1 00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to It could happen here. I'm Garrison, and 2 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: today I'm gonna be talking about some really big things 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: and ideas, but hopefully I'll be talking with them in 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,720 Speaker 1: a way that contextualizes them and makes you remember that, 5 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: despite their magnitude, they're still very real things that you 6 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: can interact with. Anyway, I'll get started and eventually it 7 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,839 Speaker 1: will kind of make sense. So right now we are 8 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: all living in one massive liminal space. For those less 9 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: online than I am, I'll explain what I mean. Liminal 10 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 1: spaces became an online meme around late twenty nineteen as 11 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: a term to describe a certain type of picture that 12 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: features architecture or like just a place that looks off familiar, eerie, lonely, 13 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,800 Speaker 1: yet mesmerizing and beautiful. I've been an avid lurker on 14 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:06,199 Speaker 1: the liminal space subpreddit for a while now, and there's 15 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:10,720 Speaker 1: an undeniable allure to these dreamlike photos of buildings and 16 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:15,720 Speaker 1: rooms and the effect that they have on me. Describing 17 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: what makes a liminal space photo a liminal space photo 18 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: as opposed to just any other regular photo of a 19 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,960 Speaker 1: building or a room can be tricky, because, in part, 20 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: the point is to elicit a certain feeling without thinking 21 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: too much about the why they're not spooky or scary 22 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: in the traditional sense. The gist of a liminal space 23 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: photo and where it gets its name liminality is a 24 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 1: good place to begin to understand what type of feelings 25 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: these pictures are supposed to produce. Liminal refers to a 26 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: transitional phase and the ambiguity and disorientation associated with being 27 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: inside of a threshold, not on either one side, per se, 28 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 1: but some where in between. Now, that threshold can be 29 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 1: many things. A literal transitionary threshold between certain places is 30 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: a common one. This can include stuff like hallways and airports. 31 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,200 Speaker 1: One of my favorites, though, is a threshold between time, 32 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: an ambiguous, unspecific nostalgia you can't quite place, but it 33 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: feels awfully familiar, like a dream from childhood. Pictures of weird, indoor, 34 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: squishy playgrounds do this for me. The other threshold is 35 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: a threshold between purpose and use, like a building or 36 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:41,920 Speaker 1: room designed for a very specific special purpose but now 37 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: no longer serving that it's empty and out of date, 38 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: an abandoned mall or cheery birthday party room at an arcade, 39 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: photographed desolate and in the dark. There's two other aspects 40 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 1: of liminal space. Photos that complement the various thresholds we've mentioned. 41 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:04,079 Speaker 1: Usually have no visible people, and there's a sense of artificiality, 42 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: like a lot of fluorescent and artificial lighting. And even 43 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: when there is a sunny outside, it looks fake, like 44 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:15,799 Speaker 1: a Windows computer screen saver. One of the most popular 45 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,239 Speaker 1: liminal space photos is of an underground bunker in Las 46 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 1: Vegas that was painted and decorated to look like it's 47 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: outside despite being buried deep within the ground. It's such 48 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: a great example of liminal spaces because it elicits a 49 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: certain type of cognitive dissonance and a distinct lack of 50 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 1: synchronicity that is difficult to describe Otherwise. Almost never is 51 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: quote unquote nature the subject of these photos. They nearly 52 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: exclusively focus on very human constructs, particularly ones that no 53 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: longer serve their intended use, or maybe never did in 54 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: the first place. So what do I mean by we're 55 00:03:56,200 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: all in one huge liminal space right now? Well, we 56 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: are in between an historic economic and technological boom, one 57 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: that's produced machines that resemble the magic of old. But 58 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,800 Speaker 1: on the other side of this valley is global climate 59 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: catastrophe and destruction and change the likes of which humans 60 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: have possibly never seen or at least remembered. We're in 61 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: the transitionary period between these two states, and that disassociation 62 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: of not being fully in either one, that that cognitive 63 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,560 Speaker 1: dissonance can be kind of mind boggling. It's like the 64 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: nervous anticipation right before the roller coaster goes over the peak, 65 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: or that weird feeling of being alone in an empty 66 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:44,560 Speaker 1: church nursery at night. Similar to liminal space photos, climate 67 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:49,120 Speaker 1: change transcends a regular perception of time space, and with 68 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:54,719 Speaker 1: that cause and effect, it's more than just a regular thing, phenomenon, 69 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: or