DigiBarn TV: Maze War on Imlac, demo (2004) Dr. Bruce Damer 2011-04-20 | DigiBarn TV: Maze War on Imlac, demo (2004)
Preserving Worlds-Active Worlds walkthrough: Bruce Damer, Derek Murphy & Mitchell Zemil (2022-04-12) Dr. Bruce Damer 2023-11-02 | Preserving Worlds-Active Worlds FULLINTERVIEW: Bruce Damer with Derek Murphy & Mitchell Zemil (2022-04-12) for MEANS TV documentary. Raw footage (complete) of a 3D virtual world walkthrough and interview (with voice) conducted with avatar cyberspace pioneer/organizer and Contact Consortium co-founder Dr. Bruce Damer. Visited on this tour are the actual historical 3D community built worlds content in AlphaWorld (Sherwood Forest Town), the dedicated world Avatars98: Inside Cyberspace, site of the world's first cyber-conference/convention and subsequent Avatars cyberconference worlds (AV2000, 2001, 2003). Location of produced documentary from this raw footage: means.tv/programs/204-activeworlds
The Silver Spire Dr. Bruce Damer 2022-11-06 | The Silver Spire is a depiction of the through-line from the great blast of the cosmogenesis, to the forging of elements into rocky worlds, to the origin of life, its evolution into complex forms, the arising of conscious self awareness and beyond to unity awareness. Along the way, spirals represent the prime driver: the high quality energy of sunlight bathing the Earth with every new dawn. From its origination in cycling hot spring pools and throughout its evolution the core code "P-I-M" (Probability-Interconnection-Memory) executes and generates exquisite and vast instantiations of novelty. PIM also spins off a collective "field" of detritus, interbinding networks, stored signals, and a gargantuan memorome of genes and the products of thought, memes. The density of this field supports awareness and synchrony between life forms and could account for much of what we refer to as the mystical experience. After several billion years of climbing, near the top of the spire self-awareness (the eye) opens in some animals, including us. We are selected to carry on the journey from there to an even higher state, unity awareness. The path to unity winds through stressful but extraordinary probabilistic paths made available by the collective field. Flashes of unity consciousness come to more human beings as they use tools and practices. When their awareness merges with the field itself, they can finally see, through science and the knowing of the mystic, their origins in deep time. Knowing how they were made and their place in the cosmos brings a sense of deep peace and completion. Speaking for and from the spire itself, human beings ask the universe to pay attention to what has arisen. We then notice a dark shadow moving around the base of the spire which threatens to shatter it and bring down the entire beautiful structure. This is the second law of thermodynamics and a prerogative of the universe, but it is also a darkness in our own natures. We learn that the only way to safeguard all that has arisen is to keep our attention on this darkness, never straying, and it is kept at bay, or even moves away. We then sense that, for the first time, we truly. hold the agency of our futures and vow to safeguard and steward the precious cargo of complex life of which we are a product.Sketch by Bruce Damer, computer rendering by Ryan Norkus and animation by Aaron Thayne.
We Said Yes! 8.29.2022 Dr. Bruce Damer 2022-09-29 | Kathryn & Bruce's wedding and honeymoon adventure!
ESPD 55 Dr. Bruce Damer presents Its High Time For Science (5/25/2022) Dr. Bruce Damer 2022-07-20 | Dr. Bruce Damer presents: It’s High Time for Science: Psychedelics as Tools for Scientific DiscoveryAt ESPD '55, May 25, 2022 @ St. Giles House, Dorset, England UK.From Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein to today, Science has relied upon its own brand of “mystical experience” to make substantial progress. For certain kinds of minds, intense downloads of visionary experiences arrive at opportune moments to transform a long-sought inquiry into discoveries which change history. It might be argued that these endogenously-sourced experiences bear some resemblance to a tryptamine trance. In 1966, James Fadiman published the first pilot study of creative problem solving with groups of engineers after exogenously-ingesting psychedelics such as LSD. Perhaps it is now possible to synergize these two sources of visionary states to achieve even more potent products of human intellect? Dr. Damer will recount his own experimentation in this realm which led to the conception and publication of an internationally recognized hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth, and how it can arise elsewhere in the universe. Long a tool for artists and musicians, could psychedelics refined with endogenous practices yield a high-octane fuel to advance science and engineering? If so, this capability will come just in time to tackle the hard problems of human and planetary survival.
iPhone clips from NHK Japan Deamer/Damer Dr. Bruce Damer 2022-02-16 | Origin of life science carried out at Fly Geyser, Nevada by David Deamer and Bruce Damer for NHK TV Japan
Dr. Bruce Damer on Terence McKenna@21 in Clubhouse (Aaron Thayne) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-11-02 | Dr. Bruce Damer in a Clubhouse talk on the life of Terence McKenna on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of his passing (or 'boundary dissolution') in April 2000. Set to music and graphics by Aaron Thayne. Bruce also discusses some of the questions Terence and he shared in the 90s and where they have come to today in April 2021.
DigiBarn TV: Daniel Kottke boots his Apple1 replica on his original monitor (Aug 3, 2021) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-08-31 | Daniel Kottke visits the DigiBarn Computer Museum with his collaborator Will Glass and boots his Apple1 replica on his original monitor (Aug 3, 2021) for a rapt audience. Many stories of early Apple follow.
