Director of
The Wisdom Page & The
Center for Future Consciousness
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Wisdom and the Future
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This Month's Highlights
December, 2017
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Wisdom and the Future has again received the "
All Star Award" from
Constant Contact for excellence, a honor only given to the top 10% of
Constant Contact customers.
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Included in this month's issue of
Wisdom and the Future
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Update on London, Paris, and Las Vegas:
A Whirlwind of Events, People, Presentations, & Conversations
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Underneath the Fantastic Stained Glass Windows
of Winchester Cathedral
October was a whirlwind of events--of new people, new places--of dialogues, presentations, interviews, and the publication of my book
Future Consciousness. Jeanne and I traveled to London and Paris early in the month, and I gave three presentations, met with my publisher, visited a great science fiction scholar, and talked with hundreds of people. Before the month was over I traveled to Las Vegas and did eleven video interviews in three days.
Through it all, the innumerable conversations, at one time or another, delved into the nature, meaning, and purpose of life; the meaning of meaning; robots, artificial intelligence, and machine consciousness; perception and the physical world; the pursuit of wisdom; the future evolution of humans; time travel; H.G. Wells, Charles Darwin, and Olaf Stapledon; science fiction, mythology, and the new
Bladerunner 2049; good and evil; psychic abilities; and prophecies of the end of the world, among numerous other topics.
A number of these events are highlighted below in different sections of the new
Wisdom and the Future.
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Charles Cassidy, his wife Amy, and Seven Days of Friendship and Unending Dialogue
Without question, the most extensive conversation (actually multiple conversations stretched over a week and a half) I had in London was with Charles Cassidy. Jeanne and I stayed with Charles and his wife Amy in their flat while in London, and although I had never met Charles in person, we seemed to have any immediate personal and intellectual connection. (We had though
Skyped with each other a few times over the previous year, plus numerous emails.)
Charles is an "archetypal student" of life, philosophy, and everything. He possesses an deeply inquiring and curious mind and, as he explained about his life, he made a conscious decision a number of years ago to devote himself to the study of wisdom; to him, it seemed that the topic of wisdom pulled together all of the major dimensions of science, philosophy, and the study of the good life. In our time together, he perpetually and repeatedly provoked me into intellectual and personal conversations with one question after another. He was interested in discussing all manner of topics, including wisdom, the nature of reality, evolution, the Yin Yang, history and futures studies, and science fiction.
Through our hours and hours of talking, what I observed about him was that: He possesses an exceedingly clear mind; he is highly logical without being mentally ridged; and he does not seem at all defensive or closed-minded. For every point I made in our dialogues, over breakfast, dinner, or traveling about London, he had further questions and points to bring up, and always with a smile on his face, but equally quite serious about the pursuit of knowledge and understanding. All in all, Charles is wisdom-in-the-making.
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Relaxing on Darwin's Bed
Charles took Jeanne and me to Charles Darwin's house, which is not that far from London. What I found absolutely incredible was that Darwin's bed was not roped off, and hence I had to sit momentarily on his bed, to absorb the spirit and the residual vibes.
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Jeanne and I in London
London was like a human anthill, with myriad underground corridors and walkways, stairs and escalators, and trains and buses, filled with hundreds of thousands of people, flowing every which way, under the city and through the streets above. Surprisingly (for me), the skyline was in a state of intense construction and development, with numerous modernist, architecturally inventive, and colorful new buildings going up all over the place.
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Future Consciousness: The Path to Purposeful Evolution
Book Publication, London Presentations, and Other Noteworthy Events
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"To read almost any paragraph was like savoring a fine glass of wine. It's hard not to be impressed!"
Robert Goldstein,
Amazon Reader Review
Future Consciousness: The Path to Purposeful Evolution
(John Hunt Publishing and Changemakers Books) was officially published on October 27th, available for purchase on Amazon. You can read more on the
publisher's website page for the book. You can
order signed copies of the book through my
CFC email address listed on the
Center for Future Consciousness website. In-depth coverage of the book, including the entire table of contents of the book, can be found on the
book's webpage on the
Center for Future Consciousness website. You can also see the latest news on the book on the
CFC Facebook page, diligently and faithfully maintained by my wife and co-director Jeanne.
Five Star Ratings on the book continue to go up on
Amazon. As a friend and colleague recently told me,
Future Consciousness is the
ideal Holiday gift--both for oneself or significant others--since it is a book of great substance and value that will provide continual reward and ongoing insights into life. It is not superficial fluff, or a pointless present that is soon forgotten after the Holidays. As a professional commentator on contemporary times the other day said to me, the book provides an optimistic, inspiring, and powerful antidote to the pessimism and nihilism of today. It is a light in the darkness, a great gift to illuminate the spirit for whoever receives the book.
