existential expresso

wikileaks, tron legacy, black holes in electronic galaxies

2010-12-22T11:30:00.001-08:00

Barry Vacker explores the deeper patterns and cultural meanings involved in WikiLeaks, Tron Legacy, black hole media theory, emerging black hole media technologies, and "exits from light" in numerous sci-fi films. A mind-bending podcast about technological trends and cultural reversals, which are generating new forms of nonrepresentation and resistance. Are black holes the new metaphor for resistance in the information age? A full text of this podcast is available at my blog: Theory Vortex.

memes in the social network

2010-10-04T09:43:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker riffs on many memes in Facebook and The Social Network, the new film by David Fincher, who also directed Fight Club. Memes include: The Social Network v Fight Club; virtual and electronic capitalism; the economic value of Facebook, Walmart, and Google; postindustrial culture and production, electronic consciousness and global brian,the role of memes; the structure of the network; panopticon and the surveillance-celebrity systems within Facebook; the map and the territory. A question: Just who is working for who on Facebook and the internet?

pale blue dot, 20 years later

2010-10-01T17:21:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker explores the meaning of one of the most important media images in human history, the "Pale Blue Dot" from 1990. Topics include the meanings of: the achievement of the Voyager space probes, cyberspace encompassing outer space, Carl Sagan's 1980 Cosmos series, Ronald Reagan's 1980 election, President Carter's message on Voyager, fundamentalism and Facebook, and celebrating existence on the Pale Blue Dot.

9/11, tolerance, and the first amendment

2010-09-12T11:47:00.001-07:00

Taking a stand for cognitive and cultural sanity, Barry Vacker explains the issues surrounding 9/11, tolerance, criticism, and freedom of thought. Barry is very tired of the issues of 9/11 and the Terror War, but feels it is crucially important to pose the question: what do we do when religious faiths inform policies that are regressive, violate human rights, and lead to war? Topics also include: President Obama's call for tolerance on 9/11, the Christian-inspired war policies of Bush and Obama, superstition and dumbed down society, Florida's creationist theme parks and book burners, intellectuals and secular culture, and, of course, Sarah Palin and Jerry Springer.

9/11 at nine: it is still ground zero

2010-09-10T15:03:00.001-07:00

Drawing from philosophy, science, and the history of architecture, Barry Vacker discusses the deeper meanings of 9/11 and ground zero in NYC, nine years later and counting. What have we learned? Topics include: the real meanings 9/11 in the Twin Towers (the cloned monoliths), Apollo 8 as ground zero for the rise of fundamentalism, the intellectual apocalypse of America since 9/11, the Terror War as a religious war, conspiracy theory, New Orleans, and ground zeros for the future.

hawking, dawkins, god, and nothingness

2010-09-06T12:27:00.001-07:00

Note: This the working draft of my Existential Espresso podcast (September 5, 2010) of the same title. This draft does not include all my spontaneous ad libs and has not been edited for perfect grammar or to remove its casual style and tone. I am posting this merely for those who are interested in accessing an online text version of the ideas in this podcast. This should not be considered a final draft or my complete thoughts on these topics. For that, you should refer to my books in the Theory Zero series, available in Amazon.

••••••••

With the fabulous weather in Philadelphia this morning, my neighborhood coffeehouses were a little too noisy, so I had to return to my loft. But, I am armed with my espresso and ready to get some neurons firing and I hope you are, too.

For me, my summer is over and the new semester has started. Over 15 years as a college professor. Hard to believe, the years are going by. As I mentioned in my previous podcast, about “Living in the Milky Way,” this summer I spent several weeks in the deserts of the Big Bend are in far west Texas and thoroughly enjoyed the vistas, the landscapes, the quiet, and the night skies. There, you realize you are living on a planet in the Milky Way. Now, it is back to life in the metropolis, the urban universe that let’s us pretend we are center of everything. Since the new semester has started:

I am happy to report that my new text-anthology is now in-print, as of two weeks ago. Just in time! Published by Cognella academic books, the text is called Media Environments. It combines movies and theory to critique the role of media in society. And, I put together a great roster of authors: Carl Sagan, Al Gore, Naomi Wolf, Susan Jacoby, Naomi Klein, Neil Postman, Jean Baudrillard, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and many others, including Stephen Hawking. So, that is very cool.

Part 1: The Issue

Speaking of Stephen Hawking, as some of you may know, Hawking's new book is due out in a few days and it is already generating much controversy in the science-religion debate. Entitled The Grand Design, the book apparently claims that recent breakthroughs in cosmology show that the universe does not need a God to explain its existence. Since this book is not out yet, I have not read it. According to the BBC site, Hawking’s book claims:

"That science can explain the Universe's origin without invoking God, instead arguing that the existence of gravity means the Universe can create itself from nothing."

Regarding the first part of that phrase, that science can explain the universe without reference to God, well, Stephen, that is not news to existentialists. Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential ontology accomplished a similar task in Being and Nothingness in the 1940s, most specifically pages 3-26. Famed atheist Ayn Rand modified and streamlined the same essential argument in her critique of religion in Atlas Shrugged in 1957. Others have made similar arguments.

As for the second part of the phrase, about the role of gravity in permitting the Universe to create something from nothing, I will wait and read the book. Gravity is surely a powerful key force in the cosmos, but I am highly skeptical of the claim of something coming from nothing. This is because it seems something is what makes nothing possible. As Sartre showed in Being and Nothingness, it is existence and consciousness that makes possible all nothingnesses. More on this in a few moments.

As you might expect, in response to Hawking’s new book, the apologists for theology are leaping to the defense of superstition as a guide for human existence in the cosmos. At the BBC web site, there are the usual simplistic defenses of religion against science, assertions that have been refuted by many writers in the past, most recently Sam Harris and others. At the CNN site, there was a story about Hawking's new book, with almost half of the text devoted to religious assertions presented as profound insights that supposedly refuted or negated Hawking.

Of course, the so-called science-religion debate is not really a debate, it is the science-superstition meme popularity contest. It is not a debate, because debate implies evidence from which human reason logically makes an argument. Since there is no evidence for a Creator, religious disputes can only be resolved through force, not persuasion, which is why religion causes wars and mass slaughter. Just read the news: “sectarian violence” is the Orwellian code name for religious war. The Terror War is, at root, a religious war.

There is no evidence for any grand Creator, only centuries of foundationless assertions, buttressed by reassurances that God has a mysterious plan for everything, including the promise of eternal life after death for those that choose myth and superstition over reason and science.

Must everything, especially our most profound ideas and insights and aspirations, be dumbed down by our mass media and pop culture to the level of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Tea Party metaphysics? If so, then in the words of Apollo 13, “Houston, We Have a Problem.”

Speaking of Apollo, we can trace this dumbing down of the profound back to Apollo 8, when the astronauts read from Genesis to a billion people watching on TV back on Earth. The astronauts were reading creation myths while orbiting the moon through the genius of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, and others, and broadcasting a quarter-million miles back to Earth through the discoveries of electromagnetism and television. The astronauts read from Genesis to supposedly give meaning to the accomplishment, while comforting the masses back on Earth. This was a great leap backward for the human mind and is the ground zero for the rise of fundamentalism, as I showed in my book Starry Skies Moving Away(available in Amazon). Should we be surprised that 50-60% of America is creationist! And, all religion and faith further undermine the respect for evidence and logic and reason throughout society, while reducing our most profound issues into stories, assertions, and mindless rants.

The metameme that is science has an expanding and evolving universe of evidence, provided by ever more powerful media technologies — the Hubble space telescope, various electron microscopes, WMAP space probe, COBE satellite, and many other space telescopes coming in the near future. These media technologies illustrate what I call the first law of media technologies — media technologies are not neutral, as they increase in power, they change our view of the cosmos, society, and our place in both. From Galileo’s telescope to the microscope to the microchip, this has proven true. Look at the effects of the printing press, the television, and the computer. The telescope may be the most important. And, powered by Moore’s Law, these media technologies are gathering ever more power, doubling in power every 18-24 months for the past 60 years and into the foreseeable future. This means our telescopes and computers will evermore evidence to provide ever deeper understanding of our strange and beautiful universe, at the micro and macro levels.

The Hubble space telescope is the most powerful eye humanity has. This electronic eye has peered across billions of light years of space-time, looking back billions of year into the early stages of the universe and galaxy formation. It has found black holes, furthering the work of Hawking and many others. Hubble has provided astonishing new insights into the number of galaxies in the universe. The Hubble Deep Field images revealed thousands of galaxies in a tiny dark spot in the night sky, which is one key reason why we know there are 100+ billion galaxies in the visible universe.

