#035 Michael Garfield - The Purpose of Polymaths

On The Edge

In this conversation I connected with Michael Garfield who is a real renaissance man. A talented musician, artist and illustrator, podcaster, palaeontologist! What is the point of polymaths? He is the host of the Future Fossils Podcast and the Complexity Podcast for the Santa Fe Institute. Previously he has been as a Community Manager for Long Now Foundation, an In-House Philosopher The Crypto Crew and a Writer and Editor for the Globalish Institute. His online profiles describes him as a Context Provider (rather than a content provider) and a Rift Navigator. Our conversation explored the need for generalists in a highly specialised world and interdisciplinarity including the following questions: What is the purpose of polymaths? Why is neuroplasticity is the best antidote to uncertainty and complexity? What is the nature of the technological and evolutionary transition we are in right now? Why would we want to live in the future verses the long now? So I started out by asking him I started out by asking him - what is the point of polymaths in our society and culture right now? Enjoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindisfarne_Association https://michaelgarfield.medium.com/improvising-out-of-algorithmic-isolation-7ef1a5b94697 https://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art22070 https://www.santafe.edu https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils https://www.andreawulf.com/about-the-invention-of-nature.html https://longnow.org https://www.weareliminal.co