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London Presentations
As two kick-off events for the publication of Future Consciousness, I gave introductory presentations on the book in London, England in early October with follow-up discussions and book signings. The two events were at:
A version of this introductory talk on my book--of good visual and audio quality--was recently created by Steve Mitchell. This new video is based on my presentation on the book given at Yale University during the Society of Consciousness Studies conference in June, 2017.
Watch the video.
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Meeting with John Hunt
and Touring Winchester Cathedral
Jeanne and I traveled by train from London to the little town of Winchester to meet with my publisher, John Hunt. John, who possesses great historical knowledge, took us on a guided and informative tour of Winchester Cathedral.
 
One of the high points of my trip was meeting with John Hunt, the owner of
John Hunt Publishing. John is a soft spoken, highly thoughtful, learned, and intelligent individual, who has created during his lifetime an ever-growing and diversifying publishing company that now releases roughly two hundred new books every year. He was very positive and supportive of the types of books I am writing (constructive, realistic, and optimistic about the future) and he was quite interested in discussing future publishing possibilities with his company.
Nick Maxwell and the Friends of Wisdom
Although it took Jeanne and I almost two hours to find our way through the maze of bus lines, streets, and train routes to get from Charles' house to the restaurant, we eventually arrived at our destination and had a very good time meeting with Nick Maxwell (Founder of the
Friends of Wisdom), and Charles and Bruce as well (also members of the
Friends of Wisdom).
Myself, Bruce Lloyd, Charles,
and Nick Maxwell (Founder of
The Friends of Wisdom)
 
(Photos by Jeanne)
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New Thinking Allowed Video Interviews
with Jeffrey Mishlove
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At the end of the month of October, within a three-day period in Las Vegas, in a marathon experience engaging both mind and body, I did eleven video interviews with Jeffrey Mishlove for his
You Tube Channel
New Thinking Allowed.
Jeffrey, who has created an amazing and diverse array of video interviews with many notable writers, thinkers, and explorers of the nature of reality and consciousness, was an excellent host and a superb interviewer. In preparation for the interviews, he immersed himself in an intense study of my books and ideas and the conversations had a great rhythm and resonance.
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"What Matters"
Exploration, Discovery, and Learning
Leland Beaumont
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"What Matters" Series
"Wise people seek a life well lived. The previous series on the virtue of the month provides moral guidance, but we must also focus our efforts on what matters most. While the virtues guide us in doing things right, focusing on what matters guides us in doing the right things. Therefore, we have begun a monthly exploration of
What Matters.
Each month explore one topic that suggests how you should spend your time to attain fulfillment and live a meaningful life. What is most significant to you, your family, your community, nation and the world? How does what matters most change as your needs are met, as you gain experience, and as you grow and mature? Series topics will address surviving, thriving, recreation, success, significance, transcendence, and avoiding distractions and dead ends."
Leland Beaumont
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Exploration, Discovery, and Learning
'What matters this month is
: Exploration, discovery, and learning. Because there is so much out there, we venture out, explore, discover new things, and continue to learn throughout our lives. A Buddhist proverb assures us 'When the student is ready, the teacher will appear'.
Learn from every encounter and every experience. Stay ready, stay curious, have fun, and keep learning. Ask important questions, understand important knowledge, embrace reality, persevere, seek true beliefs, and use what you learn wisely."
Leland Beaumont
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Seeking True Beliefs: Excellence in the Quest for Knowledge -
New Course - Leland Beaumont
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Lee Beaumont has created another excellent new course on Wikiversity:
Seeking True Beliefs.
Inspired/provoked/stimulated by recent political and media events that seem to throw into question and muddle the nature of truth and true beliefs, Lee created this new course to clarify and argue for the importance of seeking the truth. Included below is a short essay introduction to his new course, plus a link to the course.
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"Reality exists and we can use reliable methods to discover, explore, and examine reality. Although reality is vast and nearly unlimited, we all live on the same planet in the same universe. As we examine reality we advance toward a common understanding of our world as it truly is. Reality is our common ground and true beliefs correspond to reality.
Attaining true beliefs is as much a matter of will as it is of skill. Choosing true beliefs often requires us to value true beliefs more than we value winning an argument, defending an ideology, wielding power, upholding a tradition, saving face, or feeling comfortable. A virtue is a deep and lasting acquired excellence that has been deliberately developed over time. Virtues have intrinsic value; they are motivations toward an identifiable end, and are oriented toward success. The intellectual virtues are acquired excellence in seeking true beliefs.