But, there is one thing this eye has not seen or discovered: any sign or evidence of a Creator. Or any evidence of a heaven with spirits in harmony with each other. Why deny what our most powerful eye shows … and what it knows? There is no Creator out there, anywhere, much less overlooking our little planet and advising us on who to have sex with at night. For that matter, go do your own experiment. Have some crazy sex beneath the starry skies at night and see what happens. It will be like looking through the Hubble telescope. You will have some great fun amidst the stars, but you will not get a message from any Creator.

Of course, fun sex does not falsify God, even beneath the stars. Evidence and media technology, however overwhelming and powerful, is not enough to make the total case for no Creator. Rigorous logical reasoning is equally important. Let me explain. This podcast will have three more parts. Part 2, some back story about recent events and pop culture. Part 3, a discussion showing that a Creator does exist and is an impossibility. Part 4, I will highlight a few issues about existential roles of media technology.

Part 2: Back Story

Before I discuss Hawking and Dawkins, I should make clear that I am not going to refute every argument or claim for a Creator. I am only going to discuss the ultimate one and show why a Creator, of any kind, is logically and existentially impossible. Thus, all theologies are false. And, before you bombard me with emails, read my books in Amazon and post your complaints there; my books can always use some controversy! The two books most relevant are Starry Skies Moving Away and Crashing Into the Vanishing Points. Covering art, science, film, architecture, and media theory, my books provide a broad, unique take on contemporary culture and religion is just one of the many topics I cover.

Of course, the past several decades have produced numerous writers and books that have shown the falsity, hypocrisy, and contradictions of all theologies, with much greater insight than Nietzsche’s famous 19^th century assertion that “God is dead.” Since 9/11, it has become clear that global superstitions seek to reverse the trajectories of modern secular culture in creating theological empires that return humanity to the past, to the supposedly glorious spiritual paradises of the premodern mind. Thus, there has been a recent spurt of atheist books, written by courageous writers willing to challenge the creationist dogma and the anti-intellectualism of the global media, especially in America. These include works of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and others. You can find them easily in Amazon or at your chain bookstore and in some independent bookstores.

I have been an existentialist, without the angst, since my early 20s. I was probably somewhat of an existentialist as a child and just did not know it. Anyway, I have long ignored the folly of superstition. That is until 9/11 and the Terror War, which, at its most essential level, is a religious war between two tribes of fundamentalists, both at war with the culture and secular values of the modern world. Glenn Beck’s rant at his rally perfectly illustrated this idea. According to CNN, Beck said:

"America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness."

Turn back to God or Allah, it does not matter. It is the same superstitious concept and both memes are false. The memes of the two religions are virtually identical, as I wrote in the text for Peter Granser’s art-photography book, Signs, published in Europe and America by Hatje Cantz and The Chicago Museum of Contemporary photography. The book, a collection of photos about neoconservative US culture, have been featured in numerous exhibitions around the world.

The best book that I read on the specific overall of a Creator is George Smith’s 1980 classic,Atheism: The Case Against God, which systematically dismantles all the key arguments offered for a Creator, despite the lack of evidence. And it is precisely because belief in the great Creator is buttressed by zero evidence, that logical reasoning must appear on the stage. It would help if there were some artists who would jump on stage to help promote sanity, but they seem too busy making movies about zombies, vampires, monsters, totalitarian computers, and end-of-the-world apocalypses. And, of course, the endless stream of movies about action heroes and people falling in and out of love. Other than Julia Sweeney’s monologue about Letting Go of God, and Bill Maher’s light-hearted, but hilarious film,Religulous, who else in the popular media and Hollywood is standing on the side of sanity?

For that matter, where are the hip business leaders of Silicon Valley. Very quiet. But, then, they have customers who they are afraid to offend and stockholders who be would upset if over 50% of their customers dropped their brand. After all, well over 50% of America is creationist and one presumes that their God and sacred texts would compel them to not use the products of a company led by an atheist who believes in evolution and the Big Bang.

And, where are my friends and colleagues on the Left? Most are very quiet on this issue, apparently content in their relativism, which, however well-intended, is naive. This is the apparent policy of The New York Times, which rarely challenges anything essential about any religion anywhere, except extremism. All beliefs are equally profound the Times seems to suggest, apparently oblivious to the idea that it is moderation, implied virtue, and uncritical toleration that makes extremism possible. Even Noam Chomsky did not single out religion or fundamentalism one of the century’s great challenges in his new book, Hopes and Prospects. Chomsky sees our challenge for the century to be merely “decent survival.” For Chomsky, the greatest threats to our survival are imperialism, ecological apocalypse and nuclear apocalypse, but apparently not the intellectual apocalypse that is fundamentalism, creationism, and superstition.

Regarding relativism, some values are relative to their context, but not all. The phrase “Everything is relative” is a self contradiction and makes sense only if it is excluded from what it claims; if everything is relative, that would include the statement itself, which then means some things can only be not relative.

The same can be said for uncertainty. To say there is no certainty is a contradiction in terms, for the statement itself makes a claim to certainty: there is no certainty. If one wants to claim they are uncertain of everything, including their belief in uncertainty, then they necessarily concede that certainties are possible. This is the flaw in pure skepticism and Bill Maher’s ontology of “doubt.”

So, we are given three existential choices in the popular media, religion or relativism or skepticism, with science and philosophy merely bystanders to the spectacle.

Of course, a short term global strategy has to be to cultivate peace among religious tribes. This especially necessary to prevent a nuclear detonation or exchange, as well as protect the human rights of women, children, and gays, all of whom are targeted for exploitation and domination by the theological rulers, which are usually patriarchies. But the only long term path is to promote cosmic sanity. And that means abandoning the premodern idea of a Creator of the cosmos.

Having reading three of Hawking's books, I always thought he was weak in how he addressed the God question or the Creator issue. Of course, most famously, he asserted at the end ofThe Theory of Everything that a unified theory of cosmology – the so-called theory of everything – might eventually allow us “to see the mind of God.” To me, this comment undermined the rest of the book, however witty his intent. Of course, Hawking might have meant that science will make us gods in our ability to understand the cosmos in ways unimaginable prior to modern science. In a profound way, he is right. But, we know that know that theologians would never take his phrase that way. It was the equivalent of saying that culmination of cosmology is to understand Genesis in the Bible. In effect, Hawking repeated the intellectual crash of Apollo 8.

If the theory of everything could allow us to see the mind of God, then why can’t the sacred texts – supposedly the word of God – allow us to understand the universe, as revealed by our media technologies? The sacred texts have nothing to say about the vast universe we now know exists, precisely because the texts came before science and telescopes and microscopes. Nothing to say on genetics, quantum mechanics, evolution, electromagnetism, relativity, black holes, galaxies, the big bang, and so on.

Scientists are great discoverers, but usually poor philosophers. This is not an attack on Hawking or Dawkins, for they are great scientists and writers. But, my point is that most scientists, in their passion for discovery, have not spent enough time thinking through the philosophical arguments and questions.

If Hawking has determined that recent discoveries and theories in cosmology reveal that God is not necessary for the existence of the universe, then he has merely re-stated what Sartre’s existentialist philosophy has known a long time.

Richard Dawkins is a great scientist and ardent defender of reason and sanity against the forces of superstition and human ignorance, i.e. fundamentalism and creationism. His views are often misrepresented or misunderstood by critics. Dawkins is correct that Darwin and evolution removes the need for a Creator because genetic evolution – replication, variation, and selection – will produce design without a grand plan, without a grand designer. Though scientists often quibble over specialized details, I think his books have proved this beyond any doubt. This summer I read his latest book, The Greatest Show on Earth. The last chapter is especially fabulous: a great treatment of the sublime beauty of evolution, as Darwin suggested in the last line of his famous book, Origin of the Species.

But, Dawkins, for all his biological and scientific genius, is wrong on one philosophical point, the most important point. In The God Delusion and in interviews, he allows the possibility (however slim) of a Creator, because he apparently thinks that the idea of a Creator cannot be disproved 100%. In other words, in the terms of the dominant philosophy of science methodology, the hypothesis of a Creator cannot be falsified with 100% certainty, a certainty derived from experimental testing and empirical evidence. Of course, Dawkins cleverly shows that one cannot falsify a flying spaghetti monster, either. But, while the falsification methodology, which came from Karl Popper, has much merit in the science lab, it is overlooks some key logical insights necessary to refute the meme of Creators of the cosmos.