SHEPHERD by Dr. Peter Jenniskens technical intro (SETI talks excerpt) Asteroid Day June 30, 2015 Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-06-21 | The SHEPHERD spacecraft is described in this first ever technical talk by Dr. Peter Jenniskens, asteroid astronomer at the SETI Institute. This was a second talk in a special session held on Asteroid Day June 30, 2015 with Michael Busch (who appears in the Q&A). Thanks to SETI Institute for providing this video to the SHEPHERD project.
Movie of a volcanic hot spring geyser feeding a pool on an Archaean island (2X) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-06-03 | Movie of a volcanic hot spring geyser feeding a pool on an Archaean island (2X)
Levity Salon #11: Terence (McKenna) Day 2021 a Discussion of his Life and Thought Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-05-09 | The Levity Salon presents: Terence McKenna, his Life and Thought held on Zoom on Saturday April the 3rd, 2021. This was the 21st anniversary of the Bard of Psychedelia’s passing back in 2000. We not only celebrated "International Boundary Dissolution Day" but looked forward to how Terence’s legacy has influenced our world at the outset of this new decade. The first 30 minutes featured a share by Dr. Bruce Damer on his personal experiences with Terence and subsequent work inspired by their conversations in the 90s. Then, some exquisite insights were shared by others including thoughts from Psychedelic Salon host Lorenzo Hagerty, Terence’s archivist Kevin Whitesides, longtime friend Jacques Olivier, and of course Terence’s brother Dennis. We all waxed (and sometimes rapped) on his ideas and of some profound lessons learned from his passing (his own personal “boundary dissolution”). Editing and titling graciously and skillfully by Aaron Thayne, along with cool cover graphics. Thanks to Denis McKenna and the McKenna Academy for their participation. Reach them at: mckenna.academy and Dr. Bruce Damer at: www.damer.com.
075-LevityZone: Boundary Dissolution Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-04-16 | Dr. Bruce returns for the first Levity Zone of 2021 to mark "Terence Day" celebrating 21 years since entheo-raconteur Terence McKenna passed through the azure veil on April 3rd, 2000. Terence's call to dissolve the boundaries which separate us inspired this rap on how humanity might move forward with healing the trauma beneath these divisions. Since Terence's time we know these boundaries better than ever and the little inner personalities within which can sometimes drive us to be less than our better natures. Next, taking up where Terence left off with his notions of novelty, Dr. Bruce recounts his past two decades of work to characterize how the universe could build its complexity through a formulaic "wiggle", and how this insight led to the "Hot Spring Hypothesis" for the origin of life. So, join us now for this special recounting recorded from Dr. Bruce's presentation to a room in the Clubhouse app celebrating "International Boundary Dissolution Day." Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting and recording) and Aaron Thayne (editing, music layering, cover art), photo of Bruce and Terence by Galen Brandt. [released 15 April, 2021]
Part 2: Dr. Bruce Damer on The Origins of Life at the Shaw River, Australia (Jul 22, 2015 UNSW) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-03-16 | Prof. Malcolm Walter introduces Prof. David Deamer and Dr. Bruce Damer for a two part casual scientific talk on "The Origins of Life" held at the Strelley Pool, stromatolite discovery outcrop on the banks of the Shaw River in Pilbara Shire, Western Australia... Part 2-Bruce Damer. Hosted by the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Recorded and produced by Dr. Tara Djokic (record date: July 22, 2015).
Part 1: Prof. David Deamer on The Origins of Life at the Shaw River, Australia (Jul 22, 2015 UNSW) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-03-16 | Prof. Malcolm Walter introduces Prof. David Deamer and Dr. Bruce Damer for a two part casual scientific talk on "The Origins of Life" held at the Strelley Pool, stromatolite discovery outcrop on the banks of the Shaw River in Pilbara Shire, Western Australia... Part 1-David Deamer. Hosted by the Australian Centre for Astrobiology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Recorded and produced by Dr. Tara Djokic (record date: July 22, 2015).
