Jason Silva is a Venezuelan-born filmmaker, futurist and TV presenter, born in Caracas in 1982, best known for his YouTube series Shots of Awe and for co-hosting National Geographic’s Brain Games. He calls himself a techno-optimist and makes short, fast-paced films about technology, creativity and the human condition.
Brian Rose has interviewed Silva twice on London Real, in 2013 and 2018. They have talked about the Singularity, death anxiety, awe, flow states, psychedelics and what he calls ecstatic technologies, and his hope that technology can expand human consciousness.
Each interview is listed below with a short summary.
Transform Your Consciousness (2018). The longer, more developed version of his ideas on awe, flow and technology. For his early thinking on the Singularity, watch Shots of Awe (2013).
Short clip: Success Secrets (from Transform Your Consciousness, 2018).
Silva believes technologies such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology can extend human abilities and experience. Speaking in 2013, he described humanity as becoming like gods through its tools.
Drawing on the writer Ernest Becker, Silva argues that much of human behaviour, from art to ambition, is a response to our awareness that we will die.
In 2018 he talked about awe as a state that breaks people out of routine thinking, and about flow, the state of total absorption that elite athletes and artists reach. He wants to help people experience both more often.
Silva uses the term ecstatic technologies for tools that change consciousness, from music and film to psychedelics. He discussed research into their responsible use, including work on PTSD.
Jason Silva is a Venezuelan-born filmmaker, futurist and TV presenter, born in Caracas in 1982. He is best known for his Shots of Awe videos and for co-hosting National Geographic’s Brain Games.
In two interviews in 2013 and 2018, Silva talked about the Singularity, death anxiety, awe, flow states, psychedelics and his view that technology can expand human consciousness.
Start with Transform Your Consciousness from 2018 for his most developed ideas. Watch Shots of Awe from 2013 for his early thinking on the Singularity.
Twice, in June 2013 and November 2018. A short Success Secrets clip comes from the 2018 interview.
Shots of Awe is Jason Silva’s series of short YouTube films, launched in 2013, which he describes as philosophical espresso shots on technology, creativity and the human condition.
He co-hosted National Geographic’s Brain Games from 2013 and presented the 2017 National Geographic series Origins. Earlier he was a presenter on Current TV.
Official site: thisisjasonsilva.com
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