able to differentiate at the level of sound to...
11.25.2023
#TRIC (The Repetitions In Compositions) --- SynTalk
Does randomness lie in the eye of the beholder? ‘What’ is music? Why is ordering often a consequence of scaling? Is there such a thing as non-repetitive music? Do there need to be ‘types’ for there to be repetitions? Are...
11.04.2023
#TOOPP (The Out Of Place People) --- SynTalk
Are your attachments secure? Are you disabled? Have you ever lost your mind? Is there a link between Being, becoming, experience, & location? Are all spaces places? Could one be at ‘home’, & yet ‘out of place’? Does your place...
09.30.2023
#TSSM (The Sub Structure Mosaic) --- SynTalk
Are humans statistical systems with random biases? Is the world fundamentally discrete, & the continuum an emergent property? Or, is the quantum world foamy? Should black holes be a part of the Standard Model? Does the Standard Model (surely) undergird...
09.23.2023
#TOAH (The Organism Artefact Hybrids) --- SynTalk
Do you talk to your toaster? Do you think of ‘your’ bacteria as yourself? What self-replicates? Do organisms age during hibernation? Does the hybrid presuppose the pure? Can artefacts be made without thinking about their environments? Are our bodies at...
08.29.2023
#TSOH (The Sandbox Of Hills) --- SynTalk
Do you live with animals? Are your summers busy? Could a 1000 metres apart be several hours apart in the hills? How does that define culture? Could there be multiple places in one hill? Do you have a simple dream...
08.22.2023
#TMIE (The Mental In Environmental) --- SynTalk
Were there thoughts >80,000 years ago? Can you say what you feel? How is your Broca’s area? ‘Where’ is the mind? Is it individuated? &, insulated? When did our ancestors first create art? Are human beings incorrigibly abstract? Are social...
06.10.2023
#TWATA (The Witness And The Analyst) --- SynTalk
Can you meta point? Do you celebrate objectivity? Is there a lot happening that is ‘undocumentable’? Are facts and values entangled? Are several valuable things tangible but not measurable? Are we ourselves instruments? Can ‘fact’ have variations? How is truth...
04.29.2023
#TBOD (The Biography Of Defiance) --- SynTalk
Can one become English? What does this have to do with the Suez Canal? Are you white? Are we free? Is it good to be obedient? Is the Other always an enemy? Or, could it be a reference group? Did...
04.08.2023
#TSOTA (The Stories Of The Anonymous) --- SynTalk
Who are you? Would you like to have a new name? Were there many Kalidasas? Have you ever been with a mountain? Does your family have recorded history? Why are authors often anonymous in ancient Indian texts? Is the desire...
04.01.2023
#TROO (The Reification Of Objects) --- SynTalk
Why do we reify? When are you able to read others' minds? Is this a pedestrian? Are sensation and perception tied together? How are new mental templates formed? Are priors 'necessary' for categorization? How do we know, in a badly...
03.11.2023
#TCATC (The Creator And The Created) --- SynTalk
Are you a romantic genius? Are artists incapable of understanding their own creations? Where does inspiration come from? Is Nature divine? Can art divide? When/why does a creation become property? Are you the owner of your own Self? When does...
02.04.2023
#TIBB (The In Between Binaries) --- SynTalk
Are you expected to reproduce? Where is hell? Should patriarchy be ‘smashed’? Are brains masculine or feminine? Are biological and social factors deeply enmeshed, & is the body also socialized? Is Nature mutable? Is sex different from gender? What does...
01.21.2023
#TLWW (The Leashes We Wear) --- SynTalk
Do you respect the bones of your forefathers? Are your hands free? Were the hunter gatherers happier? Are nomads now likely to be criminals? Are you a willful nomad? Why don’t we live on trees anymore? How did ‘I-ness’ emerge?...
12.05.2022
#TPLB (The Past Laid Bare) --- SynTalk
Is the past ‘all over the place’? Is it the stories that keep buildings and communities alive? Are stories mental artefacts of the past? Did H.M. have expectations? Is understanding the past a process of comparing the unknown and the...
11.19.2022
#TNMS (The Non Main Stream) --- SynTalk
Are you a middle-roader? Is Jai Santoshi Maa a mainstream film? Are you exposed to world cinema? ‘What’ is popular? Are dialects non-standard? Does writing / scripting / printing legitimize the process of standardization? Are scripts discrete, but language continuous?...
07.12.2021
#TATS (The Absent Turn Seven) - - - SynTalk
