--- title: "Chronodiversity, other minds, and the temporal dimensions of consciousness – Five conversations that will stretch your imagination!" subtitle: "Launching a new series of occasional conversations between creative and visionary thinkers" author: "Andrew Maynard" date: 2024-03-10 original: https://www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/chronodiversity-other-minds-and-the mirror: https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/chronodiversity-other-minds-and-the.html --- # Chronodiversity, other minds, and the temporal dimensions of consciousness – Five conversations that will stretch your imagination! *Launching a new series of occasional conversations between creative and visionary thinkers* By Andrew Maynard · March 10, 2024 · [Original post](https://www.futureofbeinghuman.com/p/chronodiversity-other-minds-and-the) --- *[Image: Image: Midjourney — [view image](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7cfce19a-c2e9-4b60-ba7d-40fdf8e0853d_1456x816.png)]* A few weeks ago I co-hosted the acclaimed conceptual artist and experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats through ASU’s Future of Being Human initiative — my co-hosts were colleagues at ASU’s [Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science](https://beyond.asu.edu/). The theme of the visit was “Chronodiversity, other minds, and the temporal dimensions of consciousness” — heady stuff! As part of Jonathon’s time with us, we recorded five conversations between creative thinkers that broadly touched on themes of time, consciousness, and “chronodiversity” (essentially encapsulating different ways in which organisms experience time), and consciousness — four of them with Jonathon and guests, and a kick-off one with the physicist and best-selling author Professor Paul Davies, and theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Professor Sara Walker. These conversations were so rich and engaging that we decided to use them to launch an occasional series of audio posts here on the Future of Being Human Substack — and rather audaciously (foolishly even) I thought, why not post them all in the same week! There *is* method in my madness here — when taken together, these conversations have a coherence and meaning when listened to closely together that would be lost if they were spread out too thinly. As a result, I’ll be posting one conversation each day this week — you should be getting them direct to your email in-box if you’re subscribed. I should be very clear at this point that these are the antithesis of the sort of content that dominates today’s attention economy. They are intimate conversations between thoughtful people that take time to unfold as they share and explore their ideas with each other. And as they do we are, in effect, privileged metaphorical flys on the wall to their thoughts. To me, this makes the conversations utterly compelling. None of the guests knew beforehand where the conversations would go, or how they might end. In some cases, these people had never met each other before they sat down in front of the microphones. As a result there is a remarkable level of vulnerability and authenticity in the resulting recordings. This was aided by the conversations being recorded in the Future of Being Human multipurpose space at Arizona State University — a space purposely designed to foster relaxed and serendipitous conversation. If you listen carefully you can hear the “atmosphere” of life at the university just outside the windows — which only adds to the intimacy! *[Image: Paul Davies and Sara Walker in discussion, with myself and my colleague Sean Leahy listening in! — [view image](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/69db2749-2da4-483f-939e-e82a704a2b83_3840x2160.png)]* I’d also add that the participants in this series of recordings represent a stellar cast of experts in their fields (maybe myself excepted), and an amazing diversity of thought and ideas — as you can see from the lineup below. Some of these names will be very familiar to many of you — and where they’re not, I’d encourage you to check their bios by following the links. I do hope you find these conversations as compelling as I did. We’ll occasionally be adding to this series as we have the opportunity to invite others to share their thoughts and ideas together. --- ### The lineup: #### Monday [Paul Davies](https://cosmos.asu.edu/) and [Sara Walker](https://search.asu.edu/profile/1731899) on *Consciousness, Awareness, and Time’s Arrow*. [[Link](https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/in-conversation-with-paul-davies-and-sara-walker.html)] #### Tuesday [Jonathon Keats](https://berggruen.org/people/jonathon-keats) and [Ron Broglio](https://www.ronbroglio.com/) on *Chronodiversity and Biodiversity*. [[Link](https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/in-conversation-with-keats-and-broglio.html)] #### Wednesday [Mark Klett](https://www.markklett.com/) and [Jonathon Keats](https://berggruen.org/people/jonathon-keats) on *Time Machines, Millennium Cameras, and Other Philosophical Instruments for Mental Time Travel*. [[Link](https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/mark-klett-and-jonathon-keats-on.html)] #### Thursday [Jonathon Keats](https://berggruen.org/people/jonathon-keats) and [Andrew Maynard](http://andrewmaynard.net) on *The Promise and Perils of Longtermism*. [[Link](https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/jonathon-keats-and-andrew-maynard.html)[ #### **Friday** [Liz Lerman](https://lizlerman.com/) and [Jonathon Keats](https://berggruen.org/people/jonathon-keats) on *The Art of Memory and the Act of Being Present*. [[Link](https://text.futureofbeinghuman.com/substack/liz-lerman-and-jonathon-keats-on.html)] --- --- *This Markdown file is a text-only version of “Chronodiversity, other minds, and the temporal dimensions of consciousness – Five conversations that will stretch your imagination!” by Andrew Maynard, from The Future of Being Human (). The original post at is the canonical version. Images, video, audio and interactive elements are indicated inline and available in the original. © Andrew Maynard.*