object. While specifically thinking about climate change, philosopher to 70 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 1: with the Morton dubbed these massive spacetime altering objects as 71 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: hyper objects. Now Morton often writes about things that can't 72 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 1: be talked about directly, so really the only way to 73 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:15,080 Speaker 1: discuss it or get into the topic is to orbit 74 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,559 Speaker 1: around it, associating with adjacent ideas or words to get 75 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 1: close enough to the topic to partially understand it, even 76 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: if you can't get quite there. Other possible examples of 77 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,479 Speaker 1: hyper objects besides climate change, can include stuff like black holes, 78 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: the biosphere or the solar system. But hyper objects don't 79 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: need to be just massive celestial things. They can also 80 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: be the sum total of all nuclear materials on Earth, 81 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: or the very long lasting product of direct human manufacture, 82 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:48,839 Speaker 1: such as all of the styroform of plastic bags in 83 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,280 Speaker 1: the world. It can also be the sum of all 84 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:57,560 Speaker 1: the worling machinery of capitalism, or the state. Hyper objects, then, 85 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,520 Speaker 1: are hyper just in relation to some other entity, whether 86 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:06,320 Speaker 1: they're directly manufactured by humans or not. And hyper objects 87 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: aren't just collections, systems or assemblages of other objects. They 88 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,159 Speaker 1: are things in their own right, and they affect more 89 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: than just humans. They don't come into being just because 90 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: humans notice them. They will have effects on the world 91 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:26,400 Speaker 1: whether or not they are observed. One of the more 92 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:31,279 Speaker 1: obvious differences between hyper objects and ordinary objects that you 93 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:35,279 Speaker 1: can't ever actually see a hyper object in its totality. 94 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: You can only ever witness a small extension or piece 95 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: of a hyper object. Now, this makes thinking about them 96 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:46,120 Speaker 1: kind of intrinsically tricky. It's like only seeing a fragmented 97 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: shadow of a thing and the effects that that thing 98 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:53,839 Speaker 1: has on all other things. Now, the more contrarian listeners 99 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: might protest that we never see all of any object, 100 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: even ordinary ones. Now, it's obviously true that everything we 101 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,599 Speaker 1: see has a negative side, the part behind that we 102 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: can't actually always look at, but can reasonably assume is there. 103 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,360 Speaker 1: Now the difference is that hyper objects transcend not only 104 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: a regular conception of physical reality, but more so our 105 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,680 Speaker 1: temporal reality. You can hold a coffee monk and rotate 106 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: it around in a pretty short amount of time and 107 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:27,760 Speaker 1: witness each side and angle. Or if you want to 108 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: get really fancy, you could make a three sixty scan 109 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,920 Speaker 1: so you can see a projected version of the entire object, 110 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:37,000 Speaker 1: or you know more, simply just get three people in 111 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: a room to all look at different sides of the mug, 112 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:45,640 Speaker 1: thus forming a consensual reality based understanding of the whole object. Now, 113 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: not only can you not hold a hyper object, but 114 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 1: even if you could, the temporal effects would make it 115 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: impossible to rotate it around to witness the totality of 116 00:07:56,520 --> 00:08:00,120 Speaker 1: what's being held, and it would be way too big 117 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: for multiple people to ever witness all sides of the thing. 118 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: Quoting from Morton's book hyper Objects, The Philosophy and Ecology 119 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: after the End of the World. Quote, consider raindrops You 120 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:17,520 Speaker 1: can feel them on your head, but you can't perceive 121 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:21,720 Speaker 1: the actual raindrop in itself. You can only ever perceive 122 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: your particular anthropomorphic translation of the raindrops. Isn't this similar 123 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: to the rift between weather, which I can feel falling 124 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,320 Speaker 1: on my head, and global climate, not the older idea 125 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: of local patterns of weather, but the entire system. I 126 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:41,480 Speaker 1: can think of an compute climate in this sense, but 127 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:45,320 Speaker 1: I can't directly see or touch it. The gap between 128 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: the phenomenon and the thing yawns wide open, disturbing my 129 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: sense of presence and being in the world. Humans have 130 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:57,480 Speaker 1: been aware of enormous entities, some realism imagined, for as 131 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: long as we have existed, but this book has argueing 132 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: that there is something quite special about the recently discovered 133 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: entities such as climate. These entities directly cause us to 134 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: reflect on our very place on Earth and in the cosmos. 