How we stay healthy, conscious and ”human” in a tech-obsessed world with guest Charles Eisenstein | Episode 20

Charles Eisenstein is an American author and public speaker who examines the unspoken narratives that direct our society and our lives. His work covers a wide range of topics, including the history of human civilisation, economics, spirituality, and the ecology movement. Key themes explored include anti-consumerism, interdependence, and how myth and narrative influence culture. Eisenstein graduated from Yale University with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy. He lived in Taiwan for nine years, where he became fluent in Mandarin Chinese and worked as a translator. He married there, had children, and later returned to the United States. The Ascent of Humanity, which was published in 2007, became his first commercially successful book, launching his writing career. Eisenstein has since written many books including The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible and Sacred Economics. His newest book, The Coronation, was released in the summer of 2022.

Get ready for a philosophical and enlightening conversation that will leave you in deep contemplation, reverence, awe and wonder. Charles unpacks why you cannot fundamentally change one thing, without changing everything else. We explore the power of human imagination. AI may simplify a lot of what we already know but it can never create from a place of consciousness, emotion or soul. We explore ‘interbeing’ and why this underpins all his writings, the contrasts between the systems of sovereignty and authority, our willingness to participate in change, the feeling of readiness that is growing in each of us and how we offer it trust, parallel societies currently in motion, the biggest gifts over the last few years, the out-dated paradigm of rewards and punishments. Charles addresses what technology substitutes in our lives, the limitations and purposes of AI and why we know a world of beauty is within our reach. There are just some things that technology can never replace and my goodness does Charles paint that picture well, you don’t want to miss this!

Show notes

3:40 – Being in the world through the lens of inter-being – the more we expand our relationships, the more whole we feel

Interbeing: transitioning from competitive and controlling separateness to a relationship with self, each other and the world. To know what is happening in the world is happening to us

12:00 – Relaxing the part of you that want to know “how” to do life

13:00 – Authoritarianism: Rewards and Punishments – why this system of control is on its way out

25:00 –The AI promise: virtual reality will become superior to regular reality because it’s programmable…but we’re bumping up against the limitations of that.

26:00 –Addiction to the artificial: the object of addiction e.g social media does not meet the need that drives the addiction such as love, physical connection, or intimacy.

32:00 – The limitations of A.I and the biases built into them, just like Wikipedia today

38:00 – Rather than looking at Technology as good or evil, the question is what is for, what does it serve? Imagine technology being used to make the government transparent to the people?

41:00 – Why you cannot fundamentally change one thing, without changing everything else. Are you “ready” to participate in change?

54:00 – How do we educate our kids into a society that doesn’t exist yet?

59:40 – The greatest act of service is to uplift this world. How do we know that something more beautiful than what exists is possible?

1:02:0- – Children are the vehicle of life to continue and they keep us honest and brave

1:03:00 – Why nobody is buying the story and promise of a Techno Utopia

Snippets of this interview:

AI will never create from a place of consciousness, emotion or soul

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