Part 3: There is no Creator

To show that there is no Creator, I am going to combine the ideas of several thinkers into one brief and basic and irrefutable point. These include some of Aristotle’s metaphysics, Sartre’s ontology in Being and Nothingness, Rand’s views on God, and others.

Dawkins is correct when he asks why should the God hypothesis be exempt from critique and the requirements of verifiable evidence and logic, unlike the Gaia hypothesis, or evolution, or the big bang, all of which must face rigorous scrutiny in the academic world? As many philosophers and scientists have understood, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs and the burden of proof is on those who make the claims. The assertion of a Creator of the universe should qualify as an extraordinary claim, as is the claim that such a Creator has placed the faithful at the center of the universe, reads their minds, and has secured their collective and personal destinies. There is zero evidence for such claims.

Despite what is believed in churches, temples, and mosques, and assumed throughout popular culture (especially in the mass media and Hollywood movies), all of the arguments for gods and Creators have failed to meet the philosophical and evidentiary criteria associated with truth and human knowledge. There are endless myths, anecdotes, and torturous assumptions that claim the existence of deities and gods, but the ultimate empirical and intellectual foundation for proposing any Creator of the universe is flawed, illogical, and contradictory.

From an existentialist perspective, all the authority of theology and the sacred texts begins with an assertion about the existence of a God or Creator. It is Genesis 1, Verse 1. That is the essential point of debate, the foundation upon which stands the entire edifice of religion. That is why the theologians must attack Hawking.

Without convincing evidence and proof, theology and religion then possess no more spiritual or intellectual merit than any other premodern model of the world that seeks to explain the origin of the cosmos and destiny of humanity, absent any reference or understanding of modern science. It does matter if the theologian is Pope Benedict or Benny Hinn or Osama bin Laden. It is the same assertion.

Let’s get a two key terms straight to avoid confusion. Those terms are existence and Creator.

By existence, I mean everything that exists, the universe, the multiverse, bubble universes popping in and out of existence, or any other conception of the entirety of the cosmos. Existence is everything that has existed, past, present, and future. This is, in essence, Sartre’s meaning of existence.

The other term is Creator. By Creator, I mean any concept of Deity, God, Allah, Omnipotent Being, Master of the Universe, etc.

All theological arguments for a Creator necessarily claim, assume, or presuppose that the Creator is immaterial and was conscious when creating existence. There is no argument for a Creator that does not explicitly or inherently assume the Creator has no material form, was conscious, and aware of what it was doing. The Creator is pure consciousness. The lack of material form is essential to the role of faith, or believing without evidence. Supposedly, this lack of material form makes it impossible to falsify the existence of a Creator, yet it simultaneously opens the door for a fatal flaw … though that will hardly matter to the faithful followers.

Now here are the contradictions and flaws.

1. If the Creator was conscious and there was no existence or no universe, then what was the Creator conscious of — itself? Impossible. Recall, it is immaterial, it is pure consciousness (or spirituality).

2. A consciousness aware only of itself is an impossibility; a consciousness (of any kind) can only identify itself in relation to some existing thing, external to itself, of which it is conscious or aware.

3. A consciousness with nothing to be conscious of is a contradiction in terms. It is impossible for such to even exist. Before consciousness could even identify itself as being conscious, there must have been some existing thing to be conscious of, a thing external to consciousness and awareness.

In other words, existence necessarily precedes any form of consciousness. That’s it. There is no exit from that reality. That is why there is no Creator. So far as I know, this is the argument overlooked by Dawkins, Hawking, Hitchens, Carl Sagan, Bill Maher, and many other atheists, agnostics, or skeptics.

If someone wants to claim that a deity exists that is not perceivable, then what they are practicing is not consciousness, or awareness. They are believing a delusion.

Consciousness can only exist and function in relation to a physical existence, a physical universe of which it is aware, which explains why consciousness fits with evolutionary theory. Existence is everything that has ever existed, including consciousness and the universe, in whatever form(s). In relation to any kind of consciousness, existence must have always been prior in some form, however much existence has changed and evolved. Over the millennia, consciousness emerged from stardust to become alive and has adapted to the universe in becoming aware of existence.

This is a beautiful meme! It does not make me feel small or needing an explanation for existence of everything. Existence is the ground for all explanations. Existence was not created, nor was the universe. The big bang view of the universe is often imprecisely thought of as meaning that the universe was created, but that it is inaccurate. Actually, all we know, so far, is that the visible universe was a small region of space-time that massively expanded over 13.7 billion years into the visible universe and the vast realm of space-time that we know today. We do not know what caused this explosive expansion, but, as I explained earlier, we are certain it was not caused by a Creator.

So, what is the role of nothingness in these issues? Very important, while also illustrating the profound existential role of media technologies.

As Sartre explains in Being and Nothingness, existence is everything, the entirety of the universe. Existence precedes essence, existing prior to any Platonic forms or beliefs or consciousness or anything else. There are no things outside existence, including nothing.

In a nutshell, existence is the container for all empirical things, plus consciousness and nothingness. The universe is what it is, full of being. All living things have a lack, a state of incompleteness, forever seeking the fullness and completeness that motivates all action and thought. To have a lack or be incomplete is to not have something, or to have a nothing that needs to be filled with something. This is one key origin of nothing and nothingness. Here is the second. To be aware of any empirical thing, consciousness must not be that thing, much like seeing is separate from what is seen. Since all things are potential objects of consciousness, consciousness must be a non-thing, or a nothingness. Consciousness illuminates existence as it is … and as it is not … but could be, revealing nothingnesses to be filled. In sum, nothingness exists and we humans strive to improve or complete ourselves by filling nothingness with being. These nothingnesses are the discontinuities in a deterministic universe, the starting point for all human freedom and cultural possibility, collectively and individually, from past to present to future.

What does this mean for the Creator issue?

1. Since consciousness is a nothingness, it cannot be outside existence, thus eliminating the possibility for a Creator. So, now is the time to free our minds from myths and superstitions and confidently embrace the evolving scientific-existentialist view of the universe.

2. Nothing exists within existence; existence does not exist within nothing. The big bang universe is not filling up empty space; all space and time is within existence. Voids exist within existence, not the other way around. Surely, energy and matter are interchangeable, and the universe is strange. But can something literally come from nothing. Literally, the answer seems to be no. It is existence that makes possible nothing and nothingness.

Part 4: Media Technology and the Cosmos.

There is one sense that I agree with Glenn Beck (but not in the same meaning), in that Americans are “wandering in the darkness” … so is everyone on our planet.

Everyday, Spaceship Earth is hurtling through the darkness of the cosmic void, locked into the gravity of the sun and the Milky Way and being pulled along at 570,000 miles per hour. That’s right, 570,000 miles per hour, 24/7. Since Apollo 8, the masses have been able to see the true existential condition of our planet, viewing it in the famed Earthrise photo, where Earth was shown against the darkness, rising above the horizon of the moon. To believe in a Creator is an epic denial, as expressed by the Apollo 8 reading of Genesis.

We know we are not the center of the universe, a universe of 100s of billions of galaxies, each with 100s of billions of stars. And this universe is expanding, with vast voids and dark energy apparently driving the galaxies away from each other.

Every night, we avoid or evade these facts when our cities light up and the TVs and computers turn on. We have created artificial universes — our cities and cyberspace – where we can pretend we are the center of the universe. The media universe is a substitute universe, with hyperlinks placing us at the center; what else is the meaning of Facebook? A media universe for you, about you, starring you.

In contrast to wandering in cosmic darkness, we are also living in a time of bright lights, but it has nothing to do with our electrified cities or imaginary masters of the universe. Media technologies – in the form of ever more powerful telescopes, computers, and electronic screens – are revealing a universe of astonishing scale and beauty, with billions upon billions of radiant galaxies and stars. This is the brightest time in history for cosmology. We should embrace it.

We humans are not omniscient beings, so our methods of grasping existence have natural limits, but those limits are determined only by the nature of the cosmos and the nature of our consciousness, and our media technologies. Human knowledge is evolving and open ended. As the media technologies expand and increate in power, so to will our knowledge. Over time, some theories have been proven true, such as gravity, evolution, relativity, the big bang, and so on.. Other theories have been proven false, such as such as geocentrism, the flat Earth, and creationism. That theory and knowledge evolve with new evidence and new media technology is natural and need not imply utter relativism.

From the fact that no one person, institution, or nation can know everything, it does not follow that there must be a divine Creator, a cosmic spirit, intelligent designer, or any other supernatural entity. That we are not gods who know everything about the structure and evolution of the universe does not imply that the universe must have been “intelligently designed” by a god, Creator, or deity of any kind. Similarly, non-omniscience does not mean we have zero knowledge or zero certainty.

