James Harvey: The Singularity is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

A couple of days ago I interviewed Australian James Harvey. James is pretty unique among my guests because he was the very first interviewee whose willingness to take a chance on a brand new podcast helped me kick off Singularity 1 on 1. This, however, is not the only thing that makes him different for James is also “a musician, a poet, a mystic and learned observer of Life…” Most notably, in 2009 Harvey published his thought provoking book Singularia: Being at an Edge of Time which was my reason for inviting him the first time. This time around I asked James to share and discuss his unique Both/And point of view of the singularity, which eludes the traditional dichotomy of the struggle of opposites but stresses instead their unity as parts of a whole. In our first conversation two quotes stood out for me: 1. “I respect science and think it is a marvelous tool but I do not worship it!” 2. “We are Singularia” This time my favorite quote is Harvey’s observation that: “Our analog universe has an infinite resolution both zooming in and zooming out.” In addition, during our second conversation with James we discuss a variety of other topics such as: the importance and differences of digital and analog worlds (e.g. mp3 files and live music); his book Singularia and why the singularity is a lot more than just technology; Jaron Lanier‘s view that the singularity is rapture for geeks; art, creativity, love and the fear of death.