Episode 37

The fourth of several episodes in which Juliet and I ramble conversationally around a mind map I made. The six topics we randomly selected (not all covered in this episode) were "'solar' versus 'lunar' consciousness", "animal communication", "the Mayan calendar", "singularitarianism", "faster-than-light communication", "the Uncertainty Principle". A seventh, "rogue", topic was "'scientism' and materialism".

We revisit Iain McGilchrist's ideas about brain hemispheres and Leonard Shlain's about the effects of alphabets on culture before talking more generally about consciousness, language, and ancient peoples' accounts of being spoken to by "gods" and animals.

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Some relevant links:

• Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary (2009)
• Leonard Shlain
• L. Shlain, The Alphabet Versus The Goddess (1998)
• Julian Jaynes
• J. Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
• brain hemispheres
• Max Müller
• Homer's, Odyssey
• schizophrenia
• tardigrade (Tardigrada)