Dr. Bruce Damer at the Dayalbagh Ed. Inst. Science of Consciousness Conference (Jan 1, 2021). Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-03-01 | Title: From mechanism to metaphysics to meaning, a new view of consciousness sourced in the science of life's originsRecent discoveries from the science of the origin of life informs a new view of how the living world began and then evolved into the deeply interconnected and complex medium we now experience. After four billion years of stacked evolution, the collective living aggregate now sits far from equilibrium, high up on an extraordinary potential gradient. It is hypothesized that the sheer size of the systems operating the living world together with an enormous accumulated probabilistic potential lies behind remarkable outcomes including the non-ordinary conscious experiences described by mystics throughout history. I will attempt to provide a step-by step description of this hypothesis starting with the mechanism of life’s origins in geochemically cycled protocells, to the emergence of metaphysics, the properties of interconnected living molecular systems, and conclude by offering predictions how we might fill the substantial remaining gaps of understanding to address fundamental questions of meaning. This quest to address meaning could provide an explanatory model of consciousness and together with it, new tools to shape the future of human civilization.Credits: thanks to KS Daya, Prem and Madhan Trimulai and the staff of Dayalbagh for hosting and Aaron Thayne for editing this piece. Bio:Dr. Bruce Damer is an Astrobiologist with the UC Santa Cruz Department of Biomolecular Engineering. He has a computer science background and has collaborated for over a decade with Prof. David Deamer on developing and testing a new hypothesis for how life began on the Earth. He also has 20 years of experience working with NASA and other space agencies on designs for new spacecraft for the detection of life in the Solar System and for extending human civilization beyond the Earth. Recently he has become interested in how recent scientific evidence for the mechanism of life’s origins might provide new understanding for its subsequent evolution and the arising of the human world and conscious experience.A more detailed description with resources of Dr. Damer's life and work can be found at his personal site: http://www.damer.com
Levity Salon #10: Remarkable Times (Dr. Bruce Damer and discussants) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-02-26 | Levity Salon #10: Remarkable Times (Dr. Bruce Damer and discussants)Remarkable Times was the theme for Levity Salon #10, held back on the 15th of December, 2020. Amidst tumultuous times, unforgivable acts in politics and tremendous stresses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, remarkable times and innovations are still happening. Dr. Bruce summarizes his optimism for humanity by reviewing 2020's stand out tech accomplishments including: the Hayabusa-2 asteroid sample return, to Starship SN8's belly-flop, to coming COVID vaccines, and a reorientation of society post-COVID. He also covered exciting developments from his own world, including coverage of our origin of life science in a feature article in Nature, and new implications of the discoveries for several branches of human endeavor. This was followed by a spirited discussion of several of our regulars (and some new people) including a report from a member dialing in from Yap, Micronesia (where exactly is Yap??). Thanks go out to Aaron Thayne for your skillful edits and Shen-Shen Wu for again hosting!
March 1996: Conversations at Intermedia SF, First Avatars at CONTACT Conference Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-01-31 | Two events in March 1996: (1) Conversations at Intermedia SF with Tony Bove, Michael Morgan, John "Crunch" Draper & Wes Thomas, interlude at Rainbow Ridge in Boulder Creek. (2) Mar 8th CONTACT Conference where Bruce Damer hosted first ever symposium featuring the avatar worlds with discussants Maclen Marvit, Bonnie Nardi, Mitch Waldrop, Jim Funaro and others. Roger & Nancy Zuidema and Epona COTI world featured. Full details at: ccon.org/org/eevents.html#symp
Avatars98: Inside Cyberspace, more screen captures (Nov 21, 1998) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-01-30 | More screen captures of movement around the Avatars98 cyberconference hall with active users. Recorded on November 21, 1998 by Allan Lundell (Virtual World Studios, Boulder Creek CA) with Bonnie DeVarco (avatar name: Hypatia), Galen Brandt (avatar name: AuntieGalen). Encounters with Bruce Damer (avatar name: DigiGardener). Active worlds technology employed by users and members of the Contact Consortium to create this first ever online conference and convention in a 3D space on the Internet.
Avatars98: Inside Cyberspace, the first avatar cyberconference (Nov 21, 1998) Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-01-30 | A live screen capture of the world's first "cyberconference" with up to 800 simultaneous users represented as avatars in the Avatars98 conference hall hosted in Active Worlds on November 21, 1998. Creator of the event was the Contact Consortium chaired by Bruce Damer with dozens of volunteers building the space, talking, hosting art, webcams and special events. Background narration by Allan Lundell, Bonnie DeVarco and others as they screen captured this from Rainbow Ridge in Boulder Creek, CA.
Earth to Avatars Outtakes Oct 26-27, 1996 Dr. Bruce Damer 2021-01-30 | Outtakes from the seminal Earth to Avatars conference hosted by the Contact Consortium (founder Bruce Damer) and held in San Francisco on Oct 26-27th, 1996. Featured in the video are Bay Area cyberians helping birth the new media of avatar virtual worlds, multimedia and the Internet. Video shot and edited by Allan and Sun Lundell of Virtual World Studios, Boulder Creek CA. Full conference report at: ccon.org/conf96r/gallery.html
Levity Salon #9: Pattern Break-Can we find a silver lining in an orange cloud? Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-11-18 | Join me, returned evacuee in Levity Salon #9 this Tuesday Sept 15th @7pm to share your feelings and thoughts on our collective state and future sense for the world entering into an epoch of the systemic shocks of fire, pandemic, and coming economic and ecological grim reapers. For us U.S. West Coast folk we must now ask: is there a silver lining to be found in an orange cloud?
