Episode 22 - What is Life?
Jeff and Darron attempt to define life, at least as they see it - not necessarily in the scientific sense, but in the subjective and qualitative realm of everyday experience as a conscious entity living in a specific place and time in the history of the universe. They begin with a discussion of the awe inspiring unlikelihood of our own specific existence, move from there into the philosophical realm of absurdity and farce, Jeff explores his struggle to balance the long and short term implications of a home improvement project, and they close with a look at how meaning is derived from the connective tissue of the mundane everyday events that comprise the majority of our lives in between more memorable moments.
Notes:
2:20 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 21 - The Myth of the Desert Island Self from January 2022
4:30 - Listen to the excellent Strong Songs podcast which is created, recorded, and produced by Kirk Hamilton, the specific episode referenced here is from November 2021 and is a deep dive into the classic concert film Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads
5:00 - Watch the video of “Once in a Lifetime” from Stop Making Sense (1984), read the lyrics, and see the original music video from 1980
6:55 - See the “Hot Vax Summer” entry on Slangit - The Slang Dictionary
9:05 - See The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings) by Maria Popova
10:00 - Alan Lightman, Einstein’s Dreams, Probable Impossibilities, and “Probable Impossibilities: Physicist Alan Lightman on Beginnings, Endings, and What Makes Life Worth Living” (The Marginalian)
10:53 - Watch “The Beginning of Everything - The Big Bang” (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell YouTube channel) and check out the Big Bang Wikipedia entry
16:26 - This idea may have come from Carl Sagan or Alan Watts (or someone else)
16:48 - Listen to Mindscape Episode 38: Alan Lightman on Transcendence, Science, and a Naturalist’s Sense of Meaning from March 2019, at the time his most book was Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
17:12 - Transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson
18:00 - Orion and the Big Dipper
20:01 - Listen to Beautiful Illusions Episode 11 - Darwin & The Dude: Darron's Journey to Poetic Naturalism from February 2021
20:10 - Absurdism
23:03 - See “Ice This Morning Led to Dangerous Driving Conditions, School Delays” (NBC CT) and “Freezing rain causes school delays, closures, and crashes” (Fox 61)
25:44 - See “Three ways to be more rational this year” by Steven Pinker (BBC, 2022)
27:32 - Listen to “Live Like You Were Dying” (YouTube) by Tim McGraw and read the lyrics (Genius)
30:48 - Listen to Carl Sagan’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” remarks and see “A Pale Blue Dot” (The Planetary Society)
34:30 - Listen to “All Things Must Pass” (YouTube) by George Harrision (YouTube) and read the lyrics (Genius)
35:02 - Watch “Time: The History & Future of Everything” (Kruzesagt YouTube Channel) and while you’re at it watch the “Optimistic Nihilism” video too as an “antidote” the dread produced by the time video
35:27 - Watch the “Coin Toss” scene from the 2007 movie No Country for Old Men (IMDB)
38:17 - See “How We Spend Our Days Is How We Spend Our Lives: Annie Dillard on Choosing Presence Over Productivity” (The Marginalian)
36:09 - The play Our Town by Thornton Wilder
46:25 - Consciousness and the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene
47:08 - Read Jeff’s essay “On Reading Nonfiction (and Writing)” on the Beautiful Illusions website
49:52 - Joan Didion
50:51 - See “Joan Didion's 'lost' commencement address, revealed” for a complete transcript of Didion’s 1975 commencement address at the University of California, Riverside
50:59 - The line “But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only” concludes Bob Dylan’s classic 1965 tune “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” (YouTube)