HERESIES — Exploring Animal Communication, Cloning Humans, The Dangers of The American Dream, and More (#677)

So excited for this new format, looks fantastic!! Grabbing caffeine and headphones…

Tim- This is one of the best and most memorable podcast episodes I’ve heard in a while. I love the format and the “heresies” prompt will endlessly spawn new and intriguing discussion. What I’m about to say may be a heresy given your listener demographics, but in keeping with the theme, here it goes: I think this show will be a success but would be stratospherically more compelling (and more profound, layered, true-to-life, fiery, complex, and illustrative of our humanness and society) if one of the primary hosts was a woman. Not because it’s the PC thing to do, but because a female voice will dramatically change the game for the better in all ways possible. On that note, Maggie made this episode better in all ways possible.

Love the Heresies format! Interesting and courageous. This first episode made me think of a heresy that I am dying to hear contemplated in the public discourse. I think that the pursuit of radical life extension is profoundly immoral. And the concept has been inadequately examined. I’m talking about the quest for immortality, but I think I also mean the 30-50% increase in longevity that us WEIRD people have already achieved in the past hundred years or so. I would like to hear public intellectuals and technologists ask themselves “do I want EVERYBODY to live radically longer?” “Do I want my parents to live forever?” “Do I want my boss at this firm to live forever?” “Do I want to live forever if most of my loved-ones do not?” And I would like to hear discussions about the implications of lives being radically extended, with or without proportionately extending the timeframe of childhood, female fertility, careers, etc My heresy is that the individualistic pursuit of life extension is both unwise and immoral. It could amount to an inter generational crime. And further to this, perhaps a separate heresy, the general “safety-ism” of our WEIRD culture has the same implications. I hate to come off as a moralist, but I haven’t heard these sentiments expressed in public, so I want to be provocative and clear. Am I the only one who thinks these things? Or do most people?

Wasn't sure where it was going when I logged on, but loved every minute of it! Very interesting group of people in the room. Put together my list of heresies on my walk today.

WTF is this the Tim Ferriss show!?. Tim Ferriss is unstoppable. Episode 677. HERESIES VERY FRESH AMAZING

Like the new format very much. My heresy is that life is not about longevity or happiness – although I have no issue with either – but creativity. We are not humans with a soul, but an eternal soul having a human experience (one of many) to learn how to be creators, given the "fate" we were born into as the palette for our creative endeavors.

Tim – I quite enjoy the heresies approach and your ongoing experimentation-in-all-things. This format was more energy to pay attention to: not a bad thing just a note to say please don't stop doing the one-on-one interviews too. Two topics on my Tim Ferris interview wishlist A heresies conversation around the topic of sleep and dreaming putting together Dr. Matt Walker + Dr. David Eagleman and having them talk through their differences and theories around why we dream alongside some people who disagree with them both. Could be fun to throw a psychadelics expert or an indigenous elder in the mix. A one-to-one interview with a biomimicry expert like Janine Benyus or Dayna Baumeister and/or materials scientist like Anna Ploszajski. Then later a heresies format talking through different paradigms and belief frameworks that putting wildly different viewpoints together: could be especially fun to put biomimicry in the mix with a mycopunk, an AI expert, or an economics person. Your work is remarkable, I'm incredibly grateful you've chosen this path 🌌

I love the concept of this show. One heresies to discuss is the historical development of religion; the other marriage. Do another one please

Tim this idea could make a great adult game…….

Dug the format and the panel. Well done! More out there heresies please! Kevin has plenty I’m sure.

Long time listener (i.e. listened to all of your previous podcasts over the last year and read tools of titans, Tribe of mentors, and 4-hour work week) I felt compelled to leave a comment and be more involved in your community. This discussion reminds me of deep conversations I used to have with my colleague (and best friend) during my PhD. We would have these deep, argument centric, smash up sessions where we would move between fractalising and re-constituting ideas/beliefs mainly centered around scientific hypotheses but also life lessons as well. Although you are sort of, on the surface, just sharing your opinions and beliefs, I can hear in your voices the same deep considerations, re-evaluation and sublime interest. I think this new format is absolutely phenomenal as it shares with the world how great minds operate in practice. My deepest and humblest gratitude to everyone for sharing their heresies in open discussion. Please, keep them coming.

