The Dead Hand and the Living Will

We go a little deeper on the theme of The General, the opposing forces of psychohistorical determinism vs the futile efforts of Bel Riose to exert his free will against it. Bringing this into our current universe, we talk about Thomas Carlisle's "Great Man" theory of history and some of the pushback against it. Your host then takes it into the personal realm with some reflections on a couple of modern candidates for "Great Man" status in reflecting on his past.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Great Man Theory of History (Wikipedia)

‘The smartest person in any room anywhere’: in defence of Elon Musk, by Douglas Coupland (Guardian)

The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (Amazon)
Kim Stanley Robinson: a climate plan for a world in flames (Financial Times)

Why Go to Space? To Save Humanity … and Our Earth, by Wilson da Silva (Medium)

The Mars Society (Website)

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