As you watch the conversation in Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0, it might help to know about one of the sources that was helpful to me in formulating the agenda, assembling the cast of characters, and setting the tone for the meeting. I quoted this passage from Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century by Jonathan Glover (who directs the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King’s College, London):

“Now we tend to see the Enlightenment view of human psychology as thin and mechanical, and Enlightenment hopes of social progress through the spread of humanitarianism and the scientific outlook as na?ve…One of this book’s aims is to replace the thin, mechanical psychology of the Enlightenment with something more complex, something closer to reality…another aim of the book is to defend the Enlightenment hope of a world that is more peaceful and humane, the hope that by understanding more about ourselves we can do something to create a world with less misery. I have qualified optimism that this hope is well founded…”

I say Amen to that. If Enlightenment 1.0 took a thin and mechanical view of human nature and psychology, I think Enlightenment 2.0 can offer a much ‘thicker’ and cognitively richer account – less na?ve and also, perhaps, less hubristic. If there’s one thing we’ve learned – particularly from cognitive neuroscience – it is that we need to have some strategic humility about the hobby horses we are inclined to ride.

-Roger Bingham
Director, The Science Network

(Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0)

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, March 2007

(via Only Maybe Blog).

London: City of Disappearances is a 655 page anthology with over 50 contributors, including: Ann Baer; J.G Ballard; Paul Buck; Brian Catling; Driffield; Bill Drummond; Tibor Fischer; Allen Fisher; Bill Griffiths; Lee Harwood; Stewart Home; Tony Lambrianou; Rachel Lichenstein; Michael Moorcock; Alan Moore; Jeff Nuttall; James Sallis; Anna Sinclair; Stephen Smith; Marina Warner; Sarah Wise.

Citizens disappear constantly, along with their homes, artifacts, buildings and spaces. As your time-flow accelerates, old friends email the latest obituaries and the function of the writer becomes increasingly clear. You’re there to count the dead; and re-count the missing landmarks. Scribe of mutability and mutation, you’re only a memory-shaman, chronicler of the crumbling scrolls – destined yourself to become a mere neural trace in the world-brain, as the towers tumble around you.

Full Story: Culture Court.

Buy London: City of Disappearances.

Also, if you’re in London: Alan Moore, Michael Moorcock, and Iain Sinclair will be reading from the book on October 26th. Details here.

I have a piece up on Alterati today about M.I.A and her new album Kala:

M.I.A’s new album Kala whips listeners through the poorest corners of the world, moving too quickly to quite distinguish between the various locales. Is this Rio or Trinidad? Calcutta or London? Wait, the Australian outback? It’s all blurred, mashed-up.

M.I.A brings us straight to the bleeding edge of modern culture. While indie rock endlessly recycles the past, M.I.A is busy remixing the future. In his essay The Sudden Stardom of the Third-World City’ Rana Dasgupta wrote ‘Is it going too far to suggest that our sudden interest in books and films about the Third-World city stems from the sense that they may provide effective preparation for our future survival in London, New York or Paris? Our fast-moving media culture, groping always for any image of the ?new’ that can be used to produce more astonishment, operates in a zone slightly ahead of knowledge.’ In other words, westerners are increasingly looking to the Third-World to catch a glimpse of our own future.

Full Story: Alterati.

If you’re going to be in or around London on March 31st, you must check out .

This brings us to the most perverse suspicion of all. Perhaps the Third-World city is more than simply the source of the things that will define the future, but actually is the future of the western city. Perhaps some of those tourists who look to the Third World for an image of their own past are reflecting uneasily on how all the basic realities of the Third-World city are already becoming more pronounced in their own cities: vast gulfs between sectors of the population across which almost no sympathetic intelligence can flow, gleaming gated communities, parallel economies and legal systems, growing numbers of people who have almost no desire or ability to participate in official systems, innovations in residential housing involving corrugated iron and tarpaulin. Is it going too far to suggest that our sudden interest in books and films about the Third-World city stems from the sense that they may provide effective preparation for our future survival in London, New York or Paris?

Full Story: Rana Dasgupta.

(via Abstract Dynamics).

I hadn’t really thought of it quite like this, but yes I think some of my own interest in 3rd world megalopolisis is in gaining some insight about what the future may look like for all of us.

See also: Feral Cities, Grim Meathook Future, Biopunk: the biotechnology black market, and Adam Greenfield’s Design Engaged 2005 presentation (does anyone have better notes for this?).

Donald Redford of Pennsylvania State University had begun to excavate the foundations of a huge temple linked to Rameses II, the pharaoh traditionally linked to the biblical story of Moses, when he found an earlier structure destroyed by fire, and evidence of a grisly episode of death on the Nile, he told a Bloomsbury Academy conference in London on Saturday.

[...]

Under the fire-scorched rubble, the scientists discovered the first of at least 36 bodies, victims of some brutal event 40 centuries ago. “We thought they had died where they were. But it has now become apparent that they were killed elsewhere and thrown in front of the podium. The mud brick of the burning temple cascaded over them. They were covered up and never retrieved. So there is a certain amount of foul play here.”

Guardian.

Anyone read R.U. Sirius and St. Jude’s fictional How to Mutate and Take Over the World? In the beginning R.U.’s taking a drug called “forget it” recreationally.

A common blood pressure drug could help people who have witnessed traumatic events, such as the London bombings, to block out their distressing memories. (BBC News).

A collection of notes by the 17th century English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton – which scientists thought had been lost forever – have been found.

[...]

The notes will be on display at the Royal Society’s annual Summer Science Exhibition in London from the 4th of July.

Link (via LVX 23).

An Alan Moore documentary was shown at the Comica event in London this month.

Headspace: Inside the Mindscape of Alan Moore

Trailer here at Alan Moore fansite

Paper says “We were expecting something dirty, scary and shocking, but this line is coquettish and aloof and that’s even more shocking.” Photos by Caroline Torem-Craig/London Features & Rosalie Knox
Link.

An interesting thing about Meetup, a web site for organizing local interest groups, is that it ranks cities by number of people signed up for certain meets.

Burning Man City: Seattle

Body Modifcation City: Toronto, ON (# 2 is Tel Aviv)

Discordian City: Seattle

Magickal City: Charlotte, NC

Smart mob City: Denver

Coffee City: Chicago (Seattle was only # 6)

Comics City: New York

Dumpster Diving City: New York

Straight Edge City: Providence, RI

Pagan Parenting City: St. Louis, MO

Amiga City: Tel Aviv

Newly Single City: Toronto, ON

X-Men City: London (with a whopping 2 members)

Japanese Pop City: Houston

EFF City: Austin

Nanotech City: Minneapolis

What’s big, city by city?

Tel Aviv: Pagan

Rio: Linux

Moscow: Britney Spears

Perth: Goth

Madrid: Russell Crowe

Cairo: Knitting

Stockholm: Body Modification

Prague: Vampire (not the game apparently…)

New Delhi: Sex and the City

Islamabad, Pakistan: Gilmore Girls

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Phil Gyford is publishing the journal entries of 17th century London diarist Samuel Pepys in “blog” format, starting January 1st 2003 (the first entry is actually already up). The diaries will be posted in real time, and readers will be able to post annotations. Quite a facinating idea.
Tom Coates article. Pepys’ Diary.

William Gibson has written a bit on the the Gaurdian about London, Japan, and Vancouver. An interesting read.