Open thread 005

Today's livestream with Dr. Massimo Teodorani, Psychedelic Book Club, and creating a UFO Canon

1. The Invisible Night School welcomes Dr. Massimo Teodorani today - 2pm ET - for a livestream discussion on plasma physics, atmospheric phenomena, ufology, and beyond. Dr. Teodorani is a researcher on The Galileo Project and a member of SCU, lead scientific researcher on the EMBLA study in Hessdalen, Norway, and a multidisciplinary scholar.

   

   1. Personally, I love Teodorani for his status as a real-life ‘rogue scientist,’ very much a larger-than-life maverick.

   2. We’ll be taking questions from the live chat, and expect to roam through a variety of subjects, including consciousness, research visions, the scientific method, and - of course - ufology

2. Topical: R. Buckminster Fuller’s legacy in the age of the tech-bro shill seems as prescient as ever. Self-appointed “brilliant minds” whose true undertaking is the collective construction of a revolutionary self-mythology…. (N.b., the value of ‘shaping popular imagination’ around technology is, in and of itself, perhaps the most important legacy of Fuller’s).

   1. NYRB published Space-Age Magus, James Gleick’s review of Fuller’s new biography, ‘Inventor of the Future,’ artfully deconstructs the popular vision of the man.

      1. Personal anecdote: the most monumentally inexperienced (yet well-funded) CEO I’ve ever worked with identified Buckminster as his personal hero which - in hindsight, Buckminster could be the patron saint of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

   2. John von Neumann is the thinking man’s Buckminster Fuller: fully-realized brilliance, monumentally impactful.

   3. Stripe Press’ library is non-stop excellence, but especially their recent publication, Pieces of the Action , which explores the midcentury R&D pipeline development. Vannevar Bush wrote the original manuscript in 1970, the 2022 reissue provides additional context and annotation on the orgs and individuals that shaped our present moment.

      1. See also: Bush’s “As We May Think,” a 1945 essay foretelling personal technology.

      2. See also: “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” by Robert Brautigan

3. UFO-curious? You’re in luck. Came across an incredible resource list from Sean Esbjorn-Hargens at ExoStudies: a 150+ title list of recommended books on ufology, consciousness, exopsychology, etc.

   1. There’s no canonical work for exploring the numinous, and while this is - by no means - an exhaustive or perfect collection, it is an excellent starting point.

   2. Esbjorn-Hargens’ interdisciplinary approach is, in my opinion, the “right” way to address and research the subject. He’s at the California Institute for Human Science, leading graduate programs in ‘integral education’ and ‘integral noetic sciences.’

4. Psychedelic Book Club 👾 is off to a rousing start! We’re reading Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game by Andrew Gallimore

   1. We meet 9p ET - Tuesday evenings

      1. For 11/15, we’re discussing Ch. 3 + 4 … there’s still time to join!

      2. Chat, message, or reach out if you’re interested - we meet on Zoom for ~60-75min to review the readings, ask questions, and collectively explore the strange and mysterious

That’s all for this week, folks. I remain - as ever

Very truly yours,

Leah