'Free speech is more of a human right and a relief valve than the existential threat it is sometimes made out to be'
A negative frame of mind might be innate, cosmological or even just though habit. Awareness of this, and remembering the good things in life, can change this. It can be a choice.
Reading the news can be so demoralizing: climate change, war, fires, epidemics, rogue AI, mental health challenges, authoritarianism, extreme partisanship. But humans need hope. In order for us to create a positive future, we need to be able to have hope that there can be a positive future. What is the “Case for Optimism” over the next decades? What can we look forward to and hope for to help us strive for a more positive future?
In this series, we aim to explore and highlight the positive aspects, potential breakthroughs, and reasons for optimism that lie ahead in the coming decade and beyond. We are talking to authors, researchers, entrepreneurs, scientists, futurists, and other experts who can shed light on the exciting advancements, innovations, and opportunities that await us. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Bw Parker.
Sean Bw Parker is a masters-qualified, award-winning writer, artist and musician based in the UK. He has published 8 books, contributed to 6 more, and released a number of albums since 2005. He gave a TED talk titled ‘Stammering and Creativity’ in Istanbul in 2013, and has just released his 8th album Caucasian Nights.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Iwas born to a drama lecturer father and speech therapist mother in Exeter, Devon in 1975, but moved to Carmarthenshire in South Wales after they divorced in 1984. I had a semi-rural childhood, with farm smallholding animals for company as much as friends.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.
Read more at The Authority: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/sean-bw-parker-on-the-case-for-optimism-about-the-next-ten-twenty-years-434911bfcee6