135 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: Perhaps this is the most fundamental issue. Hyper objects seem 136 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,200 Speaker 1: to force something on us, something that affects some core 137 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:22,640 Speaker 1: idea of what it means to exist, what Earth is, 138 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:27,960 Speaker 1: what society is. There's no doubt that cosmic phenomenon such 139 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: as meteors and blood red moons tsunami's, tornadoes, and earthquakes 140 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:37,720 Speaker 1: have terrified humans. In the past, meteors and comets were 141 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:42,679 Speaker 1: known as disasters. Literally, a disaster is a fallen, dysfunctional, 142 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: or dangerous or evil star disaster. But such disasters take 143 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,280 Speaker 1: place against a stable backdrop. There is the Ptolemaic Aristolian 144 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: machinery of the stars, which hold fixed stars in place. 145 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:02,200 Speaker 1: It seems as if there's something about hyper objects that 146 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: is more deeply challenging than these disasters. The worry is 147 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 1: not whether the world will end, as in the old 148 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: models of the disaster, but whether the end of the 149 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: world is already happening, or whether perhaps it might have 150 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: already taken place. A deep shuttering of temporality then occurs. 151 00:10:25,559 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: For one thing, we are inside hyper objects, like Jonah 152 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,560 Speaker 1: in the whale. This means that every decision we make 153 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: is in some sense related to hyper objects. These decisions 154 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,600 Speaker 1: are not merely limited to sentences in texts about hyper objects. 155 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: When I turned the key in the Ignition of my car, 156 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: I am relating to global warming. When a novelist writes 157 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:51,199 Speaker 1: about the immigration to Mars, they are relating to global warming. 158 00:10:52,040 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 1: I am one of the entities caught in the hyper 159 00:10:54,840 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: object that I hear call global warming. Different hyper objects 160 00:11:09,160 --> 00:11:13,640 Speaker 1: have numerous properties in common, but for our purposes we're 161 00:11:13,679 --> 00:11:17,920 Speaker 1: going to discuss the five main points of similarity. Hyper 162 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 1: Objects are viscous, meaning they stick to beings that are 163 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,360 Speaker 1: involved with them. They are nonlocal, in other words, and 164 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:28,119 Speaker 1: any local manifestation of the hyper object is not directly 165 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: the hyper object. They involve very different temporalities than the 166 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:36,560 Speaker 1: human scale ones that were used to. In particular, some 167 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: very very large hyper objects have a genuine Gaussian temporality. 168 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:45,960 Speaker 1: They generate space time vortexes due to general relativity, and 169 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:50,840 Speaker 1: hyper objects occupy a higher dimensional phase space that results 170 00:11:50,880 --> 00:11:54,440 Speaker 1: in their being invisible to humans for structures of time. 171 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: And they exhibit their effects inter objectively. That is, they 172 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: can be detected in a space that consists of inter 173 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: relationships between aesthetic properties of objects. The hyper object is 174 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,760 Speaker 1: not just a function of our knowledge. It is also 175 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:14,720 Speaker 1: hyper relative to worms, lemons, and ultra violet rays as 176 00:12:14,760 --> 00:12:18,680 Speaker 1: well as humans. Now I'm going to go into the 177 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: five different points of similarity in more detail to kind 178 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:26,080 Speaker 1: of help flesh out what these things hyper objects, what 179 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: they are, and how they might actually be a useful 180 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 1: way to think about really big stuff. So, first off, 181 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: viscous hyper objects adhere to any object they touch, no 182 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 1: matter how hard the objects tries to resist. In this way, 183 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:45,319 Speaker 1: hyper objects overrule ironic distance, meaning that the more an 184 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 1: object tries to resist a hyper object, the more glued 185 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: to the hyper object it becomes. Now, the more you 186 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,240 Speaker 1: learn about any big topic, the more you'll end up 187 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,760 Speaker 1: noticing it in the world. This is the law of synchronicity. 188 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:01,439 Speaker 1: But the more you know about climate change, the more 189 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:05,560 Speaker 1: you realize how perversive it is. The more you discover 190 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 1: about evolution, the more you realize how much our entire 191 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:14,120 Speaker 1: physical being is caught in its meshwork. Immediate intimate symptoms 192 00:13:14,120 --> 00:13:17,920 Speaker 1: of hyper objects are very real, vivid, and often painful, 193 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:23,760 Speaker 1: Yet they carry with them this trace of unreality. A 194 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: good example of hyper object viscosity would be radioactive materials. 