This could be how life started - when a meteorite fell onto the Earth Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-11-14 | This could be how life started - when a meteorite fell onto the EarthReleased in October 2020, by the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia (Narration by Albert Fahrenbach)How do astrobiologists attempt to make a case to explain the beginning of life? Invoking a higher being? Pointing to oceanic hydrothermal vents? Proposing it was through alien experiments? Or maybe... that it might just have happened in a hot spring? All of the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen now caught up in living organisms was in the dust particles of the vast molecular cloud from which our sun and solar system emerged. Just like Carl Sagan said, "...we are made of star stuff!" Some of the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen arrived in the form of organic compounds relevant to the origin of life. We know this for a fact because it is still happening today, like the Murchison and other carbonaceous meteorites which have fallen onto the Earth. Thirty thousand tons of interplanetary dust particles are also delivered to Earth every year and some of them still have organic compounds clinging to their surfaces. Lab experiments also show that similar sorts of compounds likely were synthesized by ancient geochemical processes in the atmosphere and directly on the Earth. If this material falls into the ocean it will be diluted and unable to participate in chemical reactions pertinent to life. If, however, it ends up in small pools on land, it will become concentrated into a “primordial soup” where life can get started. If those small pools are connected to a hot spring, then they can participate in cycles of geyser-driven filling, dry down and refilling repeated again and again in time frames from minutes to days. Through geological time these dynamic environments just might provide the “engine” that drives the formation of populations of proto-life called “protocells”. Wet-dry cycling of vast numbers of protocells with their sets of polymers may have served to “boot up” the complex chemical processes that all living cells now possess. Watch this short animation to find out what Astrobiologists, including Bruce Damer and David Deamer of UC Santa Cruz, think about this scenario for life beginning in a 21st Century version of Charles Darwin’s “warm little pond.”###Find out more about the Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of life here:liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2019.2045Article written by Bruce Damer and David Deamer and published in ASTROBIOLOGY, Volume 20, Number 4, Apr 2020 by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2045Special thanks to these collaborators for making this possible:Albert C. Fahrenbach (writing, production, narration) - http://fahrenbachresearch.com Liam Yao Liyang (writing, production and animation) - linkedin.com/in/liam-yao-liyang-b840b245/?originalSubdomain=auBruce Damer (subject matter) - http://www.damer.comDavid Deamer (subject matter) - https://www.soe.ucsc.edu/people/deamerMerriley Sim (digital artist)Reach us at: vediclinked@gmail.com
Levity Salon 08: A New Era of Mars Exploration with Dr Bruce Damer and Alex Longo Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-08-01 | Join Dr. Bruce Damer and special guest Alex Longo for this presentation and discussion hosted on Tuesday July 28th at 7pm PDT. They presented a fresh and exciting update on the upcoming missions of exploration to Mars, with NASA’s Mars2020-Perseverance launching that very week and the Chinese and the UAE’s missions already en route to the Red Planet. Damer and Longo served on one of the finalist landing site teams for Mars2020 making the case to NASA that their next life-detection rover should seek out old hot springs, where life could start on Mars and where its “last outpost” of detectable presence at the surface might have been. Lastly Dr. Bruce's work on the SHEPHERD asteroid capture & extraction concept was presented. This innovation could provide a future sustainable way to go to Mars with repeatable human exploration. Take a look at Humanity’s growing understanding and relationship with the only other Earthlike planet in the solar system where life could have arisen.
Science & Spirituality at the Ram Dass legacy virtual retreat with Dr. Bruce Damer and Raghu Markus Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-06-04 | "Science & Spirituality" at the Ram Dass legacy virtual retreat with Dr. Bruce Damer and Raghu Markus held online on April 18 2020. Hosted by the Love, Serve, Remember Foundation.
Levity Salon #7 - Revealing and Healing the HumanOS hosted by Dr. Bruce Damer Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-06-04 | As so beautifully depicted in Pixar’s film Inside Out, within each of us is an operating system of parts resembling an inner kindergarten of beings, some connected to emotions, others to thought, and others inward to the body or out to more ethereal realms. The continuous interplay within this kindergarten could be understood to make up our personality. As we all know, a kindergarten without a wise, loving teacher can quickly go awry. When we separate from our parts and become that teacher, we gain a viewpoint on the shenanigans of the kindergartners and can read the code of our Human Operating System. We then find that some of our little parts simply need attention and resources which they might not have received when we were young. The healing arts are now converging with psychology, neuroscience and ancient medicine traditions to provide practices which can heal these parts and their sometimes-problematic interactions. Such practices as Internal Family Systems (parts work), Luminous Awareness, meditation, breathwork, psychedelic assisted therapy, extreme sports, flow states provide real tools to work with upgrading our OS. In our time, all the challenges we face, and the threats to our future survival and daily well-being as well as the health of our planet, can be addressed through these practices. Join Dr. Bruce Damer for the seventh Levity Salon as we look to the profound possibility that in our time, we can finally understand how people boot up, and how to help them heal themselves and our world. Thanks go out to Allan Lundell for editing this video to add titles and for Shen-Shen Wu for providing excellent event support!Held online on Zoom on Tuesday May 26th 2020, 7-9pm Pacific Time.
Design for Human Mission to an Asteroid, DigitalSpace/DM3DS for NASA-Lowrez/ttls Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-05-17 | A Design for a Human Mission to an asteroid, also known as a near earth object ("NEO). This 3D animation was produced by DigitalSpace/DM3D Studios for a 2007 NASA feasibility study.DigitalSpace/DM3D StudiosProducer/Animator: DigitalSpace/DM3D StudiosTask Requestor: NASA
Levity Salon #4 - Dr. Bruce Damer on Pandemics and the Human Future Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-05-17 | In this first Zoom salon of the Levity Zone, Dr. Bruce Damer shares his thoughts on the COVID-19 global pandemic and then opens up for discussion for the dozens of souls who came into the comfortable sitting room that night on March, 24th 2020. Video editing by Allan Lundell with music by Bodhi Setchko.
