LOVED the analysis of happiness in regards to survival vs deeper thought with extra time (around 40 minutes in) Although I am curious to hear more about that-thinking of thoughts I've heard from Wendell Berry (and CK Chesteron I think?) regarding the inner peace that can happen through working with you hands. As an intellectual worker (high school math teacher) there's a soothing aspect to working with my hands in my free time. The innovators vs government (roughly 65 minutes in) is also interesting. It brings to mind for me how I hold some personal morals and/or ethics that I recognize might not be possible or realistic on a government level, matching much of what you said here (I think) Really loved this miniseries, especially in view of this channel originally hooking me by it's backwards gaze (fiber working, spinning, weaving, etc) being juxtaposed by this conversation of moving forward and into the future!

44:38 these are golden points

Your exploration of meaning that began at 38:40 was one of the more eloquent things I've heard in a long while. Setting the table with "The void gazes back at you" to later speak of the empty search for meaning had me nodding my head. I'm clipping that section and sending it to some people, because I think it fairly balances speculation with evolutionary prerogatives in its examination of the modern problem. The only thing I'd hope to add would be that it might be unfair to expect humans to have to train themselves to resist impulses. Not that we shouldn't do it; just that it is unfair. Our ancestors (10,000+ years ago, prior to agriculture) lived entire lives mostly seeking a sort of satisfaction and either realizing that satisfaction when they got the thing, or failing to get the thing. For a human to function in this kind of abundance is a certain kind of torture that nobody could have expected.

1:23:06 "creative disruption" guy

Have either of you heard of Friedrich List's national system of political economy? I've been trying to find time to read it and would be interested in hearing your thoughts on it as an economic alternative to capitalism and socialism.