195 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:31,400 Speaker 1: The more you try to get rid of them, the 196 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:36,319 Speaker 1: more you realize you can't. They seriously undermine the notion 197 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 1: of a way there is no away. Flushing vomit down 198 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:44,439 Speaker 1: the toilet doesn't make it disappear. It makes its way 199 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,199 Speaker 1: to the ocean or the water treatment facility, and and 200 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:51,160 Speaker 1: eventually just back to us again. I'll quote from the 201 00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:55,640 Speaker 1: book hyper Objects quote late itself is the most viscous 202 00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: thing of all, since nothing can surpass its speed. Radiation 203 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:04,199 Speaker 1: is Sartra's jar of honey, Part excellence, a luminous honey 204 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:09,040 Speaker 1: that reveals our bone structure as it seeps around us. Again, 205 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,960 Speaker 1: it's not a matter of making some suicidal leap into 206 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 1: the honey, but discovering that we are already inside it. 207 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: This is it, folks, this is the ecological interconnectedness. Come 208 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:23,400 Speaker 1: in and join the fun. But I see that you're 209 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:30,520 Speaker 1: already here. Unquote. Yeah, that is a that's fun. The 210 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: next point of similarity where to discussed is the molten 211 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:38,640 Speaker 1: or Gaussian quality. Hyper Objects are time stretched to such 212 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,440 Speaker 1: an extent that they become impossible to hold in the mind. 213 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: Hyper objects are so massive that they refute the idea 214 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: that spacetime is fixed, concrete, and consistent. The size of 215 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,680 Speaker 1: hyper objects can make them basically invisible just because they're 216 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:57,680 Speaker 1: so big. It's like swimming in Crater Lake in southern Oregon, 217 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: one of the deepest lakes in the world. But it's 218 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:04,760 Speaker 1: not just deep, it's also very very clear. So the 219 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: water is so deep yet so clear. It's like you're 220 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: swimming in the sky. It's like you're swimming and nothing. 221 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: It would be like if you approach an object and 222 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 1: more and more objects emerge because we can't see the 223 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:22,160 Speaker 1: end of them. Hyper objects are necessarily uncanny. They have 224 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: to be just like my favorite liminal space photos. Hyper 225 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:30,920 Speaker 1: objects seem to beckon us further into themselves, making us 226 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: realize that we're already lost inside them. The recognition of 227 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,800 Speaker 1: being caught in hyper objects is precisely a feeling of 228 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:46,640 Speaker 1: strange familiarity and a familiar strangeness. Next up is non locality. 229 00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:50,920 Speaker 1: Hyper objects are massively distributed in time and space, such 230 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:56,280 Speaker 1: as any particular local manifestation never actually reveals the totality 231 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,800 Speaker 1: of the hyper object. For example, climate change is a 232 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:04,320 Speaker 1: high project that impacts meteorological conditions such as tornado formations. 233 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 1: Objects don't feel climate change, but instead experienced tornadoes as 234 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: they cause damage in specific places. Thus, nonlocality describes the 235 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: manner in which a hyper object becomes more substantial than 236 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:24,960 Speaker 1: the local manifestations that they produce. Quoting Moreton again, for 237 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,280 Speaker 1: a flower, nuclear radiation turns its leaves a strange shade 238 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: of red. Global warming for the tomato farmer rots the 239 00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,560 Speaker 1: tomatoes plastic for the bird strangles it as it becomes 240 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: entangled in a set of six pack rings. What we 241 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,200 Speaker 1: are really dealing with here are just the aesthetic effects 242 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,240 Speaker 1: that are directly causal. The octopus of the hyper object 243 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 1: amits a cloud of ink as it withdrawals from access. 244 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,840 Speaker 1: Yet this cloud of ink is a cloud of its 245 00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:59,360 Speaker 1: effects and effects these phenomenon themselves are not global warming 246 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: or radiation. S action at a distance is involved. It's 247 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,920 Speaker 1: like confusing the map with the territory paper. Objects cannot 248 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:12,960 Speaker 1: be thought up as occupying a series of now points 249 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: in time or space. They confound the social and psychic 250 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: instruments we use to measure them. Even digital devices have trouble. 251 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:26,520 Speaker 1: Global warming is not just a function of our measuring devices. Yet, 252 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: because it's distributed across the biosphere and beyond, it's hard 253 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,840 Speaker 1: to see it as a unique entity. And yet there 254 00:17:33,840 --> 00:17:36,640 Speaker 1: it is raining down on us, burning down on us, 255 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:41,640 Speaker 1: quaking the earth, spawning giant hurricanes. Global warming is an 256 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: object of which many things are distributed pieces. The rain 257 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:49,200 Speaker 1: drops falling on my head in northern California, the tsunami 258 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,200 Speaker 1: that pours through the streets, of Japanese towns, the increasing 259 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,840 Speaker 1: earthquake activity based on changing pressure on the ocean floor 260 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,840 Speaker 1: like a moving illusion picture. Global warming is real, but 261 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:05,240 Speaker 1: it involves a massive, counterintuitive perspective shift for us to 262 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: see it. Convincing some people of its existence is like 263 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 1: convincing some two dimensional flatland people of the existence of 264 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: apples based on the appearance of a morphing circular shape 265 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 1: in their world. Next point of similarity is phasing. So 266 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:28,200 Speaker 1: our sense of being in a time and inhabiting a 267 00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:33,439 Speaker 1: place depends on forms of regularity, the periodic rhythms of 268 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,360 Speaker 1: day and night, the sun coming up, Only now we 269 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: know that it doesn't really come