Intellectual virtues are the character traits of a good thinker or learner. Each of us can develop and exercise our intellectual virtues of the love of knowledge, firmness, courage and caution, humility, autonomy, perseverance, generosity, insightfulness, and practical wisdom.
These intellectual virtues--motivations toward true beliefs--are coupled with various skills that enable us to assess whether beliefs correspond with reality. These skills, such as observation and reading, rely on naturally occurring faculties such as eyesight and memory.
Virtues are willful efforts to overcome naturally occurring frailties we call vices. The intellectual virtues are acts of will that engage and amplify our skills and faculties while overcoming--or at least diminishing--our frailties in pursuit of true beliefs.
History shows us the dangers of holding false beliefs, such as human sacrifice, quackery, slavery, mass suicides, the inquisition, moral panic, specious arguments, genocide, and totalitarianism. True beliefs, on the other hand, have brought us: indoor plumbing, sanitary systems, medical advances, agricultural advances, labor-saving machines, photography, electric lighting, telephones, radio, trains, automobiles, air travel, calculators, liberty, and human rights.
Because we choose our beliefs we can decide to choose true beliefs. Because true beliefs are more valuable than false beliefs, we have a moral obligation to choose true beliefs.
Each of us can choose to
seek true beliefs as we
- Dismiss untrue beliefs.
- Dispel unfounded beliefs.
- Advance no falsehoods. Be impeccable with our word. As we communicate, represent only true beliefs as being true.
- Embrace reality as our common ground.
Please study the course
Seeking True Beliefs."
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Jason Merchey's
Values & Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom - Award Winner
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Values & Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom just won the Best Book Award 2017 (American Book Festival) for the category of "Social Change"!
Read the Announcement
Jason Merchey, long-time contributor and follower of The Wisdom Page--his books are featured on
The Wisdom Page home page--has published a new book
Values and Ethics: From Living Room to Board Room. As Jason states about the book,
"Values & Ethics: From Living Room to Boardroom is the challenging, thought-provoking conversation-starter you've been looking for. It will bring you to a place where dialogue thrives and ancient wisdom and progressive thinking are brought to life. This most recent addition to the
Values of the Wise Series will help you escape the world's hustle and bustle and think about what truly matters: a life of value."
Jason has created an informative introductory video explaining the book:
View the Video.
Jason has a special offer on the book:
Holiday Promotion: Buy Values & Ethics
and get my stellar hardcover Building a Life of Value FREE!
(Use the promo code XMAS2017)
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Evidence-Based Wisdom Updates -
Charles Cassidy
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Charles Cassidy on his
Evidence-Based Wisdom
website has added a number of new items to his highly informative and multi-media rich website.
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"The
EBW Dispatches Series
reports the latest developments from the front line of wisdom research. Key findings are highlighted and illuminated - with a little help from the researchers themselves. The relevant papers can be found at the end of the dispatch."
"How do you reliably measure wisdom? Whilst there are a number of different wisdom scales available, what are these scales actually based on, and which one should we use? Professor of Psychiatry Dilip Jeste has been working hard to pull these different strands of measurement research together to give us the SD-WISE - a bold new wisdom scale with great potential and a whole new way of thinking about wisdom in the human brain."
Charles Cassidy
Read the article.
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"This August, a select group of the world's leading behavioural scientists gathered in Chicago for the
Center for Practical Wisdom Research Forum 2017. Their task? To tackle some very ancient questions with some very modern tools. What is wisdom? Can it be measured? And critically, how do we develop it?
EBW went to Chicago with microphone it hand, to find answers to these questions - to pick the brains of these wise experts, and to hit the city streets to learn what the people of Chicago have to tell us about living wisely in the modern world."
Charles Cassidy
Listen to the podcast--either the whole program or separated into parts.
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Our ongoing thanks to Charles,
Wisdom Page Advisory Board member, for continuing to add new and interesting articles, interviews, and other provocative items (often multi-media) to his wisdom website.
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Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future
Prometheus to the Martians
News and Events
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Official cover for my new science fiction book
Designed by Nick Welch
(Nick also did the cover design for
Future Consciousness)
My next new book,
Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future - Volume One: Prometheus to the Martians,
is now completed (type set with full cover) and scheduled for publication in October 2018. It is the first of four planned volumes (see below), all to be published with
Changemakers Books and
John Hunt Publishing Company.