Dr. Bruce Damer and Dennis McKennas Tribute to the 20th anniversary of Terence’s passing. Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-05-05 | A Zoom tribute to Terence McKenna recorded with Dr. Bruce Damer and Dennis McKenna on April 4th, 2020 on the 20th anniversary of Terence’s passing (a.k.a. “International Boundary Dissolution Day”). Featuring unique reminiscences of Terence and updates to the late 90s conversations Dr. Bruce engaged Terence on avatars, singularities, tech, space, and the future of humanity. Dennis and Bruce also touches on today’s COVID pandemic and concludes by offering up an optimistic view of our current evolution and place in the cosmos (credit: Aaron Thayne for a masterful edit and the McKenna Academy of Natural Philosophy and the San Francisco Psychedelic Society for hosting).
Levity Salon #6: The Field: Portending the Union of Science and Spirituality Dr. Bruce Damer 2020-05-02 | Exciting discoveries within the fantastically successful intellectual endeavor of science and deepening understanding and access to the luminous realms of spiritual experience have set the stage for a union of these two great magisteria. The next Levity Salon will present and consider a hypothetical model for this union called “the Field”. The Field is proposed as an all-pervasive operating system powered by the mechanistic cycles of the living world but capable of shaping probability itself. One of the probabilistic outcomes is consciousness, which exists in a continuous interplay with the Field. This interplay and the tools and inspirations which are rapidly manifesting around it portend a bright and sustained future for our species and our world. Join us for a lively discussion and interactive experience in the Levity Salon #6 on Tuesday April 28th at 7pm Pacific Time (hosted on Zoom).
Dr. Bruce Damers presentation at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops BC Canada (28 Mar 2019) Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-08-27 | Astrobiologist alumnus presents new concepts on the origin of life and our future in spaceThe average 14-year old doesn’t spend much time abstract thinking or questioning the origin of life. But multi-disciplinary scientist and astrobiologist Dr. Bruce Damer wasn’t your average 14 year old, and that question and many others circulated his thoughts while hiking through Kamloops’ sagebrush hills in 1976. His thoughts and ideas continued to take shape and evolve, and led to Damer writing a series of articles for local newspapers. One of these was a science series where he shared plans for novel spacecraft, that would later contribute to a significant leap forward in humanity’s quest in opening space to human habitation. At age 19, Damer proposed his plans to NASA with hopes of gaining employment. They wrote back which encouraged him to pursue his education and aim for NASA in the future. In 1981 Damer enrolled in the nascent Computing Science program at TRU. Computers had always fascinated him, and inspired him to think about how the world’s issues could be solved by developing software and systems that could simulate scenarios to offer different outcomes, and find solutions faster. Damer credits retired TRU IT Services staffer and fellow student Wes Cole and Prof. Derek Chambers as his inspiration and support for writing his first software programs. Damer continued to develop his passion for computing in the mid 1980s as a UVic co-op student performing leading edge research for IBM, and later for a startup company called Elixir where he developed some of the earliest PC user interfaces. In the 1990s he led the community which brought the first multi-user virtual worlds to the Internet. Since 2000 he has supported NASA and the space industry with numerous direction-setting simulations and mission designs.Damer’s most notable and recent research focuses on his co-authored hypothesis that the emergence of life on earth occurred on land within fluctuating hot spring pools, rather than deep in the ocean as previously thought. Many are calling it a paradigm shift in science as it transforms thinking of how biology first emerged and suggests that other planets—such as Mars—might have possessed similar conditions that could support life. He has served on the Mars2020 team for NASA deciding where to send the next rover in search for evidence for life on the red planet. With his colleague Prof. David Deamer at UC Santa Cruz, he conducts live chemical testing in the lab and out in the field at hot spring pools in places like Yellowstone in the USA and Rotorua in New Zealand. Recently their work was featured on the cover of Scientific American. “There will be many implications for humanity in scientific, philosophical and spiritual dimensions. The realization of our deepest ancestry will contain the psychological power to re-orient our civilization toward a sustainable, expansive and long-term future.” Bruce DamerDamer currently serves as principal scientist at The Biota Institute, a new research organization. He’s also an associate researcher in the department of Biomolecular Engineering at University of California Santa Cruz, an associate of the NASA Astrobiology Centre, Treasurer of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life and a founder of several companies in Silicon Valley. One of his companies is developing a new spacecraft which could harvest, water, fuel and minerals from asteroids and help open a pathway to space for humanity in this century. Another company is using origin of life science to develop a powerful new therapy to fight viral infections and head off the next global pandemic.After kicking off his academic career at TRU, he went on to complete a Bachelor of Science at the University of Victoria, a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a PhD from University College, Dublin in Ireland. Damer will be presenting his potentially game changing ideas at TRU’s Kamloops campus on March 28 from 1–2 p.m., at the science speaker series event hosted by the Faculty of Science. This is a free event at the Brown Family House of Learning and open to the public, and Damer will be awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from TRU at an evening event on March 29, 2019.