Many sorts of things don't happen. Plans are made and deferred. Films are left undeveloped. Subjects are avoided. Dreams are un-dreamt. Planes take off empty. Priests are marked absent. Building floors get skipped, and boats go missing. Turn Seven is...
07.11.2020
Uhntākshurry - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol VI)
The Antakshari Scene: The antakshari scene located mid-film is a prime example of the intertextuality found in MPK and the originality that comes in part from the film’s recontextualization of various fragments from pop culture. Even though the song sequence...
07.11.2020
Jocelyn - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol V)
The intensity of celestial sources passing over the fixed field of radio receivers was recorded on strip charts and had to be analyzed by visual inspection. This task fell naturally to the graduate student of the group, Jocelyn Bell. On...
07.11.2020
Subjectivity - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol IV)
One of the central theses underlying the phenomenology of body is that of bodily subjectivity. It might appear as though by speaking of “bodily subjectivity” one is in effect assimilating “body” into “consciousness,” so that instead of the real body...
07.11.2020
Hypochondria - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol III)
Frankfurt, 1797: at twenty-seven, Hegel plunged into a profound crisis. He no longer knew what he thought; he no longer knew what to think. The republic and the revolution had collapsed under the repeated blows of German history. Several years later,...
07.11.2020
Commencement - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol II)
Defarge closed the door carefully, and spoke in a subdued voice: “Jacques One, Jacques Two, Jacques Three! This is the witness encountered by appointment, by me, Jacques Four. He will tell you all. Speak, Jacques Five!” The mender of roads,...
07.11.2020
Scenes - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol I)
“What do you do at his place? What do you and he talk about?” asked Stolz. “You know, it’s so proper and cozy at his place. The rooms are small and the sofas are so deep, you sink so far...
02.22.2020
#TCCD (The Change Called Development) - - - SynTalk
Are you able to realize your potential? Is your country under-developed? Is development a kind of gradual unfurling? Could it then be an infinite, deliberate, process? Is urbanization industrialization? Is industrialization development? Is development, only, economic growth? Does urbanization ‘cause’...
02.02.2020
#TCAFG (The Coarse And Fine Grained) --- SynTalk
How do you like your Matcha? Why do fine and coarse materials behave very differently? Is surface texture usually a sign of sub-structures? How does rock become clay? Is dry clay enough to understand wet clay? Could tea be smoked?...
01.18.2020
#TFON (The Formation Of Nations) --- SynTalk
How old are passports? Are you a resident citizen? Are nations primeval or modern? Were the colonizers, such as England, the first nations? Are all countries multi-ethnic/multi-religious? Are there phases, then, in the process of the abstract negotiating with ground...
01.11.2020
#TROE (The Religion Of Eating) --- SynTalk
Should Aristotle have also cooked? Would you eat dog meat? What does your food say about your conception of Reality? How is our gut first colonized? What are you allergic to? How/why do cultures select what to eat? Where are...
01.05.2020
#TIAR (The Interactions And Reactions) --- SynTalk
How quiet is the sea? Do you want to mine manganese? What makes certain interactions reactions? Are there reactions happening in your room? How is heat different from light? What does new Law come from? Can oceans ‘retain’ certain information...
12.29.2019
#TOLOA (The Outer Limits Of Adaptation) --- SynTalk
Have we over-adapted? How fit are you? Are our adaptive responses often too private? Is any fitness measure also always about the environment? How efficiently do you communicate with the changing environment? Are cultures always born on the boundaries? Can...
12.28.2019
#TAOC (The Afterlife Of Colonies) --- SynTalk
Do you aspire to write good English? What was Ranjit Singh’s official language? Where do your narratives come from? Is it possible to think rationally while living in a village and practicing caste? Was India (only) a land of static...
12.21.2019
#TURU (The Un Regulated Underbelly) --- SynTalk
Are you a part of the underworld? Would you like the society to applaud you? Do you gamble? Or, consume illicit liquor? Is the disorderly the underbelly? Will you inherit property? How has dowry existed in many societies for centuries?...
12.14.2019
#TWATW (The Word And The World) --- SynTalk
