Ep. 12:  Roderick Long interviews JAMES BRADLEY
Channel: Agoric Cafe
Date: 26/09/2020

Roderick Long chats with biologist James T. Bradley about the future of, and ethical issues surrounding, biotechnology and nanotechnology; global and civic responsibilities of scientists and of laypeople; intimations of immortality from William Godwin to Ray Kurzweil; the importance of interdisciplinary education, and of instruction in evolutionary biology; the 15th-century (trans)humanism of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and the perils of invoking the Pope; Bradley’s three-week plan for solving a pandemic; the potential parallels between central planning for sociopolitical systems and central planning for ecosystems; the cosmological theories of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; that time the National Science Foundation awarded Bradley and Long a $200,000 grant (but they had to spend it all on, like, course stuff); how the universe uses stardust to become self-conscious; and the waning allure of cricket ovaries.


Here are some links to items mentioned in the discussion: 

James T. Bradley’s BRUTES OR ANGELS:  HUMAN POSSIBILITY IN THE AGE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY:
https://www.amazon.com/Brutes-Angels-Human-Possibility-Biotechnology/dp/0817317880/?tag=praxeologynet-20

James T. Bradley’s RE-CREATING NATURE:  SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND HUMAN VALUES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
https://www.amazon.com/Re-Creating-Nature-Science-Technology-Twenty-First/dp/0817320296/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Littleton-Franklin Lecture Series in Science and Humanities:
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/provost/littleton-franklin/index.php

Jim’s and Roderick’s nanoethics NSF grant page:  
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0532340&HistoricalAwards=false

Bonus:  Jim Bradley’s faculty page:
https://www.auburn.edu/cosam/faculty/biology/bradley/index.htm

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young:  “We are stardust ....”:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lx86B6a3kc

Carl Sagan’s COSMOS series:
https://www.amazon.com/Carl-Sagans-Cosmos-Digitally-Remastered/dp/B088YVHTZL/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Pico della Mirandola’s ORATION ON THE DIGNITY OF MAN:
- online:  http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/pico_oration.htm  
- Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Dignity-Man-Hackett-Classics/dp/0872203964/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Pico della Mirandola’s 900 THESES:
- online:  https://en.calameo.com/read/001554655ffe07d58692b
- Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Syncretism-West-Traditional-Philosophical-Renaissance/dp/0866988173/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Jean-Paul Sartre’s EXISTENTIALISM IS A HUMANISM:
- online:  https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm
- Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Existentialism-Humanism-Jean-Paul-Sartre/dp/0300115466/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Ray Kurweil’s FANTASTIC VOYAGE:  LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER:
https://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Voyage-Live-Enough-Forever/dp/0452286670/?tag=praxeologynet-20

William Godwin’s ST. LÉON:  A TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
https://www.amazon.com/St-Leon-William-Godwin/dp/1551115387/?tag=praxeologynet-20
or:
https://www.amazon.com/Leon-Worlds-Classics-William-Godwin/dp/0192828339/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Gerald Feinberg’s THE PROMETHEUS PROJECT:  MANKIND’S SEARCH FOR LONG-RANGE GOALS:  
- hard copies seem to go for $500 or more, but you can find it online here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/374255588/The-Prometheus-Project-Gerald-Feinberg

Ernst Mayr’s THIS IS BIOLOGY:  THE SCIENCE OF THE LIVING WORLD:  
https://www.amazon.com/This-Biology-Science-Living-World/dp/0674884698/?tag=praxeologynet-20

Amsterdam Café in Auburn, Alabama:  
http://www.amsterdamcafeauburn.com/

“Aristotle’s Table of Elements” coffee mug & “Agoric Café” coffee mug:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/rue_voltaire_press/products?st=date_created

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