up. It's now common 270 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,240 Speaker 1: knowledge that the Moon's phases are just the relationship between 271 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 1: the Earth and the Moon as they circumnavigate to the Sun. 272 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,119 Speaker 1: Hyper objects seem to phase in and out of the 273 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,439 Speaker 1: human world. They occupy a higher dimensional phase space that 274 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,440 Speaker 1: makes them impossible to see as a whole on our 275 00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: regular There a three dimensional human scale basis, but they 276 00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: might appear differently to an observer with a higher dimensional view. 277 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:11,200 Speaker 1: We can only see pieces of a hyper object at 278 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,199 Speaker 1: a time. The reason why they appear non local and 279 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: temporarily for shortened is precisely because of this trans dimensional quality. 280 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,919 Speaker 1: We can only see pieces of them at once, like 281 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,840 Speaker 1: a tsunami or a taste of radiation sickness. If an 282 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:30,399 Speaker 1: apple were to invade a two dimensional world, first the 283 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: stick people would see some dots as the bottom of 284 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,639 Speaker 1: the apple touched their universe, and then a rapid succession 285 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:40,159 Speaker 1: of shapes that would appear like an expanding and contracting 286 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,760 Speaker 1: circular blob, diminishing into a tiny circle, possibly a point, 287 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:49,160 Speaker 1: and then disappearing. That's why you can't directly see climate change. 288 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:52,159 Speaker 1: You would need to occupy some higher dimensional space to 289 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:57,119 Speaker 1: see the hyper object unfolding explicitly. Like the people in 290 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 1: the two dimensional flat land, we can only see brief 291 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:04,200 Speaker 1: patches of this gigantic object as it intersects with our world. 292 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:09,040 Speaker 1: The brief patch called hurricane destroys the infrastructure of New Orleans. 293 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,880 Speaker 1: The brief patch called drought burns the planes of Russia 294 00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:16,440 Speaker 1: and the midwestern United States to a crisp our. Bodies 295 00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:22,239 Speaker 1: itch with yesterday's sunburn. But don't relegate hyper objects as 296 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,880 Speaker 1: a simple abstract notion. Thin game of hyper objects as 297 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: transdimensional real things is valuable global warming is not simply 298 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:34,919 Speaker 1: a mathematical abstraction that doesn't really pertain to this world. 299 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: Hyper Objects don't just inhabit some conceptual beyond in our 300 00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:43,440 Speaker 1: heads or out there. They are real objects that affect 301 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,440 Speaker 1: other objects. We tend to only think about hyper objects 302 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: as they phase in and connect to other, more static objects. 303 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,879 Speaker 1: This is a mistake and contributes to non action. Whether 304 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: or not we perceive objects and hyper objects connecting doesn't 305 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 1: affect the existence and the inevitable effects of the hyper object. 306 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:09,199 Speaker 1: What we experience as the slow periodic re occurrence of 307 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: a celestial event such as an eclipse or a comet, 308 00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: is a continuous entity whose imprint simply shows up on 309 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:21,119 Speaker 1: our social and cognitive space for a while. The gaps 310 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,639 Speaker 1: I perceive between moments at which my mind is aware 311 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,359 Speaker 1: of the hyper object and moments at which it isn't 312 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: do not matter in relation to the hyper object itself. Okay, 313 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,800 Speaker 1: and now onto our final point of similarity. Inter Objective 314 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:43,040 Speaker 1: hyper objects are formed by relations between more than one object. Consequently, 315 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:47,200 Speaker 1: objects are only able to perceive the imprint or footprint 316 00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:52,160 Speaker 1: of a hyper object upon other objects revealed as information. 317 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: It's all an ecological mesh of interconnectedness and inter objectivity. 318 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:02,720 Speaker 1: For example, climate changes formed by interactions between the sun, 319 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, economic growth, among other things. Yet 320 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:13,800 Speaker 1: climate change is made apparent through emissions levels, temperature changes, 321 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,719 Speaker 1: and the sea level rising, making it seem as if 322 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: global warming is a product of scientific models rather than 323 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: connected to an object that predates its own measurement. Hyper 324 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,720 Speaker 1: objects exist in and between objects and things we deal 325 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:35,360 Speaker 1: with every day, but it's not simply those objects. Plastic 326 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:40,160 Speaker 1: bags are not climate change, but those things are both intertwined. 327 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,439 Speaker 1: Hurricanes are not climate change, but they can be a 328 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:50,199 Speaker 1: shadow like local manifestation of it. A mesh consists of 329 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: relationships between criss crossing strands and the gaps between strands. 330 00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:00,120 Speaker 1: Meshes are a potent metaphor for the strange interconnectedness of things, 331 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:05,120 Speaker 1: an interconnectedness that does not allow for perfect, lossless transmission 332 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:09,480 Speaker 1: of information, but is instead full of gaps and absences. 