Are words valuable things? When did you last search for a word? Is the seed of language also the seed of the world? How does art work? Is direct (unmediated) observation possible? Does language have a (biological) organ that works...
11.23.2019
#TROC (The Reconstruction Of Colours) --- SynTalk
How difficult is it to pick berries from a tree? Do green flowers exist? Is blue still blue if it is not being known? ‘Where’ are your eyes? ‘Who’ needs colour vision? Is colour an elemental, physical, measure of the...
11.01.2019
#TBAN (The Belligerents And Neutrals) --- SynTalk
Are wars entertaining? Who is responsible for your security? What is the role of military force in life? Is history violent? Do all cultures have a historical consciousness? Are all orders political orders? Are in-group solidarity and out-group hostility built...
09.28.2019
#TNSO (The Not So Obvious) --- SynTalk
Do ‘birds that fly instinctively swim’? Are self-evident truths easy to prove? When is ‘want to’ not ‘wanna’? Is verification easier than proof? Are proofs explanations? Is that why proofs are supposed to be elegant? Is reasoning algorithmic? Is there...
09.22.2019
#TATT (The Attempts To Team) --- SynTalk
Do cheaters survive? Do you find joy in competing (& cooperating)? Are teams mechanisms or organisms? How do teams coordinate layers of emotions, energies, and purposes to acquire a coherent ‘personality’? What, then, keeps teams together? Is there scarcity of...
09.21.2019
#TCAA (The Counts And Amounts) --- SynTalk
Is counting just a special case of measuring? Is any kind of measuring, & scaling, dimension dependent? Do lungs ‘have’ a non-integer dimension between 2 and 3? Can you list all the numbers between 0 and 1? Do both the...
09.07.2019
#TIQW (The Isolated Quantum Worlds) --- SynTalk
Is there a rhinoceros in the room? Is the quantum world aesthetically weird? Are quantum systems only small? What is macroscopicness? Is there quantum behavior, but no quantum objects? Why is (?) there randomness, but not superposition (say), in the...
08.31.2019
#TBAB (The Banal And Boring) --- SynTalk
Are only boring people bored? How standard are your windows? How did the trivial, marginal, & everyday come to the foreground in literature, architecture, language, & ‘living’? Does space emerge ‘from’ living? Has your built environment been handed down to...
07.13.2019
#TLOPE (The List Of Permitted Emotions) --- SynTalk
Do you talk to the Divine? Are feelings facts? Do you accept things as they are? What are you feeling at the moment? Are you agitated? Is sound the earliest primordial? However, do (say) colours, gestures, & silence also speak?...
07.06.2019
#TCOO (The Confluence Of Opposites) --- SynTalk
Are you neutral? Is neutral inert? Do you practice hypocrisy? What does it mean to be (an) opposite? Are capitalism and socialism always incompatible? Do opposites always attract (even in natural systems) – why not? How might opposites be brought...
06.22.2019
#TSOC (The Seeds Of Communities) --- SynTalk
Do you (only) like people like you? Is belonging ‘necessary’? Are communities homogeneous? How do communities become political actors from being social entities? Are community identities a way of becoming legible for the State? Does the idea of nations pre-suppose...
06.01.2019
#TIIP (The Ideas In Print) --- SynTalk
What would you have bought – an air pump, or a printing machine? What can you read? Does the idea of ‘writing’ automatically lead to the idea of ‘book’? Do you worship books? But, also immerse them in rivers? ‘Who’...
05.11.2019
#TLFD (The Last Few Days) --- SynTalk
Have you ever touched the feet of a dead body? Who will you die in the company of? Where do dogs go to die? Do they grieve others’ death? Is fear of death universal? What causes delirium? What role does...
05.04.2019
#TSOE (The Suns On Earth) --- SynTalk
What came first – the nuclear power plant or the nuclear bomb? Do you fear nuclear power(s)? What was our experience of encountering coal? What is the relationship between energy consumption and well-being? What drives demand? Is more (always) better?...
03.17.2019
#TMAA (The Mediators And Actors) --- SynTalk
Are ‘things’ (truly) suppressed? What does it mean to act? (How?) is the fan in your computer doing something to you? Are there many kinds of intentionalities in the world? Do animals and machines also act? Are language, metaphysics, politics,...
03.09.2019
#TCON (The Circuits Of Nomads) --- SynTalk
Are nomads free? Are nations stable? Do you take the ground for granted? Where are your ancestors from? Why did modern humans leave Africa? Are empires and nations products of circulatory processes? What circulates, & how? Have you heard of...

