HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

We Are As Gods: Stewart Brand & The Fight to Bring Back Extinct Species

Views:985
@ReasonVids

In a famous 2005 commencement speech, Apple's Steve Jobs counseled graduates to "stay hungry, stay foolish." He was quoting Stewart Brand, a man who has been called "the intellectual Johnny Appleseed of the counterculture" and the subject of the new documentary We Are As Gods, co-directed by David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg.

------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------

Born in 1938, Brand was a Merry Prankster who helped conduct Ken Kesey's legendary acid tests in the 1960s. His guerilla campaign of selling buttons that asked "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole earth yet?" pushed NASA to release the first image of the planet from space and helped inspire the first Earth Day celebrations. From 1968 to 1971, he published the Whole Earth Catalog, which quickly became a bible to hippies on communes and city-dwelling techno-geeks such as Jobs, whose commencement-day quote comes from the final issue of the magazine. The title of the new documentary comes from the first issue, which boldly announced, "We are as gods and might as well get good at it."

Brand helped shape early techno-culture and cyberspace by reporting on the personal computer revolution and interacting with many of its key figures in the early 1970s. His ideas were instrumental in the creation of the Well, one of the earliest online communities, and he helped found The Long Now Foundation, which seeks to lengthen and deepen the way we all think about the past and the future.

Now in his 80s, Brand's current passion is Revive & Restore, an organization that is leading the "de-extinction movement" by using biotechnology to bring back plants and animals including the American Chestnut tree, the passenger pigeon, and the woolly mammoth. Unlike so many in the environmentalist movement he helped create, Brand has always viewed technology in positive, optimistic terms.

"Humans actually have been getting better at a lot of things for a long time in terms of heading off various diseases, heading off poverty and heading off a lot of things," Brand tells Reason while explaining his support for nuclear energy, the de-extinction movement, and other controversial technologies. "You can't count on the past ways of making it better to fix whatever the current problems are. You have to keep discovering new ones." He also updates "stay hungry, stay foolish" for a world facing a global pandemic and environmental concerns: "Try everything," he says. "Take nothing off the table."

Illustration: Lex Villena; Source Image: Mark Mahaney

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
    Thumbnail for High-Speed Rail Advocates Should Pay Attention to California’s Costly Disaster6:31
    High-Speed Rail Advocates Should Pay Attention to California’s Costly Disaster
    ReasonVids
    995 views
    Thumbnail for How Flamin' Hot Cheetos Became a Cultural Sensation6:46
    How Flamin' Hot Cheetos Became a Cultural Sensation
    ReasonVids
    1160 views
    Thumbnail for mahjong warrior0:32
    mahjong warrior
    AOUisgay
    483 views
    Thumbnail for Plants don't like rap music1:29
    Plants don't like rap music
    bestofupgoat
    180 views
    Thumbnail for 5 Colors with Nursery rhymes English Song For Kids | Wash your hands No Virus!!  | Super Lime1:00
    5 Colors with Nursery rhymes English Song For Kids | Wash your hands No Virus!! | Super Lime
    invidious
    367 views
    Thumbnail for CIVIL WAR is Brewing Inside Russia | The Military Show23:58
    CIVIL WAR is Brewing Inside Russia | The Military Show
    invidious
    250 views
    Thumbnail for The Death of Science - Dr. John Campbell 1:13:31
    The Death of Science - Dr. John Campbell
    AOUisgay
    492 views
    Thumbnail for Thomas Sowell's Maverick Insights on Race, Economics, and Society9:57
    Thomas Sowell's Maverick Insights on Race, Economics, and Society
    ReasonVids
    1033 views
    Thumbnail for This has profound meaning. See any similarities?1:00
    This has profound meaning. See any similarities?
    bestofupgoat
    307 views
    Thumbnail for Filmmaker Roger Nygard Explains 85 Mysteries of Human Existence!9:53
    Filmmaker Roger Nygard Explains 85 Mysteries of Human Existence!
    ReasonVids
    946 views
    Thumbnail for The Whitest Kids U'Know Season 1 Episode 221:49
    The Whitest Kids U'Know Season 1 Episode 2
    wkuk.topic
    982 views
    Thumbnail for Exposing The Illuminati From Within. Part 2 - Bill Schnoebellen. [1.50.24]1:54:51
    Exposing The Illuminati From Within. Part 2 - Bill Schnoebellen. [1.50.24]
    bestofsaidit
    778 views
    Thumbnail for What If You Could Live for 10,000 years? Q&A with Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan9:59
    What If You Could Live for 10,000 years? Q&A with Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan
    ReasonVids
    923 views
    Thumbnail for Modern Talking, ABBA, Bad Boys Blue, Bee Gees, Sandra, Michael Jackson - Legends Golden Eurodisco1:00
    Modern Talking, ABBA, Bad Boys Blue, Bee Gees, Sandra, Michael Jackson - Legends Golden Eurodisco
    invidious
    331 views
    Thumbnail for Sick of These Neighbas - EP 2701:42:36
    Sick of These Neighbas - EP 270
    invidious
    89 views
    Thumbnail for Racist old white man fighting with black kids because they are apparently not allowed in the pool as it's reserved for the "white people". Occured in South Africa.0:31
    Racist old white man fighting with black kids because they are apparently not allowed in the pool as it's reserved for the "white people". Occured in South Africa.
    publicfreakouts
    576 views
    Thumbnail for More Cultural Enrichment0:36
    More Cultural Enrichment
    AOUisgay
    476 views
    Thumbnail for How to get RIPPED FAST! 0:22
    How to get RIPPED FAST!
    bestofupgoat
    220 views
    Thumbnail for When you stretch your neck into orbit | GrayStillPlays11:57
    When you stretch your neck into orbit | GrayStillPlays
    invidious
    343 views
    Thumbnail for We all kmow at least one 0:11
    We all kmow at least one
    bestofupgoat
    74 views
    Thumbnail for The Origin Of Petroleum Oil – hint: not a scarce resource8:02
    The Origin Of Petroleum Oil – hint: not a scarce resource
    bestofupgoat
    568 views
    Thumbnail for Cypherpunks Write Code43:55
    Cypherpunks Write Code
    ReasonVids
    751 views
    Thumbnail for Women Traveling Abroad0:44
    Women Traveling Abroad
    guitar
    586 views
    Thumbnail for North Carolina Bans Rare Burgers! Nanny of the Month (May 2011)1:52
    North Carolina Bans Rare Burgers! Nanny of the Month (May 2011)
    ReasonVids
    934 views
    Thumbnail for DEAD SPACE REMAKE ENDING / FINAL BOSS - PS5 Walkthrough Gameplay Part 16 (FULL GAME) | theRadBrad3:29:03
    DEAD SPACE REMAKE ENDING / FINAL BOSS - PS5 Walkthrough Gameplay Part 16 (FULL GAME) | theRadBrad
    invidious
    379 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle