A New Enlightenment | Steven Pinker

The Enlightenment "worked", says Steven Pinker. By promoting reason, science, humanism, progress, and peace, the programs set in motion by the 18th-Century intellectual movement became so successful we’ve lost track of what that success came from.
Some even discount the success itself, preferring to ignore or deny how much better off humanity keeps becoming, decade after decade, in terms of health, food, money, safety, education, justice, and opportunity. The temptation is to focus on the daily news, which is often dire, and let it obscure the long term news, which is shockingly good.
This is the 21st Century, not the 18th, with different problems and different tools. What are Enlightenment values and programs for now?
"A New Enlightenment" was given on March 13, 02018 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:
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[@thetawaves48]

People generally don't gauge their own happiness by comparisons with past centuries. They gauge their happiness by comparisons with their living peers.

[@z-e-r-o-]

explicit commitment

[@Guizambaldi]

I totally buy the enlightenment ideal and the fact that we are doing better overral. My problem is that I think we get to a point where comparisons against peers dominate objective comfort, and at this point it's much harder to evolve. Total equality would be the obvious step forward, but it's pretty hard to think of it as possible. I guess we would need to fully manipulate genes as a starting point.

[@empathyrebel]

How would graphs look like in the domains of Number of singles or irrationality?

[@thetawaves48]

Talk about the cost of housing compared to earlier centuries.

[@chemquests]

Houses being “cheap” in the post-war era was subsidized by the GI Bill, and since then the price is going up primarily due to subsidizing by the FHA. In that respect you could say housing costs are socialized. In my own opinion, very recent increases are due to speculation.

[@llk3763]

@ 32:18 he discusses pollutants climate impact - decreased greatly.

[@jonrolfson1686]

Some portion of any population will always prefer Savonarolan cults to the possibilities offered by progress.

[@its_eis]

It's comments like this that make me disengage from all forms debate on the internet : spontaneous, insubstantial, ego-driven, and pointless. What reaction exactly do you expect your statement to induce? Come on man, you can do better than this.

[@jonrolfson1686]

@@its_eis If you discount either the validity or the relevance of the admittedly very generalized observation you are free to offer counter-arguments. Disengagement is also an option.

[@Homunculas]

@@its_eis C R I N G E

[@christheghostwriter]

@@its_eis same. It's empty headed, false-dichotomy bullshit

[@davidanderson9664]

Take note on how all this progress and human happiness was/is OPPOSED by religion. The Enlightenment was opposed tooth and nail by the church. Had it not happened (had the church won...) we'd be living in Christian Taliban-land now. D.A., J.D. NYC

[@hooligan9794]

Wait a second, are you saying that modern western values and laws are not entirely thanks to Christianity? (I hear that a lot these days)

[@manifold1476]

51:16 :) Lol

[@hooligan9794]

I love how any movement that isn't establishment is "populism".

[@jerniceoliveira6113]

Kkkk

[@hooligan9794]

@@jerniceoliveira6113 bbbb

[@chemquests]

By definition, populism refers to movements from the populous, so of course it’s the exactly correct use of the word. You have to remember he’s first a linguist.

[@hooligan9794]

@@chemquests So when exactly does popular support count as "from the populous" and where exactly do movement with popular support come from if not the populus?

[@chemquests]

@@hooligan9794 just using the dictionary definition as a starting point www.dictionary.com/browse/populism it’s about who’s interests are being represented, the elite or the common people. On some issues there may not be a clean division, but frequently there are economic issues where opinions differ along these categories. The presumption in your initial comment seemed to question whether populist ideas are inherently anti-establishment; it seems in cases where common sentiment supports established policy we tend not to bother with the distinction of calling it a populist policy. Perhaps the term only applies when the conflict exists.

[@Vlasko60]

Evangelicals: "We should take care of God's Earth, but not if there's a black man in the White House". Priorities, you know.

[@jarrodyuki7081]

ugh i want to be god of this world.

[@TadRaunch]

i wanna be like a dolphin or something or maybe a killer whale or maybe a killer whale with a gun on each side which fire dolphins whose mouths are filled with bees so whenever it barks it shoots bees

[@Vlasko60]

@@TadRaunch Actual laugh out loud.

[@lawsonbell6382]

If the host could stop moaning into his mic, that’d be great.

[@hooligan9794]

Popular left wing leaders are just popular left wing leaders. Popular right wing leaders are populist leaders. I think Steven's political biases are showing.

[@chemquests]

Probably but they’re both populist

[@hooligan9794]

@@chemquests The word populist essentially has no useful meaning

[@SK-ow4vw]

OH MY GOD!! He tries to start from "so-called" first principles and makes a theory of how the work should operated. Don't fall for this witch doctor: there have been many before him and many more will follow. He is not worth listening to.