What's SynTalk about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

SynTalk episodes:

#TTTC (The Transformations To Complex) --- SynTalk

#TLAN (The Learnable And Not) --- SynTalk

#TEHN (The Eternal Human Nature) --- SynTalk

#TAOTA (The Audition Of The Audible) --- SynTalk

#TRIC (The Repetitions In Compositions) --- SynTalk

#TOOPP (The Out Of Place People) --- SynTalk

#TSSM (The Sub Structure Mosaic) --- SynTalk

#TOAH (The Organism Artefact Hybrids) --- SynTalk

#TSOH (The Sandbox Of Hills) --- SynTalk

#TMIE (The Mental In Environmental) --- SynTalk

#TWATA (The Witness And The Analyst) --- SynTalk

#TBOD (The Biography Of Defiance) --- SynTalk

#TSOTA (The Stories Of The Anonymous) --- SynTalk

#TROO (The Reification Of Objects) --- SynTalk

#TCATC (The Creator And The Created) --- SynTalk

#TIBB (The In Between Binaries) --- SynTalk

#TLWW (The Leashes We Wear) --- SynTalk

#TPLB (The Past Laid Bare) --- SynTalk

#TNMS (The Non Main Stream) --- SynTalk

#TATS (The Absent Turn Seven) - - - SynTalk

Uhntākshurry - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol VI)

Jocelyn - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol V)

Subjectivity - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol IV)

Hypochondria - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol III)

Commencement - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol II)

Scenes - A Soupçon Of Seas (Vol I)

#TCCD (The Change Called Development) - - - SynTalk

#TCAFG (The Coarse And Fine Grained) --- SynTalk

#TFON (The Formation Of Nations) --- SynTalk

#TROE (The Religion Of Eating) --- SynTalk

#TIAR (The Interactions And Reactions) --- SynTalk

#TOLOA (The Outer Limits Of Adaptation) --- SynTalk

#TAOC (The Afterlife Of Colonies) --- SynTalk

#TURU (The Un Regulated Underbelly) --- SynTalk

#TWATW (The Word And The World) --- SynTalk

#TROC (The Reconstruction Of Colours) --- SynTalk

#TBAN (The Belligerents And Neutrals) --- SynTalk

#TNSO (The Not So Obvious) --- SynTalk

#TATT (The Attempts To Team) --- SynTalk

#TCAA (The Counts And Amounts) --- SynTalk

#TIQW (The Isolated Quantum Worlds) --- SynTalk

#TBAB (The Banal And Boring) --- SynTalk

#TLOPE (The List Of Permitted Emotions) --- SynTalk

#TCOO (The Confluence Of Opposites) --- SynTalk

#TSOC (The Seeds Of Communities) --- SynTalk

#TIIP (The Ideas In Print) --- SynTalk

#TLFD (The Last Few Days) --- SynTalk

#TSOE (The Suns On Earth) --- SynTalk

#TMAA (The Mediators And Actors) --- SynTalk

#TCON (The Circuits Of Nomads) --- SynTalk