Bliss, Wonder and Awe with a Side of Baloney
Bliss, Wonder & Awe
with a Side of Baloney.
Jason Silva · @jasonsilva
"Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars."
The climax of Jason Silva's Bliss, Wonder and Awe live talk in Los Angeles was when he quoted Flaubert: "Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars." He delivered it ecstatically. People nodded. And then, outside afterwards, several of those same nodding people told me they had absolutely no idea what the point of the talk was, while still queuing to get a selfie. This is, I think, the most interesting thing about Jason Silva: not what he says, but what he makes people feel they're thinking.
Listening to him is fun and also exhausting. He rambles at high speed through abstract pseudo-scientific commentary while people nod along not wanting to look confused, which, if we are being honest, I occasionally was. Most of the time I am not entirely sure he understands everything he is saying, and I suspect he would find that observation interesting rather than offensive. That is part of what makes him compelling.
He touched on humans as insatiable wanting beings, and how scientific and technological development is happening too fast to comprehend in a holistic way. This is true and important and worth an entire evening's conversation. He touched on FLOW, and made the point that philosophy is his cognitive turn-on.
- He has introduced Flaubert and Csikszentmihalyi to millions who would not have found them otherwise
- He is genuinely, infectiously excited about ideas in a moment when that excitement is rare
- He makes thinking feel desirable, even cinematic
- He got a room full of people to queue for an autograph after a philosophy talk. That is something.
- The speed and confidence can function as a substitute for depth
- The audience nods along partly because disagreeing would require keeping up
- Abstract pseudo-science at high volume is still abstract pseudo-science
- Several thoughtful people left with no idea what the point was. That is also something.
What I keep coming back to is that the cracked kettle metaphor is the most honest thing in the whole talk. We are all tapping on it. We all long to make music that melts the stars. The question is whether performing that longing at high speed with good lighting is the same thing as doing something about it.
He is also, genuinely, someone who loves ideas. You can feel that. And in a world where most people in a room are performing their certainty rather than their curiosity, someone performing their wonder is not nothing. It might be something. Even if I am not always sure what.
"I only ever wanted the film to be about someone's unique way of looking at the world, that we all see things differently." This is actually Jason Silva's best line, and it applies to the evening itself.
The better version of the evening is the question he left us with: what is your cognitive turn-on? Not his. Yours. What is the thing that makes you feel the way Flaubert made him feel? What is the cracked kettle you tap on, and what is the music you are longing to make?
That question is the talk. Everything else was the setup. And if you have to quote Flaubert ecstatically at a room full of people to get them to ask it of themselves, maybe the cracked kettle is the point after all.
Jason Silva is a Venezuelan-American filmmaker, philosopher, and futurist best known for hosting the Emmy-nominated National Geographic series Brain Games. He is also widely recognized as the creator of Shots of Awe, a viral digital video series of micro-documentaries exploring creativity, technology, and human consciousness.
Whether Jason Silva is a "phoney" is a common debate. Fans see him as a brilliant "performance philosopher" and techno-optimist who synthesizes big ideas into accessible, inspiring videos. Critics find his fast-talking, hyper-enthusiastic style and use of philosophical buzzwords to be overly dramatic, superficial, or self-indulgent. The style-over-substance tension, the relentless techno-optimism, the highly curated camera-ready philosophy. These are the charges. They are not entirely wrong. They are also not the whole story.
Jason Silva and the Performance of Wonder
Silva's work is arguably closer to an artist than a philosopher. His videos are not academic lectures. They are mood pieces. Digital performances. Existential collages. A mashup of Terence McKenna, Marshall McLuhan and motivational speaking. People expecting a university lecture or feeling inspired become frustrated. People expecting a piece of performance art served with a side of charm and good looks often love him.
So, what is your cognitive turn-on?
Stay curious,
Leila Antakly