333 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,919 Speaker 1: When an object is born, it is instantly meshed into 334 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:18,480 Speaker 1: a relationship with other objects in the mesh. The mesh 335 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:22,520 Speaker 1: isn't inside of all things, but it's on the edge 336 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:27,320 Speaker 1: or floats on top of all things. Inter objective mesh 337 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: is the extra connecting layer between the mass and the 338 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,920 Speaker 1: mask of all objects, almost like a universal skin fascia. 339 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: Inter objectivity provides a space that is ontologically in front 340 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:47,920 Speaker 1: of objects, in which relational phenomenon can emerge. The massiveness 341 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,480 Speaker 1: and distribution of hyper objects simply force us to take 342 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:55,600 Speaker 1: note of this fact. Hyper objects provide great examples of 343 00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,400 Speaker 1: inter objectivity, namely the way in which nothing has ever 344 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:04,320 Speaker 1: experienced directly, but only as mediated through other entities in 345 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: some shared consensual space. We never hear the wind in itself, 346 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,680 Speaker 1: only the wind in the door, the wind in the trees. 347 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,719 Speaker 1: This means that for every objective system, there is at 348 00:24:17,800 --> 00:24:22,159 Speaker 1: least one entity that is withdrawn from the relationship. We 349 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: see the footprint of a dinosaur left in some ancient 350 00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,160 Speaker 1: rock that was once a pool of mud. The dinosaur's 351 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: reality exists inter objectively. There is some form of shared 352 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,920 Speaker 1: space between the rock, ourselves, and the dinosaur, even though 353 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:44,280 Speaker 1: the dinosaur isn't there directly. The print of a dinosaur's 354 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:47,440 Speaker 1: foot in the mud is seen as a foot shaped 355 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: hole in a rock by humans sixty five million years later. 356 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:57,000 Speaker 1: There is some sensuous connection then, between the dinosaur, the rock, 357 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:02,919 Speaker 1: and the human despite their vastly differing time scales. The 358 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:08,120 Speaker 1: dinosaur footprint in fossilized mud is not a dinosaur. Rather, 359 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: the footprint is a trace of the hyper object evolution 360 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: that joins me the dinosaur and the mud together, along 361 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,439 Speaker 1: with the intentional act of holding them in the mind. 362 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: I found the hyper object banner as a useful tool 363 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: to help my brain think about things that are just 364 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,439 Speaker 1: too big, things that have effects so spaced out in 365 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: time that using in our ordinary models of thought are 366 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,639 Speaker 1: just inadequate. You can also reconcile the opposing views that 367 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:50,240 Speaker 1: cast climate change as the very real series of disasters 368 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,960 Speaker 1: or a complicated, interlocking mess of systems that can feel 369 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:58,600 Speaker 1: very unreal and overwhelming. Just thinking of big things as 370 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,600 Speaker 1: abstract systems has the habit of divorcing you from the 371 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,879 Speaker 1: real world impacts things like hyper objects can cause. Sometimes 372 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: we forget that climate change is a thing we interact 373 00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:15,680 Speaker 1: with every day and can inform choices we make now 374 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: the almost impossible to comprehend totality of our situation. It's 375 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,200 Speaker 1: not great for mental well being. You can end up 376 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: tail spinning down a black hole of fate, conspiracy, coping, denial, 377 00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,640 Speaker 1: and doom. It's very easy to trip and fall into 378 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,359 Speaker 1: a void of negation. Things that are hyper objects fundamentally 379 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: break our conception of reality temporality and cause an effect. 380 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: And it's already a really weird time to try to 381 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: suss out reality. We're constantly being bombarded with products and 382 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,760 Speaker 1: services trying to usurp the real That's what marketing is, 383 00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,560 Speaker 1: you know. First we had the Internet with its limitless 384 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: possibilities as a digital universe. Then we got the world 385 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: of social media with all of its fractured and fractal realities. 386 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,840 Speaker 1: There's immersive gaming and the allure of getting lost within 387 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,879 Speaker 1: thousands of unique worlds. And now we have VR a 388 00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,840 Speaker 1: R and the metaverse, more layers of digital fabrication trying 389 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:20,960 Speaker 1: to be passed off as an almost hyper reality, a 390 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,440 Speaker 1: promise to make a reality even more real and immersive 391 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: than our status quo. The Internet itself is another hyper object, 392 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,400 Speaker 1: and all of this extra reality can take a strain 393 00:27:34,520 --> 00:27:38,920 Speaker 1: on the human mind. De realization the perception that actual 394 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,920 Speaker 1: waking reality is an artificial construct, the feeling of being 395 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 1: de attached from your surroundings, like the world's made of cardboard, 396 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,720 Speaker 1: or you're looking at everything through a cloud of fog 397 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,879 Speaker 1: is becoming more and more common, especially among so called 398 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 1: gen Z, the generation that drew up with the Internet 399 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:02,320 Speaker 1: being a staple of life. Now. How we got here 400 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,880 Speaker 1: is a disassociation between humans and what we call nature 401 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:10,040 Speaker 1: or the environment. The problems are getting fixed because we're 402 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,760 Speaker 1: so disassociated from the effects, just as the effects are 403 00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:18,240 Speaker 1: from the cause. That resulting alienation of all things makes 404 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: this worse. All of the worst effects of climate change 405 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: aren't going to be felt for hundreds of years. And 406 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,159 Speaker 1: that is a weird feeling. That is cognitive dissonance that 407 00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,160 Speaker 1: I don't know how to understand that, and that makes 408 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: making decisions about our situation now feel distant yet also urgent. 