The Daily Evolver

The hopes and fears surrounding the advent of artificial intelligence are fantastical, from Ray Kurzweil’s promise of spiritual machines to Elon Musk’s warnings of killer robots. And yes, some version of that future is barreling toward us at an ever-increasing speed, says philosopher of technology professor Michael Zimmerman, who is Jeff’s guest today.

In this episode Michael and Jeff make important distinctions between artificial intelligence and consciousness itself. Machines have become proficient at handling information (e.g. the phone in your pocket), they are learning how to self-observe and learn, and they may soon be able to “present” as human. But will they ever hope and dream – or plot and scheme?

Jeff argues that a system of material components, however complex, will never create a shred of interiority. Michael is not so sure, and offers a couple scenarios that give Jeff a scare!

Steve McIntosh joins Jeff and Corey for an in-depth exploration into the energetic qualities of the three primary virtues of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. Steve describes how these virtues can both enrich our cognitive understanding of the universe around us, while also deepening and reinvigorating our own ongoing spiritual practice.

If you’d like to go deeper into Steve’s work, you should pick up his wonderful book, THE PRESENCE OF THE INFINITE: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.

For a brief synopsis of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, be sure to check out this video by Ken Wilber, as well as the written text by Corey deVos.

Today Jeff considers comments from “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski which imply that women have an extra responsibility to resist Donald Trump. He also quotes former first lady Michelle Obama saying that if a woman voted for Trump it is because “[you] don’t like your [own] voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.”

This is a projection of progressive (green altitude) values on all women, and is rightly seen as disrespectful by women who don’t share those values. But as a feature of culture it is nothing new. It turns out that women have long been held to higher ideals of moral development, a history that Jeff sketches starting with the famous frontier story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by the Comanche Indians for 24 years — and refused to be rescued.

Ann Coulter’s provocative personality often obscures two aspects of her that are far more important: she is a devoted Christian and committed nationalist. She thinks multiculturalism is dangerous and that Western culture rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition creates superior societies. She advocated for Trump enthusiastically, and wrote a popular book In Trump We Trust, E Pluribus Awesome! to support his election.

So how is she feeling a year in to Trump’s presidency? Not altogether happy, considering her recent column, Headlines From an Administration That is Not Putting American First. In this episode Jeff contemplates the views of Coulter and her nationalist comrades on the right.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday: few obligations, a nice dinner and a reminder to be grateful for life’s blessings – and the blessing of life itself! Gratitude is itself a practice in many spiritual traditions and it is a worthy part of an integral practice. In this episode I take a look at the power of gratitude through an integral lens. Happy Thanksgiving!

In this episode I reflect on a conversation Corey DeVos and I had with African American scholar Greg Thomas, where we explored what a more integral approach to race relations might look like. Greg is influenced by his mentor, Albert Murray, who, writing in the 60’s challenged the postmodern narrative that reduced race (and much of human relations in general) to hard constructs of victim and oppressor.  

A more adequate view includes human interiority, the making of meaning, and the lived experience of people who are fully inhabiting their lives and culture. It includes a connection to the land and all the flavors of heritage that make up what Murray called the Omni-Americans, who have been given the best of culture from all times and places.  

I further consider these insights in light of a column, “This American Land”, written by David Brooks and published in the New York Times a few months ago. In it Brooks seeks to soothe our cultural polarization by finding a common identity in the American land. He offers three character types drawn from the ways Americans have related to our nation’s natural bounty: the Steward, the Pioneer and the Elevated Spirit. Each offers us a piece of what is needed to “create a revival of values, fraternity and a binding American story.”

The postmodern critique of Brooks’ thesis is that while these archetypes may provide a national ethos for white people, they do not capture the experience of America’s oppressed minorities.  I propose that an emerging integral view can include the truth of both perspectives, and thus offer a larger ethos for us all.

American politics is riveted on bombshell accusations involving Judge Roy Moore, who is running for U.S. Senate from the state of Alabama. In a story reported in the Washington Post, he is accused by five women of molesting them when they were 14 – 16 years old. He proclaims his innocence, claims he always “got their mother’s permission” when dating young girls, and calls the charges a political smear.

Regardless of the political outcome, our culture is getting a lesson in moral development in real time. Old Testament values that accept older men being with adolescent girls is today seen as creepy and abusive. Childhood itself has become reified as a stage of development that is sacred and in need of protection. Are children safer today than in 1970’s Alabama? Yes, and ever more so as stories such as Judge Moore’s spur us forward (but don’t tell that to Mike Barnacle, Maureen Dowd and the other wailers of woe).

Today we are joined by Greg Thomas, who has thought and written extensively on one of the most vexing conundrums in our culture: race relations.

Greg attempts to chart a new course, one that includes the postmodern insight into oppression and its effects, but challenges its fixation on racial and victim identity.

He appeals to us to appreciate the lived history of black folk and how traditional black expressions of the values of family and character provide a foundation for present day excellence.

Ultimately Greg challenges the very concept of race itself, inviting us into a deeper transracial human identity, one that is being revealed by genetic science and which allows us to embrace the good, bad, ugly, and beautiful roles that all peoples have played in the history of humanity.

Most integralists are waist to neck deep in the postmodern world view, which we refer to as the Green altitude of development. Our emerging Integral sensibility chafes against the limits of Green, yet we remain deeply identified in ways that are worth carrying forward.

The upsides of Green are astonishing: after countless centuries of brutality, culminating in the horrors of World War II, a new leading edge of humanity emerges whose ethos is sensitivity and whose mission is to rehabilitate the victims of history: the slaves, the sinners and the losers, as well as to grant a new moral status to the domains of animals and nature.

The downside of the Green altitude is that it has lost faith in humanity. It is allergic to truth claims, it ridicules convention and is deeply suspicious of power. It’s role is deconstructive, which it often plays so thoroughly that there is nothing left for its adherents to hold on to.

Welcome to the cutting edge of human evolution in the 21st-century! In this episode Jeff is interviewed by Doshin Michael Nelson, founder of Integral Zen, about the nature of Green and the Integral way forward.