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Visiting John Clute in London
As part of my efforts to promote and publicize my new Science Fiction book series, I was fortunate to arrange a meeting with
John Clute--one of the top science fiction scholars in the world. John is the co-creator and editor of the
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the best in-print and online resource on science fiction.
The first thing you notice when approaching John's flat in London is that the outside is painted in a rich dark purple. After climbing a winding staircase to the second floor, you enter into a series of rooms completely filled with books. And the books on display belong primarily to John's wonderful wife, Judith, who is a artist and poet. John's collection of science fiction books is too vast for his living space and are stored elsewhere. According to John, his library of science fiction books consists of 12,000 volumes.
John is a talker -- indeed someone who is thinks very quickly and self-reflectively, and thinks out loud. Judith, providing the necessary harmonic balance, was a very warm and pleasant individual. Both of them were very open and friendly, each in their distinctive ways. We spent a couple of hours talking about science fiction, including the hypothesized fact (according to John) that the famous science fiction story "The Heat Death of the Universe" by Pamela Zoline was probably written at the table where we were sitting. Dear Judith bought a copy of
Future Consciousness.
 
Myself, Jeanne, Judith, and John
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"The book is tremendously well researched, based on an intimate knowledge of the history of mythology and philosophy and, last but not least, it breathes the huge enthusiasm of its author for science fiction...presenting a grand vision of the role of science fiction in the
progress of human consciousness."
Dr. Karlheinz Steinmüller, Science Fiction Author and Futurist,
Winner of the
Kurd Lasswitz Award
(From the back cover)
Between conversations with Tim Ward, Editor for
Changemakers Books and John Hunt, the Publisher, we have reached an agreement to produce a four volume series on the evolutionary history of science fiction over the next three to four years. The four volume set consists of (the subtitles):
Volume One: Prometheus to the Martians
Volume Two: The Time Machine to Star Maker
Volume Three: The Golden Age through the New Wave
Volume Four: Star Wars to the Singularity and Beyond
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Science Fiction Presentation and Visit with Fabienne Goux-Baudiment, Christian Baudiment, Thierry Gaudin, and Camille Linxou in Paris:
After London, Jeanne and I headed to Paris where I gave an introductory talk on the first volume of my science fiction book series. We stayed with Fabienne Goux-Baudiment (our dear friend and former President of the
World Futures Studies Federation) and her husband Christian Baudiment (who chauffeured us around through Paris) for the first couple days. Fabienne and Christian generously fed us umpteen types of cheeses, delicious scallops, and assorted French foods with copious amounts of wine during our stay with them. They also took us on a tour of the Gardens of Versailles. They were great!
 
Fabienne and Christian serving lunch in their sunny backyard and garden
Having dinner with Thierry Gaudin, Camille, Fabienne, Christian, and Oliver Parent (on the right)--an amazingly animated, friendly, and intelligent soul--with whom I spent two hours talking about science fiction and, in particular, the new
Bladerunner 2049.
My presentation on "Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future"
Jeane and I walking through the Gardens of Versailles
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"The Evolutionary Nature of Human Reality" - Tom Lombardo in 33rd Square
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Here's a short essay--primarily drawn from my book Future Consciousness--that recently appeared in 33rd Square, an online futurist/high tech magazine.
Read the article.
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Best Science Fiction Novels and Movies - Updated 2017 - Tom Lombardo
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Roughly once a year I update my
Evolving Lists of All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels and
Best Science Fiction Movies Lists. Since my last update (July, 2016) I have added approximately 60 new novels (novels I had previously not read) and 20 new movies (movies released in the last year or so) to my lists.
Since I am presently reading and researching for Volume Three of my science fiction book series the bulk of the new novels read and listed (highlighted in bold on the list) are from the
Golden Age (1938-1950) and
Silver Age (1950-1965) of science fiction, including many novels by Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke.
But stretching from the Silver Age into the New Wave (1965-1980), I also did an intensive immersion in Philip K. Dick novels that I hadn't read, which are now also included on my list. (It was recommended though by a friend not to overdo reading Dick since one's hold on reality can become very tenuous as a result.) Dick was brilliant, but he also had a powerful resonance with the psychotic and psychedelic realms, mixing his craziness and madness with science fiction and philosophical speculation. I would recommend as novels I read by him for this first time this last year:
Ubik,
Valis, and
Martian Time-Slip.
For new novels published in the last few years that I have recently read and recommend, I would include:
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu,
Central Station by Lavie Tidhar, and
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.