Dr. Bruce Damer origin of life science @ Hells Gate, Rotorua - SHORTER (NZ Herald) Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-06-28 | Dr. Bruce Damer performing origin of life experiments at the Hells Gate geothermal park, Rotorua, New Zealand in June,19, 2018. Shot by the New Zealand Herald Local Focus by Jaden McLeod. This is a slightly shortened version.
DrBruceDamer Orcas Convergence 2019 Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-06-20 | Dr. Bruce Damer's Saturday evening talk/performance on "Four Alchemical Fires" at the 2019 Convergence Conference at Rosario Beach Resorts, Orcas Island on March 23, 2019.
039-LevityZone: Dr. Bruce Damers TEDx Talks: Origin of Life Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-05-31 | Dr. Bruce presents his most deeply held idea: a new hypothesis for how life began on the Earth, The Coupled Phases model was developed over thirty years of inquiry and completed with the collaboration of his mentor and colleague at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Professor David Deamer. Hear how the model works and how it might help us refigure our civilization, first in his TEDx Santa Cruz talk, then in an interview on the Midwest Real podcast, and finally from his presentation of at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago. It's been a truly stunning three months for Dr. Bruce from April to June of 2015. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (introducer and presenter), TEDxSantaCruz (event host), Ryan Norkus (TEDx graphics and animation), Reno de Caro (Photography), Bo Millward (sound editing), Michael Phillip (Midwest Real Podcast segment), Jacob Aman (site). [released 7 July 2015]. Find the video of this talk at: youtube.com/watch?v=6qiW4aUqtvA
OECD OsloMET: Dr. Bruce Damer on the Origin of Computing & the Future of AI (Nov 2018) Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-05-29 | OECD OsloMET: Dr. Bruce Damer on the Origin of Computing & the Future of AI (Nov 2018)Oslo MET University/OECD: Dr. Bruce Damer's opening presentation: the Origin of Computing & the Future of AI (Nov 5, 2018).Oslo Met University/OECD workshop on digital technology for science and innovation – Emerging topics for policy and assessment.This workshop was a joint initiative between the OECD and Oslo Metropolitan (OsloMet) University which gathered leading technologists, academics and policy representatives. To help guide OECD governments, the event aimed to:Examine how emerging developments in digital technology could create new opportunities to design and implement policies for science, technology and innovation.Identify so far untapped opportunities to use digital technology in science and innovation processes.Identify emerging topics, which are likely to become important in the future, but which have received limited study to date.Original videos of all talks are available at the site: http://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/digital-technology-for-science-and-innovation-emerging-topics.htm
Dr. Bruce Damers plenary: the Origin Of Life & Consciousness @ The Science of Consciousness 2018 Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-05-28 | Dr. Bruce Damer's plenary: the Origin Of Life & Consciousness @ The Science of Consciousness, Loews Canyon Resort, Tuscon Arizona USA, April 5, 2018 (introduced by Stuart Hameroff)From a chemical origin of life with evidence in the rock record to the origin of life and the birth of a new concept for an "engine of creation" (P-I-M) Dr. Bruce Damer suggests that Humanity may be on the verge of understanding how life can start on the Earth or on other planets. This plenary talk is followed by a panel discussion with Stuart Kauffman, Steen Rasmussen and Sara Walker joined by Bruce and moderated by Stuart Hameroff.
Bootprints on Asteroids: Deep Space Astronauts (DigitalSpace & Space.com 2007) Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-05-24 | Dr. Bruce Damer and DigitalSpace Corporation's design for a crewed mission to a Near Earth Object (asteroid) produced by Space.com in 2007. This piece shows how a human crew utilizing a Constellation system (Orion crew capsule plus a variant on an ISS module and airbags/penetrometers) could set down on an asteroid. The system would use the penetrometers to guage the bearing strength of the surface and harpool tethers to achieve a holdfast. Crew could then sample the surface using a robotic arm or engage in an EVA with jet packs or by holding onto the tethers in the microgravity environment. The airbag contact/tether base station would remain on the asteroid surface as a communication and science station after the mission departs for Earth return. This design was developed for a NASA HQ study and released to the public and news media on July 31, 2007. The resulting visibility (on the cover of Popular Science and many news sites) helped to change NASA's focus to asteroids/small bodies following the election of President Obama. Graphics and design by Bruce Damer and Ryan Norkus, produced and Narrated by Dave Brody.
Dr. Bruce Damer-Thompson Rivers Universitys 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award video (29 Mar 2019) Dr. Bruce Damer 2019-04-02 | Thompson Rivers University's 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award video for recipient Dr. Bruce Damer. This video was produced and shown at the presentation of the award on 29th Mar 2019 at the Grand Hall at TRU.
