Zak Stein on Reconstructing Value: A Conversation on the Meta-Crisis

Life Itself Podcast

In this conversation, Zak and Rufus examine the shift that has taken place from a belief in the intrinsic value of the universe to the modernist view that denies the reality of value.

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About the episode

Zak explains how this loss of value has contributed to the current metacrisis, impacting areas such as education, architecture, and technology.

The concept of "civilizational transvaluation" and the dangers of a potential civilizational collapse during this period of profound change are also discussed. Alongside this, the potential for conscious evolution is explored, which could enable new forms of human cooperation and flourishing—provided that we establish an urgent, coherent discourse around value to address the challenges we are facing.

This conversation supports the recent book First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come. See detailed notes on the book and our summary here.

Chapters

00:03:15 - Ideas and motivations behind First Principles and First Values

00:13:12 - The shift from intrinsic to denied value

00:22:00 - The cold and warm streams of modernity

00:32:35 - The dangers of civilizational transvaluation

00:46:45 - The importance of value in education and society

00:54:58 - The denial of value in architecture

01:03:26 - The transhumanist ideology and the denial of value

01:30:27 - The path to conscious evolution and homo-more

About Zak Stein

Dr. Zachary Stein is co-founder of the Civilizational Research Institute, the Center for World Philosophy and Religion and Lectica, Inc, and is a widely sought after and award winning speaker. Zak is a leading authority on the future of education and contemporary issues in human development. He was trained at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and education, and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. Dr. Stein is the author of several books and many peer-reviewed papers, including most recently First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come, by Zak Stein, Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber writing under the name David J. Temple.

About Rufus Pollock

Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Find out more about his work on his website: rufuspollock.com.

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