For new movies, in disagreement with popular reviews, I would list
Ghost in the Shell as the best, followed by
Wonder Women and
Arrival. Although the new
Bladerunner 2049 was a good movie (all things considered), I did not think it came close to equaling the original. The original version had at least half a dozen colorful and interesting characters, with a fast-paced and philosophically deep plot; in the new version the characters are relatively shallow and uninteresting, lost in the special effects and fantastic music score of the movie (See more in the final essay of this issue below).
Here are my new lists:
Evolving All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels
Evolving All-Time Best Science Fiction Movies
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Best Alien World Science Fiction Books and Best Science Fiction Books of 2017 - Dan Livingston
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To enrich upon my general list of best science fiction novels and movies, Dan Livingston's
The Best Sci Fi Books is a great resource for science fiction books and reviews; he compiles lists of the "best of the best" for different
sub-genre and
themes in science fiction. His site was highlighted in a
previous Wisdom and the Future issue.
Over the last couple of months, Dan has created two new Best Sci-Fi Books Lists:
Alien Worlds and
2017. Hit the links for complete lists and short reviews of each listed novel. Below are images of Dan's top four novels for each category:
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Notable New or Newly Discovered Books and Web Resources on Wisdom and Futures Studies
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Battlestar Gallactica: Philosophy, Theology, Science Fiction, and the Circle of Past and Future
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In this issue there are quite a few items on science fiction. Although it is probably self-evident what science fiction has to do with the future, it might not be so apparent what science fiction has to do with wisdom and the deep problems and issues of philosophy. Hence, as an appropriate conclusion to this issue of
Wisdom and the Future, I would like to briefly compare two notable science fiction cinematic productions: the new movie
Bladerunner 2049 (2017) and the TV series
Battlestar Gallactica, which aired from 2003 to 2009. In thinking about and comparing these two productions I believe we can gain some important insights into how science fiction can be deeply philosophical, addressing the big topics of existence, life, and consciousness.
The new
Bladerunner was a long movie, running almost two hours and 45 minutes; the TV series
Battlestar Gallactica ran for 75 episodes, each roughly 45 minutes in length. When
Bladerunner ended, I was relieved, if not glad it was over. When Jeanne and I finished watching the last episode of
Battlestar Gallactica this past month, we were sad it was over. The characters and their saga of adventure, disaster, tragedy, and eventual enlightenment meant something to us and we felt we were saying goodbye to a personally meaningful and positive experience in our lives. (I must admit that when the series first came out I did not watch it because I thought it would be a lame and superficial TV "space opera;" Jeanne and I only started watching the series this fall.)
As I noted above in this newsletter, there are no really interesting characters in the new
Bladerunner. In
Battlestar Gallactica there are numerous memorable and colorful characters. If the philosophical issues of life are going to be presented in a personally meaningful and penetrating way, then they need to be expressed and articulated through the thoughts and experiences of realistic and compelling individuals, who have to encounter and ponder these deep issues of existence within their lives.
Bladerunner does not succeed in this;
Battlestar Gallactica does. You care about the characters in the latter; you don't care about the characters in the former.
Yet moreover, it seems to me that
Battlestar Gallactica deals with a much greater range and depth of philosophical and existential themes than
Bladerunner 2049. (The original
Bladerunner transcends the remake on this count as well.) In
Battlestar Galactica we find the following philosophical issues addressed: Individual freedom of choice versus the forces of destiny; the uneasy and confrontational relationship between biological humans and intelligent machines; and the meaning and purpose of life. We are asked: Can intelligent machines possess consciousness, a self, and even a soul? Does God exist? Is time a circle, forever repeating its patterns, or is time transformative with emerging novelty? Do we really know who and what we are? Is the self transparent to itself? Are beings of virtual reality real? Can we have a meaningful relationship with them? Is there life after death? Is there reincarnation? Can there be more than one me? Is democracy always a good thing? Is tyranny always bad? Are there any realistic (or absolute) limits to hope, optimism, and courage? What is wisdom (repeatedly asked), and is it ever true that being foolish is being wise? And, tongue-in-cheek, why is it that stranded in the infinite void, we can repeatedly almost run out of food, water, and fuel, but never run out of booze?
Although
Battlestar Gallactica "seems" to be set in the future (with all of its high-tech gadgetry), it is really about the distant past, and because it is about the past and the patterns of history, it is paradoxically about our present and our potential future. (You'll have to watch it to see what I mean.)
Battlestar Gallactica was identified by
Time as one of the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time.
I started watching the pilot for the series again.
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