For many years, specifically in Western culture, we have overlooked the scientific and cultural impact of human feeling. USC neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio argues feelings and emotions are what make up human intelligence, consciousness, and the capacity for cultural creation. Thus when we look to engineering and policy solutions to our ecological collapse based on artificial intelligence and computational brain power, we get lost along the way. By adopting a biological understanding of feeling, we can create a framework to advance the resilience of living systems.
Threats to democracy, autonomy, diversity and culture are evident around the globe, amidst a rise in autocratic leaders and the forwarding of globalist, nationalistic, corporate and/or elitist agendas. How to manifest the world of our dreams? How to advance the causes of justice, equality, freedom and true, compassionate regard for all life? How might we create systems of governance that actually support the common good?
Max Henning, Neuroscientist and President of Novus Think Tank [https://www.maxahenning.com/], and former student of Dr. Damasio, is here to shed light on why the future of humanity depends upon our reconnection to and biological understanding of feeling and how it serves as the underpinning for a vibrant, resilient democracy and an engaged citizenry that supports it.
Max Henning believes that a new model of human nature, based on recent research on emotion and feeling, is critical for building a flourishing and resilient future. Max began his career as a neuroscientist at USC, where he worked with Dr. Antonio Damasio, studying the molecular and evolutionary basis of feeling, emotion, and social behavior. Inspired by his research, about the potential for cooperative problem-solving, he founded Novus Think Tank, an organization for bottom-up, community-driven positive change. He is currently working on bringing this model of bottom-up governance to the public sphere, and is currently a graduate student in Democracy and Governance at Georgetown University.
Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.
01-16-2023
- KBOO