Living Universe: David Deamer and Bruce Damer: origin of life fieldwork at Bumpass Hell (Aug 2016) Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-12-21 | Extract from Living Universe documentary of Prof. David Deamer and Dr. Bruce Damer performing origin of life research field work at Bumpass Hell, Mount Lassen Volcanic Park in California on August 9th, 2016. From the show notes for Episode 4 - Contact. Minerva B is a small rocky planet just like earth, where spacecraft Artemis has found water, organic molecules, and complex creatures. Finally, Artemis has found life. Documentary by Screen Australia. For more information on the full documentary visit: https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/living-universe-2018/34141/
067-LevityZone: TubCast04-Bagging the Future Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-09-01 | Your Dr. Bruce shares a hot tub and a chorus of crickets with Dr. Future (Al Lundell) after returning from highly stimulating and encouraging meetings in Boston and Providence where he met a new team of Mac and Mike who are serious about building a "CubeSat" prototype of SHEPHERD. SHEPHERD is the audacious spacecraft design worked out with Peter Jenniskens and Julian Nott back in 2015. It is a "sailing ship for space" which if it works could encapsulate, handle, extract and make new little worlds out of asteroids and thereby creating the stepping stones for us to become a Solar System Civilization and spread complex life out into the cosmos. During the East Coast meetings I sketched out a simple "bag with rock" design that could be flown on a CubeSat, a tiny satellite that hitches a ride on a bigger launcher. We start out there and then come down from such heady faire to matters of the heart and my own daily breathwork and yoga practice where I turn OFF the mind! Of course we end up swinging back to space and SHEPHERD and wrap it up with some pretty visionary stuff. So join us now for a steamy journey on a lazy night in late August of 2018 for a moment of pleasurable contemplation in a world getting ever weirder and weirder. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer and Allan Lundell (recording), Kristof & Dr. Bruce (editing) [released 31 August 2018]
066-LevityZone: The Emerald & Azure Civilization @ EarthFrequency 2015 Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-08-12 | Dr. Bruce returns from science fieldwork and Middle Earth adventures in New Zealand with a full report following this episode featuring his 2015 Earth Frequency festival talk on "The Emerald and Azure Civilization" held in the gum tree forests of southern Queensland, Australia. This free-flowing rap takes you from how our visionary viewpoint has been constricting as we replace a formerly emerald green world of nature with the harsh azure blue glare of technological civilization. He then offers how we might collectively push back against the forces of our darker nature with the calling forth of the evolving forces of light, emanating from the old world of Eleusis to the new tools of the Elixirs and Endo. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (recording), Kristof (editing), Tranzporter (cover photo) [released 31 July 2018]
New Science of the Origin of Life by Bruce Damer at IndieBio for Conscious BioTechers Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-07-17 | New Science of the Origin of Life: It's Implications for Humanity and How We Do Science (5 Thought Experiments)For Conscious BioTechers at IndieBio in San Francisco, CA on 2/27/2018indiebio.coVideo by Amotion / Andrew J. O'Keefe II http://www.amotionmedia.com
065-LevityZone: Deepak Chopra and Dr. Bruces Emergent Connection Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-05-30 | Dr. Bruce Damer and Dr. Deepak Chopra meet and share news and views about the science of life's origins, old rocks and new chemistry, and the fundamental engine of creation in a mutual sense of spirit of healing in this emergent connection. Recorded in Facebook Live in front of 22,000 of Deepak's followers on Friday April 6th at the 2018 Science of Consciousness Conference in Tucson, Arizona this was Dr. Bruce's first experience of mass audiences in social media. It was fun so there is more to come! Credits: Dr. Deepak Chopra & Dr. Bruce Damer (recording and discussion), Kristof (editing and cover art) [released 29 May 2018]
064-LevityZone: Shahnaz Minallah on Lock-In, Jedis & Crafts Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-04-26 | Your Dr. Bruce finds himself back in Islamabad, Pakistan spending one beautiful April spring day at a flower-decked lakeside retreat hand-crafted by a dear friend, Shahnaz Minallah. We spent a delightful time "gup shupping" (Pakistani for shooting the breeze) while breezes flowed and Pashtuns from the wild north worked around us. We explored the theme of "lock-in" which is entering Pakistani society with Chinese development to garner millions in apartment building/shopping mall/smartphone living. Lock-in will soon threaten thousand year old ways of life including craft hand-workers such as a Pashtun weaver who "says a prayer with every thread." Shahnaz vows to do something about it by creating an online export business to preserve these ancient and beautiful crafts and village ways. In between we speak about our shared passion for healing practices and the rise of "Jedis" and their energetic "Force" around the world. Credits: Shahnaz Minallah & Dr. Bruce Damer (recording and discussion) [released 26 April 2018]
Ode To Terence (McKenna) by Dr. Bruce Damer music by Skanky Mojo Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-04-04 | Ode To Terence (McKenna) by Dr. Bruce Damer music by Skanky Mojo