Knowledge should be thought of as contextual and evolutionary, not timeless or static, always open ended and subject to revision when presented with new evidence, new conditions, or new theories. If knowledge and certainty mean the total and complete grasp of an unchanging world or the entire universe, then we are left with the false alternatives of being either omniscient gods or ignorant fools. If certainty means omniscience, then we must certainly be forever blind. From the fact that we cannot know everything, it does not follow that we cannot understand anything — that we are not gods does not mean we are fools.

Final Thoughts

Now a few final thoughts on media technology and the cosmos. All the genius of Hawking is reliant upon the power of telescopes and computer technologies. Without the telescopes and computers, our knowledge of the cosmos would be tiny. But there is so much more going on with media and the cosmos and I want to touch upon a few points. The idea of “Media and Human Destiny” is my newest writing project and I have a great grad student working with me on the project, Agreen Wang, who you can hear on the Black Hole Media Theory podcast.

Marshall McLuhan viewed the electronic media as extensions of human consciousness and the central nervous system, resulting in a global network that functions as a “global nervous system” — technologies of perception deployed upon the world to map the world, but which also function to model and reorder the world. Television and movies are extensions of the camera and radio, which are extensions of the eye and spoken words, with words as an extension of human thought. Computers and cyberspace are extensions of the brain, consciousness, and memories. Satellites are also extensions. The Hubble telescope is a satellite extension of television, which is an extension of the eye, with all the data going into computers. Outer space is being stored in cyberspace.

Just think: With Hubble, we have extended our eyes into outer space, across billions of years of space and time, across vast voids of the cosmos. There is no sign or evidence of any Creator, only the cosmos evolving according to its own rules, which we are discovering.

If media are extensions of consciousness, and consciousness is a nothingness, then it follows that electronic media are nothingnesses — electronic nothingnesses extended from humans to fill a nothingness in existence and consciousness. A new laptop seems “empty” until put to use, with the gigabytes serving as a digital nothingness to be filled with images and information, the reflections of the world which provide the media content. No matter how much the media proliferate around the world, there will always be the sense of nothingness right next to the sense of being in the world, precisely because we have developed powerful media technology to mirror and model the world. The idea of being and nothingness existing, side-by-side, is implicit in the nature of digital technology — 1’s and 0’s, on and off, representation and non-representation, being and nothingness.

This means the Hubble space telescope and all the space probes are extensions of human consciousness and nothingness into outer space. Electronic and digital nothingnesses extended into space for the purpose of representing objects back to us on Earth. We have extended our consciousness throughout the solar system. We know now there is water on our moon, water and fog on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. As of June 2010, NASA and JPL report there are 450+ exoplanets, meaning the number of planets outside our solar system, orbiting other stars. The number of planets will likely reach thousands and maybe millions, just in the Milky Way. What about the billions of galaxies?

Of course, where there is water and planets, there is a good possibility of life, with 450 planets and counting. After all, our solar system has eight planets, one with life and moons with water. The odds suggest we are surely not the only game in town.

And, consider this. The Voyager space probe has left the solar system, with the Pioneer probes to follow. And other space probes to follow. Not only have we encircled Earth within our electronic nervous system, we have encompassed the solar system within our electronic consciousness, within our electronic nothingnesses. Outer space within cyberspace; vast cosmic voids within vast digital voids, representations of something within nothingness.

As I said earlier, media technologies are not neutral; as they increase in power they change our view of the cosmos, our view of existence, social organization, and out place in society and the cosmos. The single most important challenge facing humanity is finding meaning and destiny in the big bang universe, as revealed by our media technologies. That’s it. All else is secondary — all ideologies, all worldviews, all politics and moralities, all dreams and delusions. Let’s not pretend this is a task for religion or theology. It is long past time we grew up and abandoned such childish stories. Let’s not pretend this is a task for science, alone, either. And, certainly not politics. The task requires the collective effort of art, science, and philosophy.

And, it is beautiful challenge, but it will be a lengthy task, one that I hope humans are willing to face. Our sanity and fate depends on it.

hawking, dawkins, god, and nothingness

2010-09-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker explores many issues involving the controversy around Stephen Hawking's new book, The Grand Design, which claims that the universe does not need God to explain its existence. This podcast shows that the arguments of Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and others, while very insightful, nevertheless overlook the key fatal flaw in any argument supporting the existence of a Creator. Drawing from Jean-Paul Sartre and other thinkers, Vacker shows why it is existentially and logically impossible for any Creator to exist. Also discussed are the existential roles of media technology in our evolving view of the universe and our place in it, including novel interpretations of the Hubble space telescope, Voyager space probes, the solar system being encompassed within our electronic consciousness, and the beauty of the challenge to find meaning in the big bang universe. Others discussed include Glenn Beck and Noam Chomsky.

avatar and 3 destinies

2010-05-15T10:18:00.001-07:00

From the Last Drop coffeehouse in Philadelphia, Osei Alleyne and Barry Vacker riff on the three destinies explored in James Cameron's Avatar: human, ecological, and cosmic.

existential espresso 35 -- Spaceship Earth Day

2010-04-21T10:18:00.001-07:00

On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Barry Vacker explains why Earth Day is a great idea, but only half correct. Humans should be celebrating Spaceship Earth Day. Drawing from his book Starry Skies Moving Away, Barry situates Earth Day within the larger utopian narratives that humans have created as they have tried to organize society and orient themselves within the space-time coordinates of the cosmos as they understood it. The cosmic models include geocentricism, clockwork cosmos, and the space age, which gave birth to three other models: Spaceship Earth, cyberspace, and the big bang. The Earth Day celebration was born of the space age, Spaceship Earth, and the famed Earthrise image taken by Apollo 8. Other topics include the Gaia hypothesis, the Biosphere experiment in Arizona, JFK's famous moon speech, a couple of famous Time magazines covers (here and here), and a cosmically existential moment on the banks of Rio Grande.

existential espresso 34 -- iPad and the beautiful voids

2010-04-18T12:23:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker explores the deeper meanings in the iPad and it what says about human existence in the universe of the big bang. Just what is signified by the icons on that multi-touch screen? It's more than you think.

Existential espresso 33 -- void in vancouver

2010-02-17T12:33:00.001-08:00

From the Last Drop coffeehouse in Philadelphia, Barry Vacker riffs on the meaning of the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics. The ceremony and NBC telecast illustrate the triumph of spectacle, simulation, and celebrity culture, where the media maps have overtaken the territories of reality and history. Yet, the void is a singularity, a moment between past and future, a moment that makes possible the transformation of personal and cultural trajectories. Where are we heading?

Top 5 podcasts

2010-02-17T05:11:00.000-08:00

The audience for Existential Espresso continues to grow every day. Here are the top five podcasts:

Avatar, Star Trek, 2012 = 4100+

The Zero Zero Decade = 900+

9/11 and Nothingness = 800+

The Meaning of Apollo = 700+

Black Hole Media Theory = 600+

My thanks and welcome go out to all new listeners. Thanks to Carly Haines, who joined me on the Apollo podcast, and to Agreen Wang, who joined me on the Black Hole Media podcast.

Existential Espresso will return very soon with new podcasts on new topics. Over the past five weeks, I have not had time to produce new podcasts because I have been completing a text anthology entitled Media Environments, which will be available in April.

Avatar podcast now past 3300 downloads

2010-01-27T04:13:00.000-08:00

Since I did the "Avatar, Star Trek, 2012" podcast on January 6, 2010, it has now been downloaded over 3300 times. The podcast is obviously being forwarded to other listeners and posted on other sites. So, thanks to all the listeners who have found value in the existentialist take on the films. The next podcast will be on James Cameron's futurist ideology in Terminator and Avatar. You might not look at his future (or our future) the same again. Coming to an iPod near you.

"Avatar, Star Trek 2012" downloads streak past 2000

2010-01-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Much to my amazement, the "Avatar, Star Trek, 2012" podcast has streaked to 2370 downloads since it was posted in iTunes a week ago. This likely means links to the podcast are being forwarded to groups somewhere on planet Earth, which is very cool. Thanks to all the listeners and thanks to Apple iTunes.

Yesterday, I contacted Hipcast (the hosting service for these podcasts), hoping to get more detailed stats other than the number of downloads from iTunes. So far, I have yet to hear back. As of now, I have little idea who comprises the growing audience.

