In love with radio 4...
"The history of mankind in the last three hundred years has been punctuated by major upheavals in human thought that we call scientific revolutions - upheavals that have profoundly affected the way in which we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. First there was the Copernican revolution - the notion that far from being the centre of the universe, our planet is a mere speck of dust revolving around the sun. Then there was the Darwinian revolution culminating in the view that we are not angels but merely hairless apes, as Huxley once pointed out in this very room. And third there was Freud's discovery of the "unconscious" - the idea that even though we claim to be in charge of our destinies, most of our behaviour is governed by a cauldron of motives and emotions which we are barely conscious of. Your conscious life, in short, is nothing but an elaborate post-hoc rationalisation of things you really do for other reasons."
So starts the BBC's Reith lecture series for 2003 - broadcast a couple of months ago on BBC Radio 4. The topic of the lectures was "The Emerging Mind", and they were delivered by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. They make for fascinating listening and are very much recommended.
But perhaps more impressive than the lectures themselves is that every single one of them is still available for download on Radio 4's site. And they're of eminently listenable quality, even if they're in RealAudio format. And it's not only the Reith Lectures that are online - in fact, almost every radio programme played on the station in recent months remains available. And there are a hell of a lot of those programmes covering all the major subject areas - all ready to be listened to on demand. Here's some to be going along with: News, Drama, Comedy, Science, Religion and History...
If I sound over-excited, it's because - bluntly - I am. I've never been a devoted acolyte of the station, but now I can easily cherry-pick precisely what interests me it's becoming easier to see the appeal. For example - what other station would have a weekly programme dedicated to the history of ideas? And would that programme routinely have in such figures as Steven Pinker or Adam Philips and Malcolm Bowie for round-table debates. What other station would manage to have two separate series about interesting numbers: 5 numbers and Another 5 numbers - as presented by Simon Singh.
I know I'm coming into this late. I know that everyone else in the UK is going to look at me funny and point out that I should have been paying more attention several months ago. But dammit! I'm as impressed by this as when Pathe News put all its archives online.
P.S. If anyone can remember which writer it was that first described Galileo, Darwin and Freud as thinkers who decentred man from his view first of cosmology, biology and finally from his view of his own mind, then can you let me know. It's driving me mad...
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
I like that Simon Singh. I ended up with an autographed copy of Fermat's Last Theorem (picked it up at Heffer's the day after he had been by to talk and sign) and thought is was one of the best pop science books I'd read.
Re the idea in your post-script: I first heard that in a conversation at ETCon, but don't remember who said it now. Maybe you?
→ Posted by: Stewart Buttefield at June 5, 2003 12:42 AM
Welcome to the slippery slope of Radio 4.
→ Posted by: Tom Morris at June 5, 2003 1:22 AM
I knew this would happen once you crossed the threshold of thirty. Expect recipes and gardening on plasticbag real soon now!!
→ Posted by: Ian a at June 5, 2003 1:42 AM
Several months ago? I think that should be years ago! Welcome to the fan club.
Re Seven Pinker, no big deal. Self promotion is his greatest talent. If you go to his website you will see ample evidence of his devotion to the BBC along with most other media outlets in the developed world. On the page called "engagements" or something similar.
→ Posted by: qB at June 5, 2003 9:25 AM
I was involved in the process for setting up the Audio on Demand service at BBCi (I look after Radio Scotland online's broadcasts).
It was no mean feat - and the infrastructure required for it is huge - not to mention the bandwidth needed.
But it is a fantastic service, and attributed to a massive increase in visitor traffic to BBCi as a result.
Just wait until television programmes are available on-demand.....
→ Posted by: Martin at June 5, 2003 10:29 AM
....i thought we were keeping that a secret ;-)
→ Posted by: the other BBCi martin at June 5, 2003 11:35 PM
I live out in Chile, I am an expat, and well having access to Radio1 and 4 out here is a godsend. What I am waiting for is the TV to be browsable in the same way, I imagine the tech is there, just not the business model. It would be something I would pay for.
I like the comment about over 30, I too have reached that old age.
→ Posted by: eanws at June 6, 2003 2:02 AM
This weekend it's imperative to keep a check on the growth in the garden. the mixtur eof rain and sunshine ha smade the plants, bushes, grass grow.
Don't forget to dead head the roses.
→ Posted by: Gert at June 6, 2003 1:07 PM
Two thoughts. 1. Over here, NOVA ran a great documentary called From Ramachandran's Notebook, which, of course reminded me of Oliver Sacks' books. Damn interesting. 2. While I hear it is not as stunning as 20 years ago, the CBC still produces really good stuff and their archives are brilliant.
→ Posted by: Anne Galloway at June 6, 2003 3:28 PM
I believe it was Freud who humbly suggested that the three greatest scientific revolutions were those that decentred humanity: Galileo (or was it Copernicus?), Darwin, and Freud himself.
→ Posted by: Dustin at June 8, 2003 8:15 AM
You know - part of the reason I asked the question was because I had a sneaking suspicion that that was the case. I used to study Freud so I have a lot of his words swilling around in the back of my head at all times. I wonder what that means - it's interesting that Ramachandran decided to quote it as fact. More interesting still that he actually fouled up the begining of that lecture by saying that after those three, the greatest revolution was going to be the revolution of why humans behave the way they do. I think Freud may have been surprised to find out that his revolution wasn't anything to do with the mind... I'm going to assume that the quote - if it is indeed from Freud - is probably in his introductory lectures to psychoanalysis. I don't have them with me in London though - so if anyone can find them, I'd really appreciate it...
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at June 8, 2003 10:18 AM