063-LevityZone: Tubcast03-Healing Humanity Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-04-02 | Dr. Bruce and Al Lundell submerge together in the hot tub on Future Peak to record a new Tubcast. Levity Zone listeners get a first peek into a whole new practice Dr. Bruce has been immersed in for several years within a community called the Luminous Awareness Institute. In Luminous, skilled practitioners use powerful combinations of methods for healing various types of trauma which, for many of us, were "coded in" by experiences in childhood. As living conditions have improved worldwide, people are healthier and live longer than ever before. However, many suffer in a state of anxiety induced by destructive narratives that can lead to depression and dissociation. This situation seems to be rooted in a variety of character styles driven in party by these core traumas. Will science and the healing arts converge to discover how to rewrite our "psychological boot code" and heal humanity? Hear how this audacious possibility, perhaps the biggest story of our time, may hold the key to creating a beautiful and sustainable civilization. Credits: Dr. Future-Allan Lundell (recording and discussion), Dr. Bruce Damer (discussion and editing), Ryan Beck (music-ProgeNotes), [released 31 March 2018]
062-LevityZone: Dr. Kaushik on The Wiles of the Mind Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-02-26 | Dr. Bruce brings you a vital new teaching for our times from Dr. R. P. Kaushik. We live in a time dominated by the "wiles of the mind", thoughts which swirl around mind and trap it within limits, conditioning it and morphing it into "the me", "the ego" or simply "self-centeredness". Operating from this "small self" defined by cycling thought creates suffering within each of us and for the whole world. Fake news and not so fake news, social media, and ordinary computer interactions all trigger thought which activates the small self, often providing initial rewards followed by a hollowed-out collapse. Dr. Kaushik guides us step-by-step to become an observer of these thoughts triggered, for example, through an episode of anger. By letting thoughts pass and dissipate, we enter into a great silence, opening to a sense of peace and universal energy, and from there we may then cross the threshold to enlightened awakening. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (introducer), Dr. R.P. Kaushik (presenter), Mystical Sun (music), Jacob Aman (site and cover art). [released 26 February 2018]
061-LevityZone: Deeper Communion in the Pyramid @ BurningMan2017 Dr. Bruce Damer 2018-01-31 | Celebrate Dr. Bruce's Blue Moon Eclipse (56th) birthday on January 31st, 2018 by returning to a magickal night last August 31st, at Burningman 2017 with the Wizards Light troupe in the Playalchemist pyramid. Journey on this mystical musical spoken word performance on why communion traces back to our very origins and is the likely mechanism for our very survival. On top of all that, grok a novel insight of a tripartite system that may actually generate everything, from life's beginning through all of evolution to culture, technology and even our experience of spirit in the union of communion. Credits: Brad Nye, Chris Krywulak, Mark Lee and the organizers of Playa Alchemist for the venue; Josiah Ruben and his team at Promosa (stage support, audio recording); Samantha Sweetwater (leadership, invocation, choreography and dance); DISSOLV (music, effects); Jasmine (dance) and Dr. Bruce Damer (spoken word journey). [Released 30 January 2018]
060-LevityZone: Communion in the Pyramid @ BurningMan2017 Dr. Bruce Damer 2017-12-30 | For the 60th Levity Zone podcast, Dr. Bruce brings you Communion in the Pyramid, a team performance of cosmic proportions held at Burning Man 2017. Join Samantha Sweetwater for an invocation from our deepest communal origins followed by Valentin Santana and Andre Reinero (aka DJ DISSOLV) rocking their board bringing forth a new composition in their "Calibrate" line... danced to by the phenomenal Jasmine. A crack of thunder signaled yours truly, the Wizard, to stride slowly forward into the light on stage in possibly the largest interior space ever constructed on the Playa. Burner brothers and sisters were then piloted on a vocal and musical journey from life's origins to the point where we monkeys set foot on our moon and turned on at the Summer of Love, fifty years ago. The illuminated disk ship that is Burning Man then wheeled its way through alien encounters toward a glorious future in the cosmos. Credits: Brad Nye, Chris Krywulak, Mark Lee and the organizers of Playa Alchemist for the venue; Josiah Ruben and his team at Promosa (stage support, audio recording); Samantha Sweetwater (leadership, invocation, choreography); DISSOLV (music, effects); Jasmine (dance) and Dr. Bruce Damer (spoken word journey). [Released 30 December 2017]
LevityZone Podcast 059 with Dr. Bruce: Origins Science comes to Pakistan Dr. Bruce Damer 2017-11-18 | Dr. Bruce reports in from Islamabad, Pakistan where he is on a "round the world" tour from the Science & Nondualists of San Jose, to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador, to Mars rover roboticists in Pasadena, and from here onwards to China. He gave perhaps the first talk on the origins of life and search for life in the Universe in Pakistan at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. His host, renowned physicist and activist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy, hosted this talk at the Physics department auditorium. Dr. Bruce "inflamed the minds" of Pakistani students and professors alike as he took them on a rapid romp through life's possible origins on Earth to the search for evidence for life on Mars in 2020, icy Enceladus in the next decade and onwards to the likelihood of life on exoplanets. Dr. Bruce Damer and Pervez Hoodbhoy (presenters), Elixir Technologies Pakistan (recording and photo). [released 18 November 2017]. Find the slides and video and other resources for this presentation at the Levity Zone page: http://www.levityzone.org/lz-episode-059-origins-science-comes-pakistan
Dr. Bruces Diary: Various Galapagos Tortoise views Dr. Bruce Damer 2017-10-29 | Dr. Bruce's Diary: Various Galapagos Tortoise views at the hatchery at San Cristobal, Galapagos (Oct 27, 2017)
Dr. Bruces Diary: A Giant Tortoise Dining Room on the Galapagos Dr. Bruce Damer 2017-10-29 | Dr. Bruce's Diary: A Giant Tortoise Dining Room on the Galapagos Island of San Cristobal (October 27, 2017)