When I started Existential Expresso in July, 2009, I thought it would be a fun experiment to see how many people would be interested in hearing the cultural world critiqued from my existentialist (minus the angst) perspective. In addition, I wanted to see what "the network" of the internet would do in circulating these podcasts and helping to promote my experimental books. From a zero audience to 2400 is not bad, considering the existentialist and original theory presented in these podcasts. Plus, the only marketing has been this blog and the Theory Vortex blog, which have but a few followers, and a some promotional postcards placed in some coffeehouses in Philadelphia and Austin.

Of course, within the expanding universe of cyberspace and its massive electronic galaxies, all glowing so brightly and exerting their gravitational forces on cultural theory, Existential Espresso is merely a tiny and unimportant collection of digital stardust floating in the voids of 1's and 0's ... yet these fragments are attracting, self-organizing, and increasing in complexity. Maybe a beautifully chaotic fractal will emerge.

So, I will continue Existential Espresso in the new decade and see what unfolds ....

existential espresso 32 -- avatar, star trek, 2012, and the future

2010-01-06T20:02:00.001-08:00

Barry Vacker welcomes the new decade by riffing on the existential meanings in Avatar, Star Trek, and 2012, and what these films are saying about the future and the destiny of civilization.

Top 3 downloaded podcasts -- The Zero Zero Decade, 9/11 and Nothingness, and Black Hole Media Theory

2009-12-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

Existential Espresso began with a simple concept: discuss ideas from an existentialist perspective while having an espresso and recording a podcast. Discussing ideas and drinking espresso are two of my favorite things. As an existentialist, I had no idea if anyone would listen, but I thought it would an interesting experiment to complement my experiments in theory and media: the film, Space Times Square, and the books, Zero Conditions, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points, Starry Skies Moving Away, and Slugging Nothing.

Since the launch in July, the Existential Espresso (EE) podcasts have continued to grow an audience, from zero to 700+ downloads for the most recent (December 6) and most popular podcast. In the grand media universe we all inhabit, the EE podcasts are mere fragments of digital stardust, barely visible in the bright glow of the billions of electronic galaxies. But, these podcasts are loaded with cosmic ideas about our culture and some intellectual travelers have discovered them -- I hope you continue your journey with the podcasts, whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you are.

So, here is a big thanks to all the travelers, especially those who have forwarded the EE podcasts to friends and others via blogs and emails. Also, I want to offer thanks to Apple iTunes for the prominent display in the Philosophy section of their free podcasts. Steve Jobs, I guess you are still pretty cool, though I think you often overlook the deeper meaning of your famed "1984" Macintosh ad.

As of December 16, 2009, here are the three most popular podcasts from Existential Espresso:

1. The Zero Zero Decade, 700+ downloads

-- This is the most original discussion you will find about the meaning of the first decade of the millennium. This podcast explores the decade through the number zero and its amazing recurrence throughout the decade: Ground Zero, Coke Zero, Carbon Zero, and many others. Zero is a sign for countdown and blastoff ... and much, much more.

2. 9/11 and Nothingness, 650+ downloads

-- This is the most original analysis of 9/11 and its aftermath. Drawing from Sartre's three existential nothingnesses in Being and Nothingness, this podcast explores the meaning of 9/11 through the three nothingnesses that appeared on that fateful morning. First, there was the nothingness in the reality of NYC, perfectly expressed in the term Ground Zero. Second, there were the nothingnesses in consciousness, symbolized by the mouths ajar around the world. Third, there was the nothingness in the future; the Twin Towers were first and foremost skyscrapers of "the future," making their debut at the 1964 New York World's Fair, which was dedicated to the future of the space age and information age. It is revealing to see how these nothingnesses are now being filled ... and not filled.

3. Black Hole Media Theory, 525+ downloads

-- This podcast explores a new theory of resistance and representation for our 24/7, nonstop, all-everywhere, billion blog, multi-billion user, ever-expanding media universe. Drawing from media theory, cosmic science, and a string of films that share a strange pattern of exits from the electronic galaxies, this podcast presents a radical new twist on the "anarchist" scenario. In a media universe of total representation and surveillance, perhaps the only way postmodern or hypermodern humans can be real and free is to disappear, where existence as a private individual requires disappearance as a political subject. My thanks to Agreen Wang for joining me on this podcast and for her interest in black hole media theory. Of course, if this theory is plausible, then what can be said about the Existential Espresso podcasts?

existential espresso 31 -- the zero zero decade

2009-12-07T14:07:00.001-08:00

Barry Vacker explores the meaning of the zero zero decade: 2000-2009. Drawing from a wide range of theory (art, film, science, philosophy, etc.) included in his new book Zero Conditions, Barry offers a discussion unlike any other about the decade.

existential espresso 30 -- black hole media theory

2009-11-20T08:53:00.001-08:00

Agreen Wang and Barry Vacker riff on "black hole" media theory at The Last Drop coffeehouse in Philadelphia. In The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who has lived his entire life as the unwitting star of a TV show. In the end, he breaks free from the giant domed studio, exiting a door in the fake sky, disappearing into a black hallway, becoming a (TV) star who disappears from its (media) universe. Metaphorically, Truman becomes a "black hole." Does Truman's disappearance point toward a radical new theory of freedom and representation, a new way to think about the "enlightenment" project? The answer is yes and it reflects a cinematic tradition of depicting exits from the media universe and the desire to escape the light of representation, including films such as Alphaville (1965), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Westworld (1973), The Matrix (1999), and others. Not surprisingly, a new line of media theory is emerging, centering on the idea of "black holes" in the media universe. Agreen and Barry explore variations on this cutting edge idea, while discussing black holes, media theorists (Manual Castells, Noam Chomsky, and others), Plato's cave, and Jean-Paul Sartre's "No Exit." Yes, it is a chaotic mix with many strange parallels. In a 24/7, nonstop, all-everywhere, billion blog, multi-billion user, ever-expanding media universe of total representation and surveillance, maybe the only way postmodern humans can be real and free is to disappear, where existence as a private individual requires disappearance as a political subject. This is expressed as the existential need to effect personal black holes and vanishing points in the information galaxies. Perhaps the encryption code would determine the event horizon, that point at which no information-as-light can escape; at the singularity in the personal black hole, there would exist the vanishing point, the region in space-time of the media universe where the laws of church, state, and corporation break down.

existential espresso 29 -- 2012 addendum

2009-11-09T13:58:00.001-08:00

Barry Vacker discusses a few additional quotes from Roland Emmerich (director of the film 2012) regarding the Mayan Prophecy and the future. These quotes summarize the dystopian view that many people (but not Barry) have toward modernity and the possibility for a secular, scientific, and technological model of the future that is connected to the cosmos and provides a destiny worth pursuing. Also discussed are the ages born of modernity: the Enlightenment, machine age, atomic age, space age, and information age, especially the effect of the internet on the struggle for enlightenment over ignorance.

existential espresso 28 -- 2012

2009-11-08T18:16:00.001-08:00

Barry Vacker riffs on the deeper meanings of the 2012 Mayan Prophecy and the new Roland Emmerich film, 2012. This new hipster astrology and pseudoscience is popular because it reflects a profound condition in postmillennial culture, namely that much of humanity is disconnected from the universe and lost amidst the cosmos, unable to map an optimistic secular destiny upon the starry skies of the big bang universe. This podcast draws from Barry's newest book, Starry Skies Moving Away (2009), available in Amazon as a high-quality paperback and a Kindle ebook.

existential espresso 27 -- 24/7 media culture

2009-10-21T04:08:00.001-07:00

Jarice Hanson (The University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and Barry Vacker (Temple University) riff on 24/7 media culture and Jarice's newest book, 24/7: How Cell Phones and the Internet Change the Way We Live, Work, and Play. Media technologies and perceptions of space and time. Information: reacting, responding, and reflecting. Information overload and information relativity. Classrooms now competing with the internet; shrinking attention spans and perceptions of accelerating time. Media technologies: extensions of self or substitutes for self? Media as a substitute universe; electronic vanishing points. Cyberspace as fixed and infinite; projecting ourselves with media technology. The need for technological literacy; the "energy" to focus and concentrate. Tool makers and tool users; masters of the universe; finding more meaning in our lives; living lives worth living.

existential espresso 26 -- living in "the twilight zone"

2009-10-07T18:07:00.001-07:00

From The Last Drop coffeehouse, Barry riffs on the deeper meanings of The Twilight Zone on the 50th anniversary of its debut on American television. This podcast draws from Barry’s latest book, Starry Skies Moving Away (2009), which is available in Amazon as a paperback and in Kindle as an ebook. More than a philosophically-engaging television show, The Twilight Zone is the most existential series ever created, with many episodes exploring the most radical and profound conditions facing humanity and modernity — utopia and dystopia, apotheosis and apocalypse, marvel and madness, affluence and anxiety, dreams of the space age and discoveries of the big bang. The Twilight Zone remains relevant for postmillennial culture because it anticipated several broad themes that have dominated culture the first decade of the new millennium; many episodes show the trajectories of modernity being warped or countered by the trajectories of the postmodern, the premodern, and the antimodern. As expressed in Rod Serling’s famous opening passages, The Twilight Zone dramatizes the cosmic vertigo and existential conditions of living in the big bang universe.

