Ep 09 - Adah Parris on Neurodivergent Cyborg Shamans & Elemental Tech Ethics

Subscribe, Rate, & Comment on YouTube • Apple Podcasts • Spotify If you value this series, please consider becoming a patron here on Substack or with tax-deductible donations at every.org/humansontheloop (you’ll get perks either way). About This Episode This week we speak with “strategic futurist and pattern navigator” Adah Parris, a London-based wizard and weirdo with whom I immediately hit it off over our shared interest in “cyborg shamanism” and an emphasis on being good ancestors. Forbes Brasil called her “one of the most important futurists in the world.” It’s hard for me to measure the impact she’s had on business leaders, tech startups, marketing and communications firms, arts schools, and in the lives of the countless other people. We talk about the relationship between numbers, language, and the ineffable, ever-shifting human spirit. Adah’s work points past knowledge and history into the elemental nature of both human and machine, past our differences into the deep similarity worth celebrating and the mystery that we inhabit and embody. Join us for a yarn that is both silly and profound, present and far-reaching, about being uncategorizably creative, open, and curious amidst the wicked problems of our time… Project Links • Read the project pitch & planning doc• Dig into the full episode and essay archives• Join the online commons for Wisdom x Technology on Discord + Bluesky + X• Join the open, listener-moderated Future Fossils Discord Server• Contact me if you have questions (patron rewards, sponsorship, collaboration, etc.)• Browse the HOTL reading list and support local booksellers Chapters 0:00:00 - Teaser0:00:49 - Intro0:05:24 - Feeling Seen & Heard0:09:54 - Adah’s Biography0:17:21 - Poetry & Number0:27:55 - Cyborg Shamanism & The Five Elements0:37:03 - The Foraging Neurotype of “Extremely Online”0:51:07 - Surrendering Agency to Systems0:55:14 - The Incremental Reclamation of Agency1:01:19 - Art after Modernity & Healing from Noise1:13:01 - Beyond Narrative & Into Dance1:17:30 - Thanks & Announcements Adah’s Links Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Medium | Chartwell Speakers Finding Our Future in Ancestral Wisdom @ TEDxSoho What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want To Be? @ Think With Google Cyborg Shamanism & The Case for Elemental AI @ Atmos Mentioned Media Refactoring “Autonomy” & “Freedom” for The Age of Language Modelsby Michael Garfield 223 - Timothy Morton on A New Christian Ecology & Systems Thinking BlasphemyFuture Fossils Podcast Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foragingby David L. Barack et al. New Selves of Neural Media & AI as 'The Poison Path' with K Allado-McDowellHumans On The Loop Raising AI: An Essential Guide to Parenting Our Futureby De Kai Technoshamanism: A Very Psychedelic Century! at Moogfest 2016by Michael Garfield Proteus (film) Sonic restoration: acoustic stimulation enhances plant growth-promoting fungi activityby James M. Robinson et al. Ada Twist, Scientistby Andrea Beaty & David Roberts Oppenheimer (film) Dante’s Infernoby Dante Alighieri Mentioned People & Institutions Ford Motor Co.TelefonicaWayraAT&TAugusta Ada Byron LovelaceCharles BabbageMarshall McLuhanDr. Kate StoneErnst HaeckelTada HozumiLewis MumfordJohn Taylor GattoPaul TillichAlan Turing Guest Recommendations Emalick NijeAnjuli BediCharlie MorleyAmichai Lau-Lavie This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe