Biology explains how life evolves ... but culture follows different rules. Today we're looking at why human culture requires a separate evolutionary framework. Dr. Liane Gabora (University of British Columbia) traces how culture emerges through self-organizing minds, not genes, unfolding like a long riff that finds its meaning only while being played. Language, memory, and creativity arise through a sudden inner shift, where symbols begin talking to each other and thought turns inward on itself. What follows is an account of human origins that feels less like machinery and more like confession: culture as a conscious system, restless, cumulative, and unfinished.

Part 2: https://youtu.be/nVpXwd9ke1A

PATREON

https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci

PARADIGM DRIFT

https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show

HOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!

Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING

https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here

Streaming:

https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here

00:00 Go! Evolution Beyond Darwin

00:02:17 Humans as Uniquely Cultural Beings

00:05:05 Evolution as a Creative, Systemic Process

00:08:08 Modeling Cultural Evolution in Artificial Life

00:11:13 Autocatalytic Networks and the Origin of Life

00:14:00 From Pre-Darwinian to Darwinian Evolution

00:17:08 Epigenetics and the Limits of Darwin’s Model

00:20:17 Autocatalysis vs Autopoiesis

00:23:20 Molecular Cooperation and Phase Transitions

00:26:20 Culture as a Cognitive Autocatalytic Network

00:27:55 From Chemical Chaos to Genetic Fidelity

00:30:09 Memory, Accuracy, and Cumulative Complexity

00:32:43 What Culture Is (and Is Not)

00:37:00 Cumulative Culture and Human Uniqueness

00:38:56 Language as a Cultural Catalyst

00:42:12 Pre-Language Symbols and Shared Meaning

00:43:07 The Cultural Big Bang

00:44:57 Minds as Autocatalytic Webs

00:49:04 Time, Memory, and Abstract Thought

00:53:26 Cognitive Integration and Creative Thinking

00:56:28 Triggers for the Cultural Phase Shift

01:00:00 Culture as a Phase Transition in the Mind

01:02:18 Why Phase Transitions Feel So Strange

#culturalevolution, #humanorigins, #creativity, #consciousness, #evolutionarytheory, #origins, #philosophyofmind, #humanbehavior, #language, #emergence, #complexity, #futureofhumanity, #deepconversations #philosophypodcast

MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/

AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98

DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD

SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci

RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss

MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S

SOCIAL:

- Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci

MUSIC:

-Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Today we sit with the old questions and let them breathe again, tracing the places where life begins to feel like a presence rather than a computer. Turner walks through the fault lines of modern biology, pointing to the quiet mind-like shimmer in organisms shaping their worlds. The conversation moves slowly, deliberately, as if the universe itself were leaning in to listen. By the end, the idea of agency feels less like a taboo and more like something we’ve sensed all along.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/MOr-FZ_ogTI

PATREON

https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci

PARADIGM DRIFT

https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show

HOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!

Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING

https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here

Streaming:

https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here

00:00 Go!

00:08:43 – Gene-Centered Evolution Takes Over

00:11:10 – McClintock’s Discovery Breaks the Mold

00:14:19 – Genes as Interpreted Signals, Not Dictators

00:18:11 – From Mutationism to Epigenetics

00:20:41 – Dawkins and the Selfish Gene Frame

00:24:30 – Life Strives for More Than Survival

00:27:47 – Culture as a Force in Evolution

00:30:28 – Termites and Environmental Inheritance

00:32:22 – When Literalism Distorts Science and Religion

00:35:22 – Beyond Gould’s Magisteria

00:39:02 – The Aiming of Organisms

00:41:58 – Desire, Agency, and Evolutionary Trajectories

00:44:14 – Human Exceptionalism and the Myth of Evolution’s End

00:47:46 – Cultural Barriers to Integrative Biology

00:49:39 – The Transcendence of Materials

00:52:10 – Purposeful Behavior in Termite Societies

00:55:35 – Preference and Purpose in Termite Architecture

00:59:14 – Human Metaphysics and Cognitive Niches

01:04:19 – Cracks in the Evolutionary Consensus

01:06:39 – Biology as the Bridge Between Facts and Meaning

01:08:58 – The Missing Definition of Life

01:10:59 – Biology’s Identity Crisis

01:12:36 – Rethinking Life and the Universe

01:15:08 – The Origin of Life Problem

01:16:28 – From Chemistry to Cognitive Emergence

01:20:27 – Life as a Gradual Flame

01:23:13 – Agency as the Heart of Biology

01:25:42 – The Scientific Struggle With Agency

01:27:04 – Turner’s Work on Organisms, Design, and Purpose

#consciousness, #agency , #evolution, #originoflife, #emergence, #complexity , #cognition , #purpose , #epigenetics , #philosophy, #meaning, #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast

MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/

AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98

DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD

SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci

RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss

MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S

SOCIAL:

- Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci

MUSIC:

-Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Economists Bob Murphy & Steve Keen come from very different camps. Today they sit together and pull back the curtain on how money really comes into being, piece by piece. Their exchange moves with a quiet intensity, uncovering the places where theory drifts from the world we live in. They trace the fault lines between stability and collapse, each from his own hard-won perspective. By the end, the familiar landscape of banking feels slightly altered, as if something hidden has stepped into view.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/fKgiKFfnPqE

PATREON

https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci

PARADIGM DRIFT

https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show

HOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album!

Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING

https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here

Streaming:

https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here

00:00 Go!

00:02:01 – How Banks Really Create Money

00:03:39 – Support & Merch Break

00:07:34 – What Is Fractional Reserve Banking?

00:10:06 – The 100% Reserve Ideal

00:12:27 – Why the Textbook Model Fails

00:15:00 – Base Money vs Bank-Created Money

00:18:46 – The Textbook Story Falls Apart

00:21:07 – Loans Create Deposits: The Core Mechanism

00:22:44 – Why Economists Get This Wrong

00:25:56 – Public Confidence as the Real Constraint

00:29:07 – Reserves Are Lubricant, Not Fuel

00:35:09 – Policy & Logic Undermine the Multiplier

00:36:46 – Who’s Actually to Blame for Crises?

00:39:18 – The Real Issue: Loan Quality & Targets

00:41:00 – Diverging Philosophies on Ideal Systems

00:44:12 – Modeling Real-World Lending Mechanics

00:48:53 – The Austrian Full-Reserve Vision

00:53:03 – Commodity-Backed Private Currency

00:54:37 – Ending Centralized Monetary Control

00:56:58 – A Regulated Credit Framework

01:01:12 – Elastic vs Fixed Money Supply

01:02:22 – Political Obstacles to Reform

01:03:16 – Market Discipline vs Regulation

01:05:08 – Limited Liability as a Core Distortion

01:08:23 – Asset Purchases, Bailouts, and Moral Hazard

01:11:26 – Policy Mistakes from Bad Models

01:13:16 – Productive Credit vs Asset Inflation

01:15:05 – Is Elastic Credit Even Necessary?

01:17:35 – Fixed Money Supply Lending Mechanics

01:19:15 – Closing Reflections

#economics, #banking , #moneycreation , #macroeconomics , #financepodcast , #credit , #monetarypolicy , #austrianeconomics , #complexity , #capitalism , #inflation , #recession , #centralbanking , #goldstandard #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast

MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/

AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98

DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD

SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci

RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss

MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S

SOCIAL:

- Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci

MUSIC:

-Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671