existential espresso 25 -- Fight Club and IKEA

2009-09-20T12:55:00.001-07:00

From the Last Drop coffeehouse Philadelphia, Barry riffs on Fight Club and IKEA. This podcast explores the deeper meanings in: 1) the detonation of IKEA in Jack's apartment, 2) IKEA and its relation to modern design and consumerism. These are just a few of the topics covered in Barry's book: Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club (available as paperback in Amazon and ebook in Kindle) The symbolism of Tyler Durden. The meaning of IKEA and Jack's apartment in the age of mass production, mass simulation, and the desire for authenticity and individuality. The unity of form, function, materials, and technology to produce objects of utility and beauty; modern design as a liberation from the premodern past. The rejection of the design geniuses -- Buckminster Fuller (Dymaxion houses) and Frank Lloyd Wright (Usonian houses) -- by the masses in favor of Martha Stewart, Home Depot, and IKEA. What do all the houses (with pitched roofs and small windows) in suburbia say about the masses and their relation to the cosmos? Counterfeit individualism, faux counterculture, fundamentalism, and terrorism. The real meaning of the fights in Fight Club. The human need for art and the aesthetic: 1) the beautiful as unity of form and function in a way of being, 2) the sublime as a connection to nature and the cosmos.

existential espresso 24 -- Fight Club and nothingness

2009-09-19T14:14:00.001-07:00

From the Last Drop coffeehouse in Philadelphia, Barry riffs on the deeper meanings of Fight Club, now ten years old and still resonating with many people around the world. Along with two other 1999 films, American Beauty and The Matrix, Fight Club expressed the inability of secular/popular culture to imagine a utopian model as humans approached the year 2000, the year that most symbolized the arrival of “the future.” This podcast explores the deeper existential meanings of the book/film and draws from Barry’s book: Slugging Nothing: Fighting the Future in Fight Club (available as paperback in Amazon and ebook in Kindle). More than a mere critique of consumerism and masculine angst, Fight Club captured the zeitgeist of the millennial angst. Fight Club illustrated four key concepts of “nothingness” in the popular perceptions of the modern and postmodern futures: ground zero, entropy, hyperreality, and lack of personal meaning in the big bang universe. There are many similar themes in apocalyptic culture, along with many parallels in the premodern utopias of the Unabomber and Tyler Durden, both of which are attempts to reverse the trajectory of modernity.

existential espresso 23 -- the meaning of Facebook

2009-09-19T14:00:00.001-07:00

From the Last Drop coffeehouse in Philadelphia, Barry riffs on the meaning of Facebook, which recently passed 300 million “friends” and now has a population that rivals the U.S. Is this growth merely emblematic of the rise of social media and social networking? Or is Facebook a giant panopticon that amplifies narcissism, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and surveillance, thus giving birth to the micro-celebrity, that “star” with all the friends and fans. Facebook is also a microcosm of the internet, where people with their laptops and iPhones feel as if they are at the center of the media universe, precisely as they are ever more disconnected from the cosmic universe. In an age of rising scientific illiteracy in America (and the world?), it is no surprise that the internet universe is where people orient themselves in space and time to give themselves a sense of technological, social, and personal destiny. Facebook is a media universe with you at the center, a universe that revolves around you ... for you.

existential espresso 22 -- 9/11 and nothingness

2009-09-05T17:15:00.001-07:00

Barry riffs on the meaning of 9/11 and its aftermath. The three nothingnesses of 9/11 and their striking parallels with the three nothingness Sartre explained in Being and Nothingness. The nothingnesses in reality (the void at Ground Zero in NYC skyline), in consciousness (symbolized by the mouths agape in horror), and in the future (the holes in the Twin Towers, towers that once symbolized the information age and globalization). The three nothingnesses gave rise to a singularity, a moment of intellectual freedom for society. Barry reads a passage from Zero Conditions (2008), his book which explores the meaning of Ground Zero and many other voids and zeros in postmillennial culture. A discussion of how the nothingnesses were filled in America: in theory, society, policy, economics, media, internet, etc. The real meaning of 9/11 and the Terror War. Can we be optimistic? Embracing our our existence in the big bang universe; science and art, ecology and technology (Apologies for some uneven sound.)

existential espresso 21 -- 9/11 conspiracy myths

2009-09-05T09:39:00.001-07:00

Barry riffs on 9/11 conspiracy myths: 1) their role on postmillennial cultural narratives, 2) the parallels between conspiracy theories and creation myths; 3) the ground zeros for the recent ascension of conspiracy theories and creation myths; 4) the Zapruder film and the postmodern epistemological condition. Three dominant models that seek to explain 9/11: Bush-Cheney’ “attack on America,” Moore-Chomsky “blowback” on America, Dylan Avery’s “inside job” by American government. The JFK assassination site and Barry’s discussions with conspiracy theorists. Barry's "conspiracy theory" text for Peter Granser's photography book, Signs (Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz and The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography, 2008). The fatal flaws in the logic of conspiracy theories; the flaws in the 9/11 conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories as simulations of the critique of power. Note: The essay containing the "conspiracy theory-creation myth" discussion in Barry's text for Signs can be downloaded for free at Barry's site: barryvacker•net (just click on "Signs" under book list).

existential espresso 20 -- the meaning of football 1

2009-08-24T10:37:00.001-07:00

The first podcast in a series of three about the meaning of football. Carly and Barry riff on this topic at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in downtown Philadelphia. After visiting the deserts of Texas and the modern art utopia of Marfa (see the three previous podcasts about vanishing points), Barry tours the new Dallas Cowboy stadium, a massive and sleek and futuristic structure. The stadium looks like a spacecraft landed in a vast hyperreal tourist complex, next to the first Six Flags theme park, the Texas Rangers’ retro-simulacrum baseball stadium, and other themed attractions. The stadium expresses Debord’s concept of the spectacle. The stadium stimulates the Kantian sublime; natural sublime and technological sublime. The giant screen above the field is 60 yards long, 30 yards high, with 30 million LED lights; 3000 flat screens in the stadium; speakers the size of 18-wheelers; the map overtaking the territory. TV culture and Imax fans. Hyperreality, hyper luxury; hyper elite in the private suites. The simulation of surveillance, simulation of hierarchy, and simulation of social control. Hyperreality is explained further in Barry's book Crashing Into the Vanishing Points (2009).

existential espresso 19 -- the meaning of football 2

2009-08-24T10:12:00.001-07:00

The second podcast in a series of three about the meaning of football. Carly and Barry riff on this topic at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in downtown Philadelphia. Football and Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon. Sports speaks to the ancient in human society. Carl Sagan’s essay “Monday Night Hunters” in the book Billions & Billions (1997). 97% of human existence has been in hunter-gatherer society; teamwork, planning, pattern recognition as key to survival in the void that is "the future.” Sports as simulated conquest. Cherokee lacrosse as “the little brother of war,” Afghan warlods played polo with skulls of vanquished adversaries; in Ancient Mexico, the highly adorned elite watched a game in which the losing team’s captain was beheaded, with the skulls mounted nearby. Ridley Scott’s film Gladiator (2000). Football as a “chaotic” system in nature; simple rules generate unpredictable outcomes, shaped by singularities; the “great games” stay on the edge of order and chaos. Th social implications of chaos theory are explored in Barry's book Zero Conditions (2008). Opera for the masses; Aristotle’s catharsis; Soft bodies watching hard bodies; players as millionaire mercenaries for the masses.

existential espresso 18 -- the meaning of football 3

2009-08-24T09:35:00.001-07:00

The final podcast in a series of three about the meaning on football. Carly and Barry riff on this topic at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. Instant replay as surveillance; more real than real, more true than true. The sublime and the beautiful; form and function united in a pleasing totality. Football plays as beautiful and ugly. The aesthetics of image, spectacle, uniforms, stadium architecture. Beauty as organized chaos. Capitalism profits on popular aesthetics and spectacle. Owners and players as capitalists. The movie Field of Dreams (1989) as sports mythology; a conservative reaction against modernity; coming at the end of the Reagan era; celebrating the era of baseball that was most racist while anticipating the simulated authenticity of retro stadiums. George Bush’s acclaimed simulacrum stadium and his baseball team save his career, propelling him to being governor of Texas … and you know how the game ended. The simultaneous proliferation of steroids, cosmetic surgery, Lasik surgery, and Viagra; unfair competitive advantages? More human than human. Rollerball (1975) is the most prophetic sports film ever; spectacle, surveillance, hyperviolence, corporate capitalism, globalization of celebrity, athletes as gods with supermodels and drugs; Jonathan E (like Ricky Williams) as the rebel in the film questions the system.

