Episode 7: Indigenous Wisdom & The Future of Humanity

The Mindplex Podcast

Our exciting 7th episode features a discussion with Tyson Yunkaporta, Research Fellow at Deakin University and author of the book "Sand Talk," and his wife, Megan Kelleher, a PhD candidate studying Blockchain and Indigenous Governance at RMIT’s Digital Ethnography Research Centre.
In this episode, we try on a refreshingly unique Indigenous perspective on consciousness, cognition and many of the cultural norms of humanity in general that we never think twice about – like space and time being separate entities – what Tyson calls a deep time perspective.
Guests:
Tyson Yunkaporta — Research Fellow at Deakin University and author of Sand Talk
Tyson is an academic, arts critic, poet researcher, and traditional wood carver who is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. As an indigenous person, Tyson looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural & spiritual world.
He is the author of ‘Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World’ and is the founder of the Indigenous Knowledges Systems Lab at Deakin University, in Melbourne.
He also hosts a podcast called The Other Others, in which he yarns with guests about how Indigenous knowledge can solve the world’s problems.
Megan Kelleher — Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre-doctoral Fellow, RMIT University
Megan Kelleher is a PhD candidate, a core member of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre (DERC) and one of RMIT’s Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre‑Doctoral Fellows in the School of Media and Communication there. The title of her thesis is ‘Blockchain Mapping and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Observations at the interface between distributed consensus technology and Indigenous governance.’
Megan’s research, funded by the Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S), is investigating whether the affordances of blockchain technology are culturally appropriate for Indigenous governance and decision making – and conversely whether Indigenous governance provides a model for blockchain governance.
Grounded in her Barada / Baradha and Gabalbara / Kapalbara heritage, the research will be approached from an Indigenous standpoint, contributing to the field from an important Australian research perspective.
Also discussed during this podcast:

• What is a "place?"
• What is a "story?"
• Spatial and navigational mechanisms in the brain. (As Megan explains, “It's not 'I think therefore, I am.' It's "I am located therefore I am.")
• “Field dependent cognition." (Also referred to as "holistic,” “high context,” or “context dependent” cognition.)
• “Field independent cognition." (Where one can sort of separate itself from the field, and then cherry pick bits and pieces to focus on.)
• Indigenous governance models.
• An indigenous sort of way of being that is deeply relational.

About the Mindplex Podcast:

The Mindplex Podcast ponders AGI, cutting-edge technologies and the evolution of human consciousness. Its mission is to interview a wide variety of interesting thinkers - BOTH human and synthetic - to investigate and better understand the complex topics of our time.

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