Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth

C-Realm podcasts about Techno-Utopianism conference

C-Realm.com: "C stands for consciousness"

C-Realm Vault podcast CRV116 - October 27th, 2014

www.PeakChoice.org/audio/robinowitz-c-realm-CRV116.mp3
Thanks to KMO for permission to host this podcast at PeakChoice.org
62 minutes, 90 megabytes

c-realm.com/podcasts/crv116/
Mark Robinowitz of PeakChoice.org traveled to NYC to attend the Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth teach-in put on by the International Forum on Globalization. KMO sat down with him to talk about the value of such an event. The conversation flows into a discussion of JFK’s speech at the UN on September 20th, 1963 in which he proposed that the US and the Soviet Union go to the moon as a collaborative effort. Two months and two days later, Kennedy was dead. This episode includes a portion of that speech which you can hear in full on Mark’s website. There are certain famous JFK speeches you’ve heard over and over again. Have you heard this one? If not, why do you think that is? The episode concludes with the presentation Douglas Rushkoff gave at the IFG event at Cooper Union.

 

438: The Great Grab
Podcast: Play in new window | Download

KMO attended the Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth teach-in at Cooper Union this past weekend where he met and recorded conversations with Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute and Helena Norberg-Hodge of Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture. Anuradha describes how agricultural corporations who portray their actions in terms sustainable practices and taking the needs of all stake-holders into account are pulling off an enormous land-grab in Africa and Asia and how the policies of the World Bank tilt the field in their favor to the detriment of local people. Helena Norberg-Hodge takes on the idea that humans are so selfish and short-sighted that they deserve to go extinct. This attitude plays into the hands of transnational corporations who are more than happy to see the blame for climate change, inequality and injustice fall on individual actors and not to the policies that create a marketplace which favors short-term profits over long-term responsibility.
Music by East Forest.

 

439: Fundamental Systems Change
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
November 5, 2014

KMO’s conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge of Local Futures, recorded at Cooper Union, continues in this episode. Helena explains why she does not like to advocate for “revolution” with it’s implicit call for violence. Instead, she advocates the need for fundamental systems change carried out in a non-violent mode. Helena will be one of the presenters at an event called Voices of Hope in a Time of Crisis. In the second half of the program, KMO and Olga sit down with Peter Rizzo of Bhava Yoga. The conversation brings together the seemingly separate (and possibly antithetical) concerns of changing the world for the better and refining the character of one’s own consciousness.

Conference Program - and audio recordings

I recorded most of the presentations at this event. About half of it is now posted here, most of the rest needs to be edited and posted. A few presentations were not recorded (sorry). Perhaps the conference organizers will have a complete set of recordings on their site (below) or for sale via DVD or download.

 

www.ifg.org/techno-utopia/program/

TECHNO-UTOPIANISM & THE FATE OF THE EARTH
October 25 & 26, Cooper Union, Great Hall
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 10AM-10PM

I. TECHNOLOGY VS. NATURE
Technological innovation, celebrated throughout history, has had profound effects upon Nature, and human beings– our ways of thought, operating systems, power structures, and how we experience our own existence. This is especially so in the new cyber-tech world. Justifications still range from humanity’s “unquenchable thirst” for knowledge, to the imperatives of economic growth, wealth and power in our economic system, to the acclaimed search to bring comfort and happiness to a global population. So, how have we done? What have been the trade offs? Meanwhile, spectacular, dreadful impacts continue and accelerate. Immediate change is required in our thinking, behavior, values and economies, before Nature and human society are terminated.

10:00AM–11:30AM
INTRODUCTIONS/OPENING REMARKS

Ralph White (NY Open Center): Welcome
Jerry Mander (IFG): Questions We Should Have Asked About Technology
[did not record, arrived late]
text and audio at www.resilience.org/stories/2014-11-11/questions-we-should-have-asked-about-technology

Richard Heinberg (Post Carbon Institute): The Party’s Over
richard-heinberg-partys-over20141025.mp3

Anuradha Mittal, India (Oakland Institute): Stealing Nature
anuradha-mittal-stealing-nature20141025.mp3

Andrew Kimbrell (ICTA): The End of Market Capitalism?
andrew-kimbrell-capitalism20141025.mp3

11:30–1:30PM
CLASH OF WORLDVIEWS

Eileen Crist (Virginia Tech): Confronting Anthropocentrism
eileen-crist-anthropocentrism20141025.mp3

Tom Butler (Foundation for Deep Ecology): The Language of Dominion
tom-butler-dominion-language20141025.mp3

Lisi Krall (State U. of NY): The Economic Evolution Of Dominion
lisi-krall20141025.mp3

Susan Griffin (“Woman & Nature”): Speed, Consciousness & Quantification

Charlene Spretnak (“The Resurgence of the Real”): Dynamic Interrelatedness

1:30PM–1:45PM BREAK

1:45PM–3:15PM
NATURE’S PRESENCE & OUR AWARENESS

David Ehrenfeld (Rutgers Univ.): De-extinction and Its Residue Problems

Doug Tompkins (Deep Ecology Foundation): Technology & Nature/Clash of Concepts

Mary Reynolds Thompson (Author): Reclaiming The Wild Soul

Wes Jackson (The Land Institute): Nature Is the Final Measure (1)
wes-jackson-land-institute20141025.mp3

 

II. TECHNO-SOLUTIONISM: BUILDING SUBSTITUTE NATURE
With the planet depleted, overbuilt and poisoned, wild nature and its great gifts are disappearing. The economic challenge for a growth economy is to save itself by building entirely new resource bases to replace the old ones: New genetic foods, new genetic people and beings, new chemical skies to replace old ones (the victims of climate change), new molecular systems, new weaponry on earth and soon, in space, et. al.. For corporations, innovation solves the problem: Ignore the mess, create saleable “green” false solutions, and build and market “substitute nature” for uninterrupted product development and growth.

3:15PM–4:00PM
FALSE SOLUTIONS
Michael Huesemann (Author, “Techno-Fix”): Why Technology Can’t Save Us

[did not record]

John M. Greer (Author, “The Wealth of Nature”): False Promises
john-michael-greer20141025.mp3
john-michael-greer-questions20141025.mp3

4:00PM–6:15PM
THE QUEST FOR “NEW NATURE”

Clive Hamilton, Australia (“Playing God with Climate”): Geo-Engineering/New Skies
clive-hamilton-geoengineering20141025.mp3

Pat Mooney, Canada (ETC. Group): Nanotechnology/New Earth

Debbie Barker (Center for Food Safety): GMOs/Corporate Techno-Food
Jim Thomas, Canada (ETC. Group): Synthetic Biology/Designing New Life Forms
Film Excerpt (Bregtje van der Haak): “DNA Dreams” (5 min.)
Andrew Kimbrell (ICTA): Genetic Redesign of Human Beings
Katie Singer (“An Electronic Silent Spring”): EMRs/Radiation Soup

recorded, not posted yet

 

6:15PM–6:45PM BREAK

6:45PM–7:45PM
SPECIAL GUESTS’ COMMENTARIES

Ralph Nader (Center for Responsive Law), Author, Unstoppable
Bill McKibben (350.org), Author, The End of Nature

I did not record their plenary speeches but both have countless presentations on their websites and elsewhere.

The first question of McKibben was recorded here, he was asked about the role of "sacrifice" and using much less to mitigate the impact of climate change and he provided a long answer that did not directly address the question.

mckibben-questioned20141025.mp3

The questioner was Jenna Orkin, author of "The Moron's Guide to Global Collapse"
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=moron%27s+guide+to+global+collapse&sprefix=moron%27s+gu%2Caps%2C169

 

7:45PM–10:00PM
“FOR THE GOOD OF MANKIND” (TRUMAN ON THE A-BOMB); NUKES, DRONES, MILITARY ROBOTS

Helen Caldicott, Australia (Physicians for Social Responsibility): Hiroshima, Fukushima & Beyond
helen-caldicott20141025.mp3

Film: Paradise Lost (15 min.)

Neisen Laukon, Marshall Islands: Present at the Birth
neisen-laukon-marshall-islands20141025.mp3

Koohan Paik, Guam/Korea/US (IFG): Marketing Nukes, Drones & Robots

Bruce Gagnon (Global Network vs. Weapons in Space): Space Tech & Corporate Full Spectrum Dominance
bruce-gagnon20141025.mp3

Film: Robotic Takeover of the Military (5 min.)