existential espresso 17 -- cold souls, cold war

2009-08-23T20:00:00.001-07:00

Drawing from his book Starry Skies Moving Away, Barry Vacker riffs on the philosophical meaning of Cold Souls, the new film by Sophie Barthes, a promising young filmmaker. Brief discussion of Cold Souls, which intuits and symbolizes much of the postmillennial intellectual conditions in the aftermath of the Cold War. Chekhov, wasted lives, and soul trafficking. Soul extraction in a futuristic office reminiscent of Le Corbusier or Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The many similarities in the USSR and USA, competing industrial social systems seeking to fulfill the promise of the modern utopia and the Enlightenment; the key differences in the two systems. Technological marvel and ideological madness. The Cold War as dystopia. Socialist realism versus capitalist realism. Coming to terms with the discoveries of the space age. Cosmic vertigo. Social systems and the big bang. Modern secularism versus fundamentalism in the marketplace of ideas, in a battle for the "soul" of humanity and modernity. Is the burden of modernity causing the modern-secular soul to be placed in "cold storage"? What can be said about the "souls "of the USSR and the USA?

existential espresso 16 -- vanishing points 3

2009-08-19T11:29:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on vanishing points of the information age at the Last Drop, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. The meaning of Marfa. Dan Flavin’s fluorescent lights, Marshall McLuhan, TV, and the information age. Electric light as pure information; the glow of the electronic light of media. 1s and 0s, being and nothingness in the information age. The world turned off. The expanding media universe. In the mountains north of Marfa, the McDonald Observatory (owned by The University of Texas at Austin) screens the Powers of Ten, the famed short film by Charles and Ray Eames. What does the cosmic existentialist film mean? Moore’s Law shows the internet to be doubling in size and power every 18-24 months; this raises a most profound question for each of us in our expanding media universe. Most of the ideas in this podcast are theorized much more in two of Barry’s books: Crashing Into the Vanishing Points (2009) and Starry Skies Moving Away (2009); both available in Amazon. For Fall 2009, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points has been adopted by Professor Jarice Hanson for her grad class (“Technology and Society”) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

existential espresso 15 -- vanishing points 2

2009-08-19T11:25:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on the meanings of “vanishing points” at the Last Drop, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. The desert and the metropolis, existence and consciousness, being and nothingness. Some Marfa backstory. Donald Judd’s 100 boxes and concrete blocks; industrial processes transformed into art, as contrast with nature. Meanings of the “Prada Marfa” site: simulacrum and hologram of fashionable modernity. The haunting beauty of John Chamberlain’s twisted cars: the highway utopia crashes into the vanishing points. Chamberlain’s cars helped inspire the title of Barry’s book, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points (2009); available in Amazon. For Fall 2009, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points has been adopted by Professor Jarice Hanson for her grad class (“Technology and Society”) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

existential espresso 14 -- vanishing points

2009-08-19T11:17:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on the meanings of “vanishing points” at the Last Drop, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia. The meaning of road trips in the desert and the journey to Marfa (Texas), the modern art utopia. The meaning of the vanishing point: the rest of the world, the edge of the world, the end of the world. Vanishing points in space and time. “The future” as a vanishing point for modernity in jettisoning the past and seeking the future. Thinking Sartre and Sagan in the vast desert landscape: to be in the universe. Photons from across the cosmos entering our eyes. Most of the ideas in this podcast are theorized much more in two of Barry’s books: Crashing Into the Vanishing Points (2009) and Starry Skies Moving Away (2009); both available in Amazon. For Fall 2009, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points has been adopted by Professor Jarice Hanson for her grad class (“Technology and Society”) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

existential espresso 13 -- myths of woodstock

2009-08-16T19:23:00.001-07:00

Gail Bower and Barry Vacker riff on cultural theory from the coffeehouses of Philadelphia and beyond. The event of Woodstock and the myth of Woodstock. Icon of love, peace, freedom, and harmony? Or icon of bailout culture, the spectacle, and the map overtaking the territory? The breakdown in the "society" that attended the event. The rise in "individualism" accompanied by the rise in irresponsibility? The Sixties an era of simulated individualism? Fields of garbage and the Jimi Hendrix guitar solo (playing the Star Spangled Banner), one of the greatest solos ever. The Woodstock museum. Comparing Woodstock and Apollo 11? Mud versus stars. Woodstock and the devolution of society. Does the universe let us have our cake and eat it too? Note: Barry clarifies a previous point; one hundred thousand (or more) festival-goers swarmed over the fences, causing the festival organizers to make Woodstock a "free" concert and thus a complete financial failure.

existential espresso 12 -- hypermodern style

2009-08-03T14:09:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on postmillennial cultural trajectories while having coffee at The Last Drop in Philadelphia. Hypermodernism and customized media experiences. Gilles Lipovetsky's book: Hypermodern Times. Three kinds of “individualism;” the Social Darwinist conqueror, the self-actualized egoist, and the hypermodern "individualism" of customized experiences and networked media. Individualism and the universal right of freedom of expression. Mass society and the communist-capitalist utopias: mass produced goods, shared destinies, and supposedly autonomous individuals. Postmodern fragmentation and the entropy of the modern narrative. Fashion and vertigo. Fashion as the overlooked democratic equalizer; everyone can have style, have a look, have an identity, be a somebody; tattoos as logos for the global village. The vertigo of acceleration and the desire for permanence. The rise of Earth Art; the experience of geological time in contrast to hypermodern time. Existential Espresso's next podcasts will be on the road in Marfa, Texas, the famed town where modern art installations meet the permanence of the American desert.

existential espresso 11 -- mediated time

2009-08-03T14:03:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on postmillennial cultural trajectories while having coffee at The Last Drop in Philadelphia. The acceleration of time and the experience of the world. Media and the organization of time and life. Times Square as cyberspace, an accelerating media universe, a play of surfaces always in perpetual motion. Barry’s film Space Times Square, based on his Theory Zero book series. Hypermodern culture and the supplanting of faith with momentary euphorias, ecstasies, and enthusiasms for trends and products. The blurred line between the artificial and natural. Reproductions of the human form across time: wax figure, robot, clone. The clone as the symbol for pre-programmed bodies, endless copies, unlimited reproductions. The explosion of cosmetic surgery, steroids, and Viagra. The utter hypocrisy of baseball and sports fans.

existential espresso 10 -- hypermodern time

2009-08-03T13:57:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry share some time to riff on postmillennial cultural while having coffee at The Last Drop in Philadelphia. The struggle to have enough “time” in planning for the events of our lives. Strange memories of proms and oh-so-stylish tuxedos, all back in the day. Hovenweep, the Anasazi ruin in Utah, illustrates how ancient peoples marked the passage of time via the solstices. The role of the pocket watch in tracking time in the clockwork cosmos of Newton. Adam Smith’s thoughts on why we will pay premium dollars for a watch that keeps perfect time, which helps explain many iPhone apps. Einstein and the fabric of space-time. Time as the new scarce commodity, the new object of consumption in an age lacking true leisure. GPS and Google Maps time. Consumer society as living in the now. Maximum consumption as response to scarcity of time and fears of the future.

existential espresso 9 -- what time is it?

2009-08-03T13:54:00.001-07:00

Carly and Barry riff on postmillennial cultural trajectories while having coffee at The Last Drop in Philadelphia. They answer a listener’s question about Disneyworld and the map overtaking the territories. Disneyworld as a microcosm of mediated reality, where information becomes simulation. Controlled and simulated environments have origins in models of utopia. Utopias are much less visions of perfection tainted by flawed humanity than they are models of the world that offer shared destinies toward the past or future. Modernity born of the utopian impulse to escape the medieval past, via science and secularism, and to enter “the future” and the decline of human suffering. US, French, and Communist Revolutions; the Cold War struggle over the modern utopia. What time is it and where are we going? The modern is being succeeded by the premodern, postmodern, and hypermodern. Easy to get “lost” in the future, trapped or tricked in the hyperrealities.

existential espresso 8 -- bailout culture

2009-08-02T06:50:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker and Gail Bower (filling in for Carly Haines) riff on cultural theory from the ledge of an urban cliff dwelling after being coffeehouse nomads fleeing the urban noise. The National Debt Clock in Times Square illustrates just how far removed from reality are our cultural and economic polices. The stock market crash caused by: 1) unsustainable super-sized culture, 2) faith-based banking, and 3) derivative computer models detached from reality, a case of the media maps overtaking the territories. [ Barry provides a full explanation of these in his book: Crashing Into the Vanishing Points (2009) ] The non-sane Bush-Obama policy of massively increasing debt to get out of debt; now reaching into the hundreds of trillions, including debts owed Social Security, Medicare, and the Pentagon. See here for an online debt clock that lists the growing debt by categories. Barry's film, Space Times Square (2007), predicted the stock market crash and the bankruptcies.