My heresy is that consciousness, even sentience is a spectrum (like the senses of vision, hearing etc.) EVERYTHING is conscious and we humans are actually on a limited section of the spectrum, while believing we are at some kind of pinnacle. Just as we cannot see as insects or birds do, or smell as a dog does, we cannot perceive what is beyond our spectrum.

Tim – Peter Singer should 100% be involved in Heresies – either in a recurring role or as a guest. I just heard him being interviewed on another podcast and he is clearly THE expert in this field and has such interesting perspectives. Plus he's a Princeton professor as I'm sure you already know 🙂 I thought for sure you would have been one of the first to interview him but I couldn't find anything.

The earth is flat, mars = devon island, and NASA's "satellite" imagery is all from weather ballons and plane flyovers. Now THAT is a heresy! But once you know, you know.

Great show, love the format. Maggie was a delightful addition. As someone working in STEM, the contempt for humanities I frequently encounter is shocking and this show highlights how diverse perspectives help. Clearly nobody on the panel read "Never Let Me Go", or even watched that Black Mirror episode in season 1 (both quite popular) to imagine the pitfalls of cloning. Artists explore many concepts in great depth that can inform technological advancements. Please continue the format with a wide range of panelists, makes me think.

Holy crap! What Maggie said about listening–that's how my brain works too. Maybe it's a Canadian thing (cultural difference from American ways) or learned from growing up in an aboriginal community that stuck with me. Loving the format and discussion, only 25 minutes in…

I enjoy all of your episodes, Tim, heresies and all. This one drew me in because we all get trapped in our own fish bowls, and either/or thinking is rarely productive. I especially liked hearing Maggie's voice. She's quite the spitfire! I have a heresy I'd love you to cover in a future episode, that US health insurance in its current state is not socially responsible.

Intended as helpful a critique of this "heresies" format, which has huge potential: My impression was of five people who were not nearly diverse enough in their beliefs and who were far too anxious to find common ground rather than really explore each other's "heretical" beliefs and what makes them heresies within *their own social groups.* I think Tim is a talented enough host to avoid the talking-head shouting match outcome of people who fundamentally disagree, so he should take more of a risk with his guests. Imagine an episode in which an archetypal Ivy League progressive expressed agreement with a so-called MAGA Republican on some issue (however narrow) and the debate jumbled up all sorts of prior role expectations. Now that would be something! Otherwise, to be honest, there are plenty of other podcasts for deep intellectual discussion, which is somewhat of a different lane from Tim's show.

Clarifying/summarizing point to my previous comment: I'm not saying Tim shouldn't skip podcast lanes. I'm saying that if he does, he should do so in a way unique to that lane that aligns with his characteristic talents.

You never know what the lesson is going to be when listening to an episode of the Tim Ferriss Show. For me, it was Maggie explaining how when someone tells you something or shares something with you, you share something back and show that you understand. As a form of bonding. I have been beaten up so many times over the years for just that behavior. Been accused of being selfish, pulling the spotlight back on myself. It has been a tough lesson to learn to not do that. Thanks Maggie. I am not crazy. Don't know where I picked that up, probably from my parents. I grew up in California, and I certainly didn't learn it from anyone round here. Another thing I do – midday meal is dinner and evening meal is supper. Get a ton of grief on that one.

If you don't want to live forever, don't take the treatment. You get no say however if I want to.

Does this mean that you believe that an individual human's capability is limited? How then does one describe growth? Or is this time gated by your birth and death?

I think you’re right Ray. In the current state of affairs no one could stop anyone from taking a treatment in order to live radically longer. But I can “say” something. And I’m worried about us sleepwalking once again into a profoundly altered humanity. As we have done recently with, for example, widespread social media adoption. I don’t like restrictions on behavior any more than I suspect you do, but I’d like to see more conversation and reflection prior to adopting history-changing technologies. That’s why I liked this new format so much! And why I appreciate you picking up my thread.