The Singularity Project Podcast

Impertinent Questions and Pertinent Answers The AI Revolution Is Here. Will the Economy Survive the Transition? Subscribe now “Ask an impertinent question and you are on the way to the pertinent answer.”– Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man , Episode 4, “The Hidden Structure” With this iconic line, Jacob Bronowski concludes his essay tracing John Dalton’s development of atomic theory - the discover...

We are engaged in the most important process and discussion in human history and yet the key term — Intelligence — remains undefined. We speak of “Artificial Intelligence” and yet we only assume that we agree on what both “Artificial” and “Intelligence” mean. Humanity is at the end of an approximately 50,000 year evolutionary arc. Our first evolutionary stage, Cognitive Evolution, lasted from appr...

The Ascent of Man, Episode 7: The Majestic Clockwork (Part 1) Episode 7, “The Majestic Clockwork,” follows how Newton and then Einstein tried to read the universe as a great mechanism, mapping the motions of the planets and the falling of apples into precise mathematical laws. Bronowski moves from Greenwich and the age of accurate clocks to Newton’s gravitation and Einstein’s thought experiment of...

The Ascent of Man (Episode 6): The Starry Messenger (Part Two)Episode 6, “The Starry Messenger,” traces how astronomy became the engine of the scientific revolution, following Galileo as he turns his telescope to the skies and discovers moons around Jupiter and mountains on the Moon—evidence that shatters the old, perfectly ordered Ptolemaic cosmos. Bronowski uses Galileo’s book Sidereus Nuncius a...

Episode 6, “The Starry Messenger,” traces how astronomy became the engine of the scientific revolution, following Galileo as he turns his telescope to the skies and discovers moons around Jupiter and mountains on the Moon—evidence that shatters the old, perfectly ordered Ptolemaic cosmos. Bronowski uses Galileo’s book Sidereus Nuncius and his trial before the Inquisition to explore the clash betwe...

Episode 5, “Music of the Spheres,” follows the birth of mathematical thinking from Pythagoras’s discovery that musical harmony is governed by simple ratios to the idea that number is the hidden language of nature. Bronowski moves from monochords and early Greek proofs to Islamic astronomy, Moorish tilings at the Alhambra, Renaissance perspective, and modern physics, showing how proofs, exact laws,...

The Ascent of Man with Jacob Bronowski Episode 4, “The Hidden Structure,” follows humanity’s quest to see beneath the surface of things, from the first controlled use of fire and early metalworking to the mystical experiments of the alchemists, asking how heat and transformation reveal the inner order of matter. Bronowski moves through furnaces, forges, and laboratories to trace a line from Promet...

Episode 3, “The Grain in the Stone,” explores how the interaction of hand and brain turns raw matter into tools, buildings, and sculptures, revealing the hidden “grain” or structure of nature that human skill learns to read and reshape. Bronowski moves from natural rock formations and early stonework to Roman and Gothic arches and great cathedrals, showing how geometry, balance, and the craftsman’...

Episode 2, “The Harvest of the Seasons,” follows humanity’s step from wandering hunter‑gatherers to settled agricultural societies, showing how the control of grain, animals, and water reshaped time, work, and power. Bronowski tracks seasonal migration with the Bakhtiari of Iran, then moves to early towns like Jericho and the first great river civilizations, tracing how surplus, storage, and irrig...

The Ascent of Man (Episode 1, Part 2): Lower Than The Angels Jacob Bronowski’s classic 1973 opener to The Ascent of Man traces our journey from early hominids on the African savanna to tool‑making, hunting, and symbolic imagination in the caves of prehistoric Europe, asking what truly makes us human beyond mere animal instinct. It’s a sweeping meditation on evolution, cooperation, language, and th...

Lower Than The Angels (Part 1) Jacob Bronowski’s classic 1973 opener to The Ascent of Man traces our journey from early hominids on the African savanna to tool‑making, hunting, and symbolic imagination in the caves of prehistoric Europe, asking what truly makes us human beyond mere animal instinct. It’s a sweeping meditation on evolution, cooperation, language, and the birth of science, filmed on...