Gar Smith (Earth Island Institute): Robots, Nature and the Singularity
gar-smith-robots20141025.mp3

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 10AM-7:30PM

III. CYBER ENVELOPMENT & HUMAN AWARENESS
We once lived in contact with wild Nature, and in-close human community; connected, embedded. Handing the future to technology, innovation, industrialization, and expansionist growth, human connection is now largely with machines, manufactured projected imagery, and cyber systems, generated from far-away mega-powers. A new kind of alienation, from Nature and from self, has appeared. We are enveloped by manufactured imagery and tech processes; they immerse society and become part of each of us. Does“Nature” exist anymore? Are we happy now?

10:00AM–12:30PM
LIFE INSIDE THE MACHINE
Langdon Winner (Rensselaer Polytech Inst.): Power Fantasies at the End of Modernism

[did not record, arrived late]

Film Excerpt (Bregtje Van der Haak): TechMan (5 min.)

Douglas Rushkoff (CUNY Queens): Present Shock: Everything Is Now
douglas-rushkoff-present-shock20141026.mp3

Chet Bowers: Techno-Language vs. Nature
chet-bowers-techno-language20141026.mp3

Stephanie Mills: Everyday Life in the Modern World
stephanie-mills20141026.mp3

Aiden Enns, Canada: (Geez Magazine): Life Offline
aiden-enns-geez20141026.mp3

Craig Holdrege (Nature Inst.): Hyper-Real & Real/Humans in Cyber World Discussion
craig-holdrege20141026.mp3

 

IV. WHICH WAY OUT? INGREDIENTS OF CHANGE
We start with the Primacy of Scale. Not large scale, small scale. Not global, local. Not faster, slower. Not more, less. Not top-down, bottom-up. Not private, shared. Not investor-owned, community owned. Not more tech, less tech. Not meta-economics, micro economics. Not competitive, collaborative. Not more trade, less trade. Not more energy, less energy. Not big business, small business. Where do we go from here?

12:30PM–2:30PM
NOT GLOBALIZATION, LOCALIZATION

Vandana Shiva, India (Navdanya): Introduction & Overview
Helena Norberg-Hodge, Sweden (Local Futures): Economics of Happiness
Severine von Tscharner-Fleming (Greenhorns): Young Farmers’ Movement
Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabe): Keystone Pipeline on Native Lands?
Victor Menotti (IFG): Keystone, Globalization, & the Koch Brothers
Mzwanele Mayekiso, South Africa (iKweze Institute): Fighting Fracking & Mining, and Other Extractive Technologies in Africa
David King, UK (Breaking the Frame): What Did the Luddites Say

recorded, not posted yet

 

2:30PM–2:45PM BREAK

2:45PM–4:45PM
INDIGENOUS VALUES & THE RIGHTS OF NATURE
Jeannette Armstrong, Okanagan, Canada: Indigenous Economics
Linda Sheehan (Earth Law Center): Codifying Nature’s Rights in Human Law
Atossa Soltani, Iran/U.S. (Amazon Watch): Keep the Oil in the Ground
Patricia Gualinga, Kechwa, Ecuador (Amazon Watch): Keep the Oil in the Ground
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Igorot, Philippines; UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Shannon Biggs (Global Exchange): Campaigning for Rights of Nature

recorded, not posted yet

4:45PM–7:00PM
HYBRID ECONOMICS

Bruce Thompson (CIIS): Ecological Economics
bruce-thompson-ecological-economics20141016.mp3

Randy Hayes (Foundation Earth): True Cost Accounting
randy-hayes-true-cost-20141026.mp3

Richard Heinberg (Post Carbon Institute): Steady-State Economics
richard-heinberg-steady-state20141026.mp3

text version of Heinberg's presentation
www.resilience.org/stories/2014-11-04/how-to-shrink-the-economy-without-crashing-it-a-ten-point-plan

Joshua Farley (U.Vermont): Economics & the Anthropocene
Lisi Krall (State U. of NY): Wild Earth Economics
Tom Butler (Deep Ecology): Rewilding
Wes Jackson (Land Institute): Nature Is the Final Measure (2)

recorded, not posted yet

James Howard Kunstler at Cooper Union, October 23, 2014

james-howard-kunstler20141023.mp3

questions:

james-howard-kunstler-questions20141023.mp3