I have to say I absolutely love creating these little Afrobeat jams using a looper pedal - yes I know such pieces are stylistically derivative, but the contrapuntal rhythms of this music really lend themselves to the creation of exceedingly fun loops. As a sidenote, this kind of thing illustrates how useful looper pedals can be as learning tools for understanding the mechanics of music by playing it. 

I dig this one, you are free to join the digging, if you wish. 

Oh, the track is "slightly better" because I'd made a couple of other recordings of this groove previously and hadn't quite come up with the right melody parts for it (I do this all in an improvisatory manner). Aside from some errant soloing, I think this version works.....so I probably won't play it again until I can get together with some friends to record it properly....which means I'll have to learn it again then!

Slightly Better

Pesadilla

Recorded by Santiago Rentería.
Place: Salón de Congresos (Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Santa Fe)
Binaural Recording.
Neumann KU 100 Dummy Head Microphone.
http://www.cge.mx/

Asturias (Live Binaural Recording) - Contemporary Guitar Ensemble

Episode 11, in which we discuss Carlos Castaneda, Buddhism, Karl Popper, science, fallibilism, magic, reality, and all such fun stuff! 

To what extent do we perceive the world through words? Can we escape our verbal preconceptions and experience things "as they really are?" Can we do so and remain functional? We agree that it is healthy and productive to "get outside our selves" and attempt to perceive the world in a way less filtered by our preconceptions, but is all perception ultimately theoretical? Haven't we evolved to perceive "affordances" - things we can use? 

We hope you enjoy the discussion!

Permanent Evolution Podcast

Episode 11 - To what extent do we perceive the world through language?

Relief

Episode 12 of the Sympathetic People Podcast (AKA the Permanent Evolution Podcast). This time around, Tim reads from Norman Doidge's introduction to Jordan Peterson's new book - "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos". 

A recurrent theme of the subsequent discussion is the concept of the "Open Society" (a term coined by Karl Popper) and the importance of reasonable, open, critical discussion of ideas - none of has all the answers, so we all need to be open to criticism of our views, just as we need to be allowed to criticise the views of others.

Other topics raised in this episode include evolution, suffering, rules & judgement, freedom of speech, relativism, post-modernism, social justice, conspiracy theories, adults giving advice to kids, rules for life and (of course!) philosophy in ancient Greece and India. 

Thanks for listening!

Episode 12 - The Open Society

Episode 14 of the Sympathetic People Podcast. This week (for a dramatic change of pace) we're talking about evolution. Is evolution just some theory in biology, or is the actual structure of reality evolutionary? Is this just some esoteric bullshit that philosophers care about, or does it actually matter for the lives of normal people? 

Yes (we claim), reality is intrinsically evolutionary. Yes (we claim), this matters for you (and you, and you, and you). An understanding of some of the core principles of evolution that have shaped our existence, can help us make sense of our place in society and in the universe as a whole. Humans have been trying to understand this stuff as long as they have been humans. Mythology, religion and science are all part of the same great endeavour - our attempt to understand our situation. 

Not only are all these explanatory systems branches of the same cultural evolutionary tree, the deepest principle they all reveal is the process in which order evolves from chaos. So check it out! 

We love you. After all we're all in this together as interdependent evolutionary phenomena!

Episode 14: Evolution as metaphysics

Episode 15 of the Sympathetic People podcast, in which we discuss careers in science and ask questions about what exactly "science" is anyway.

It's undeniably a problem that scientific research is underfunded. PhD students represent cheap labour for laboratories and universities, but how many of them can find a job when they complete their degrees? How many young researchers ever achieve job security? How does science stack up against other career paths in these regards?

Another core issue we discuss is what "science" really is. Many people seem to believe that science is fundamentally different from the arts and humanities, but "science" is just an outgrowth of empiricism. Empiricism is a branch of epistemology and epistemology is a branch of philosophy - science isn't clearly separable from philosophy, it's part of it! Not only this, but differences between the sciences and the arts, or between science and ancient traditions of myth-making and storytelling are greatly exaggerated. 

Enjoy, subscribe, like (if you do), and please send us your thoughts over at sympatheticpeople.com.

Episode 15: Having a career in science...and what is "science" anyway?

Episode 16! We chat about Plato's Socrates and whether or not he's a good role model or just an arrogant jerk. We talk about claims to knowledge more broadly, in the context of science, religion, and everyday life.

If we don't think we have knowledge, will this make us apathetic? Is it therapeutic not to make claims about knowledge? What have different thinkers had to say about these things? 

We talk about lots of stuff: the Dunning-Kruger effect; epistemic humility, deferring to the experts; climate change, oh my! Buddhism; reincarnation; is fear of death a species of arrogance? Meditation; transcending the self; flow states; free will; giving up the illusion of freedom in order to be truly free..... 

Fallibilism, pragmatism, skepticism, etc. What are your epistemological foundations? 

Enjoy, visit the blog at sympatheticpeople.com and leave a comment. Subscribe, do whatever!

Episode 16 - Knowing Stuff - Socrates on knowledge, role model or arrogant jerk?

Volca Beats on backing beat
Live trumpets
Trumpet dropped an octave through an EHX Pitch Fork for trombone-esque parts
Nord Electro covering B3 Organ and Electric Piano
Tambo magic by yours truly
Whole thing mixed at home using Reaper and a few idle weekends

Funk Jiggle

Live trumpets, looped bass and guitar by @timothynwjackson

Slightly Better

Department of Pharmacology

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