409 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,720 Speaker 1: It's both and it's neither, and it's confusing. The resulting 410 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,880 Speaker 1: alienation of all things makes this worse. It produces this 411 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 1: lack of immediate and close in proximity consequences. We must 412 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 1: purposely remove these layers of separation and abandoned our anthropocentric thinking. 413 00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:59,080 Speaker 1: Nature isn't other from us. We are nature, It's the 414 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,960 Speaker 1: same thing. We are all part of this big mesh. This, 415 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: this sacred idea of nature isn't natural and can never 416 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:10,160 Speaker 1: be naturalized. We have to learn how to have an 417 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:14,800 Speaker 1: ecology without nature, with without nature as a separate thing. 418 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:19,239 Speaker 1: To have a genuine ecological view, we must relinquish this 419 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: idea that nature being separate from us once and for all. 420 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:27,400 Speaker 1: We have to kill the anthroprasyne in our own head. 421 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,040 Speaker 1: A quote from one of Morton's other books titled Ecology 422 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: Without Nature. Putting something called nature on a pedestal and 423 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,840 Speaker 1: admiring it from afar does for the environment what patriarchy 424 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,440 Speaker 1: does for the figure of a woman. It's a paradoxical 425 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: act of sadistic, possessive admiration. Unquote. So within Morton's branch 426 00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: of philosophy, reification, the making of a thing into a 427 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:59,280 Speaker 1: thing is precisely the reduction of a real object to 428 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:04,360 Speaker 1: its sense will appearance for another object. Realification is reduction 429 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 1: of one's entity to another's fantasy about it. Nature is 430 00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:13,200 Speaker 1: a realification in this sense, and that's why we need 431 00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 1: an ecology without nature. Maybe if we turn nature into 432 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,680 Speaker 1: something more fluid, it might work. Now, most of our 433 00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:26,560 Speaker 1: modern political discourse can be boiled down to what things 434 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: are real and what things are not. Hyper objects and 435 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,600 Speaker 1: climate change don't just play into this debate. But crash 436 00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: into it, decimating all the other toys in this sandbox. 437 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,640 Speaker 1: As Morton says, the threat of global warming is not 438 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:46,240 Speaker 1: only political but also ontological. The threat of unreality is 439 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:50,400 Speaker 1: the very sign of reality itself. And oh boy, do 440 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 1: we be experiencing this simultaneous disillusionment of reality and the 441 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly real presence of hyper objects which stick to us, 442 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:03,320 Speaker 1: which are us. The worry is not whether the world 443 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: will end, but whether the end of the world is 444 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,160 Speaker 1: already happening, or whether perhaps it might have already taken place. 445 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: The idea of the end of the world is very 446 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:19,040 Speaker 1: active in environmentalism, but the way it's usually framed kind 447 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: of fosters its own negation. The end of the world 448 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,480 Speaker 1: is coming idea is not really effective, since to all 449 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:29,840 Speaker 1: types of purposes, the being that we are supposed to 450 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:34,000 Speaker 1: feel anxiety about and care for is actually already gone. 451 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,760 Speaker 1: This does not mean that there's no hope for ecological 452 00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 1: politics and ethics and a better future. Far from it. 453 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,880 Speaker 1: In fact, Morton and I would argue that the strongly 454 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: held belief that the world's about to end unless we 455 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,000 Speaker 1: act now is paradoxically one of the most powerful factors 456 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: that inhibit a full engagement with our ecological coexistence here 457 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:00,480 Speaker 1: on Earth. The strategy of the ecological hyperoject concept is 458 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,480 Speaker 1: to then awaken us from this dream that the world 459 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,479 Speaker 1: is about to end, because action on Earth, like the 460 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:09,360 Speaker 1: real Earth depends on it, the end of the world 461 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 1: has already happened. Using the hyper object idea helps sort 462 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: out these overly systematic things into a package that I 463 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 1: can actually think about. There's something about discovering the language 464 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,960 Speaker 1: for a feeling, being able to name it that is 465 