No one bailed out the dotcoms and the internet is thriving. The widespread disconnect from evolution of natural and cultural systems; denial of causality. Bailout culture: the God of the government or the mythical God of the cosmos will bail us out. Coming in next podcasts: hypermodern culture contrasted with postmodern culture.

existential espresso 7 -- pray for rain

2009-08-01T17:11:00.001-07:00

Barry Vacker and Gail Bower (filling in for Carly Haines) riff on cultural theory from the ledge of an urban cliff dwelling after being coffeehouse nomads fleeing the urban noise. Our science and technology have entered the new millennium, but have our cultural theories, philosophies, and ideologies? A cultural reversal? Gail reads from article in the San Antonio Express-News: “New Braunfels residents pray for rain.” Residents gather in town square and pray for rain; it rains a scant .03 inches and God gets the credit. People feel God protected them, because somebody “did something,” proving the power of “faith in numbers.” The San Antonio newspaper reports this as a true story. Does this reflect a sane culture? What have we learned from Apollo? For most people, not much. Two of the “pray for rain” organizers included a wife and husband, who was an Apollo 16 moonwalker. The “pray for rain” event and story is a microcosm of much of our intellectual culture, a faith-based culture that routinely ignores reality and denies causality. Barry discusses this topic in greater depth in his text for Peter Granser's photography book, Signs, published by Hatje Cantz and the Chicago Museum for Contemporary Photography (2008).“Faith in numbers” produces the George Bush evangelical administration and the Iraq war, which was a faith-based war, because it was based on lack of evidence for weapons of mass destruction. The Wall Street crash is where faith-based banking (lending to those with little evidence they can afford the debt) meets “derivative” computer models detached from reality.

existential espresso 6 -- after 2000

2009-07-27T12:38:00.001-07:00

Carly Haines and Barry Vacker riff on postmillennial culture at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia (July 27, 2009). Culture after 2000: premodern, postmodern, hypermodern, and postmillennial; the zeros signaling: 1) the postmillennial “hangover,” 2) a cultural singularity, 3) being and nothingness. Evertything discussed in this podcast is based on Barry's book: Zero Conditions (2008). Many more zeros in culture; decoding the Obama logo: circle or zero? Zero as signaling a singularity, a new trajectory for natural or cultural system, to a higher or lower order of complexity, forward or reversal. Zero as signaling Sartre’s existential ontology of “being and nothingness;” the void, the vast emptinesses at the subatomic and cosmic levels. In between the voids, we are the stardust that has become conscious of the universe. Brief summary of Sartre’s ontology, one of the great philosophical achievements of 20th century. The meaning of nothingness in existence, consciousness, and the future. We are time travelers always projecting ourselves into the future, as we model it, based on the past and present. Year 2000 as symbol of “the future.” Why are there so many dystopian films? We are filling the voids of cyberspace, the electronic consciousness. There is no exit from the universe, no cosmic creator to bail us out. Can we develop new cultural ideas for the future?

existential espresso 5 -- more zeros

2009-07-27T12:30:00.001-07:00

Carly Haines and Barry Vacker riff on more zeros at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia (July 27, 2009). Contrasting the cultural meanings of circle and zero, the most existential number. Circle as fullness, completion, Euclidean perfection. Zero as symbol for countdown and blastoff; the power of zero in basic mathematics; zero as nothing. Ground zeros: 9/11, Katrina, and Las Vegas. The hotel New York-New York was completed in 1997 and did not include the Twin Towers, a case of the map anticipating the territories. Contrasting two millennium clocks: the Millennium Clock on the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Clock of the Long Now in a cave north of Las Vegas. The Millennium Dome and Millennium Experience; the meaning and bizarre aftermath of the 2000 celebration held at the Prime Meridian, 0 degrees longitude; the fire sale of the future. Did we really go past 2000? We did on the calendars, but did we in our cultural theories? Many other zero conditions: Fight Club, The Matrix, Naqoyqatsi. Decoding Coke Zero. Note: we are doing these live at coffeehouses, with a few notes and no script; we accidentally made one mistake in the zero and mathematics discussion, but we corrected it at the end of the podcast. Thanks.

existential espresso 4 -- zero conditions

2009-07-27T12:24:00.001-07:00

Carly Haines and Barry Vacker riff on the cultural meanings of “zero” at the Bean Exchange, a coffeehouse in Philadelphia (July 27, 2009). Fortune cookies and Carly’s “double zero.” The recent TV show, Aftermath: Population Zero; what happens to the world if humans suddenly disappear? Nature is very resilient and overtakes the artifacts of human civilization; the longest lasting human creations may be Mount Rushmore and the Voyager spacecraft. Barry’s book, Zero Conditions (2008), and the continuing proliferation of zeros around (and after) the millennium. Ground zero, carbon zero, and others. Terror war as a cultural reversal after the cold war; Katrina as a preventable and predictable apocalypse, a ground zero for the reversal to the hunter-gatherer society of Fight Club. The Superdome as home for postmodern spectacles. Zero as countdown and blastoff.

existential expresso now in iTunes

2009-07-25T05:20:00.001-07:00

Existential Espresso is now available in iTunes. Subscription is free:

http://tinyurl.com/EEpodcasts

Carly and I hope you check it out.

existential espresso 3 -- maps and territories

2009-07-22T20:53:00.001-07:00

In the third podcast of Existential Espresso, Carly Haines and Barry Vacker riff on many topics, live and uncut, sitting outside the Philadelphia Java Company coffeehouse (July 22, 2009). Carly's childhood "utopia" of Disneyland. Utopias of the past and future, garden v machine, nature v technology, small town v metropolis, local village v global village, golden age v space age and info age. Marshall McLuhan's "medium is the message" and global village; the effect of printing press, books, television, cyberspace, and the internet. Are the media a mirror or mirage, a market or our master, a memory bank or the matrix? Or, Jean Baudrillard's idea of the maps (media) overtaking the territory. Disneyland as a microcosm of our media reality. The light coming through our screens beckons us to the virtual world beyond.

existential espresso 2 -- utopia after apollo

2009-07-22T20:30:00.001-07:00

In the second podcast of Existential Espresso, Carly Haines and Barry Vacker riff on many topics, live and uncut, while sitting outside the Philadelphia Java Company coffeehouse (July 22, 2009). The aftermath of Apollo; the strange 1969 CBS moon landing broadcast that intuited the utopias after Apollo: Disneyland, cyberspace, and Gaia. Guys on loud Harleys, wannabe easy riders, counterfeit rebels, life as a special effect. Living in The Truman Show in Philadelphia. We are not the center of the universe, but in cyberspace each of us is at the center of the media universe. Living in an urban cliff dwelling.

existential espresso 1 -- the meaning of Apollo

2009-07-19T13:08:00.001-07:00

This is the first podcast of Existential Espresso, a series of pop culture dialogues coming from coffeehouses throughout Philadelphia. Since these 15-minute podcasts are live and uncut, they may lack some production polish at times, especially in the beginning. But the podcasts will never lack in ideas to charge your brain and stimulate some fresh thinking about what the heck is happening in this crazy and beautiful world.

We hope you subscribe and enjoy the discussions; your comments and questions are welcome. Please forward to any friends who might be interested.

In this podcast, Carly and Barry discuss the overlooked significance of the Apollo moon flights, along with thoughts on Bruno, Roswell, modernity, creationism, metropolises, faith, the universe, the Earthrise image, dinosaurs and humans, celebrities and superstars, and Michael's moonwalk.

This podcast was recorded on July 15 at The Last Drop, a cool coffeehouse in downtown Philadelphia, located at 13th and Pine. Last Drop is populated by artists, hipsters, laptoppers, urban wanderers, and art students from University of the Arts. The coffee is strong, the music is current, and the anti-fashion fashions echo Marla and Tyler in Fight Club. You can sit outside, inside, or get cozy downstairs.