00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: empowering a way of finding handhold in the dim light 466 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:34,760 Speaker 1: of confusion, rather than scrambling around in the dark. So 467 00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: how would you convince two dimensional flatland people of the 468 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:42,560 Speaker 1: existence of apples based on the occasional phasing appearance of 469 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:47,240 Speaker 1: a morphing circular shape in their world. Now, hyper objects 470 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,600 Speaker 1: can really assist in understanding the cognitive dissonance around to 471 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 1: climate to denial, you can't point to something like rising 472 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: sea levels and say that is climate change, because yeah, 473 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: that isn't climate change. The high poor object rising sea 474 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:06,080 Speaker 1: levels are just an environmental effect, and since the effects 475 00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,440 Speaker 1: are so disattached from the cause, that fosters a lot 476 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,440 Speaker 1: of room for cognitive dissonance. When people point at extreme 477 00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:17,200 Speaker 1: weather and call it something else. It's our lack of ecology. 478 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,560 Speaker 1: Are seeing of interconnected things as separate problems or manifestations, 479 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: missing the fact that almost all of our problems don't 480 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: have a shared root cause, but instead are just part 481 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: of a massive, shared bungee cord like mesh network. When 482 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,840 Speaker 1: so many local manifesting problems and actual disasters are blamed 483 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,560 Speaker 1: on climate change, even if you believe climate change is 484 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:44,600 Speaker 1: the cause, which you know it is, it still feels 485 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,840 Speaker 1: weird because climate change isn't just a simple thing. It's 486 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:53,200 Speaker 1: such an amorphous shape shifting time traveling idea that for 487 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:57,120 Speaker 1: the climate denier or climate skeptic, seeing very real physical 488 00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:01,280 Speaker 1: effects be blamed on such an abstract thing is hard 489 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 1: for them and their understanding of reality. For many people, 490 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: rejecting hyper objects is a lot easier than thinking about them, 491 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,680 Speaker 1: because once you start thinking about them, finding solutions to 492 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,840 Speaker 1: problems so displaced in time it's not only difficult, but 493 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:23,319 Speaker 1: encourages procrastination. The greenhouse gas emissions up there in the 494 00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 1: air right now won't reach their full effects for decades 495 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:31,439 Speaker 1: and centuries. That's not downplaying the urgency of the problem. 496 00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:35,120 Speaker 1: In fact, that should make the problem more urgent. The 497 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 1: cause is our brief luxury and the effect is terror 498 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,839 Speaker 1: forming the world. And we are right now caught in 499 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:50,279 Speaker 1: between the uncanny hyper object of all liminal spaces. The 500 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:53,239 Speaker 1: end of the world has already happened. We are on 501 00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,360 Speaker 1: the path and about to enter a new world. We 502 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,920 Speaker 1: are in the liminal space hallway of all liminal space. 503 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,359 Speaker 1: Always the door behind us is closed, and at the 504 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: other end of the hallway is a black hole. We 505 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: cannot backtrack and re enter the door behind us. Already 506 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,439 Speaker 1: are we getting sucked forward into the hallway. But there 507 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: are many doors ahead of us, and we get to 508 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: choose which one to open. At this point, we have 509 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:23,399 Speaker 1: passed some of the prettier doors, but don't be tricked 510 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,200 Speaker 1: into thinking that there are none left. We must not 511 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,400 Speaker 1: focus on preserving an old way of life, but instead 512 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:33,359 Speaker 1: need to carefully carve out our new reality. We need 513 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:39,480 Speaker 1: to pick our new door. Well, that is my essay. 514 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:45,880 Speaker 1: Read Thing episode amalgamation about hyper objects, liminal spaces and 515 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: our new reality. I hope you found some of the 516 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:55,800 Speaker 1: ideas useful um despite their kind of abstract and anti 517 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,920 Speaker 1: abstract nature. If you want to learn more about this, 518 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: I would recommend reading Timothy Morton's book hyper objects Um. 519 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,719 Speaker 1: It is an academic read, but it's not that bad. 520 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: I would I would recommend picking up if you want 521 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:12,000 Speaker 1: to learn more about these things. I'm sure I'll talk 522 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: about them more in the future. Thank you for listening. Everybody, 523 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:22,239 Speaker 1: see you on the other side. It Could Happen Here 524 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,920 Speaker 1: is a production of pool Zone Media. For more podcasts 525 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,520 Speaker 1: from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media 526 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:29,399 Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the I Heart 527 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,520 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 528 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:35,200 Speaker 1: You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 529 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:38,680 Speaker 1: monthly at cool zone media dot com slash sources. Thanks 530 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:39,280 Speaker 1: for listening.