healthcare epistemocrat: Announcing Ancestry: The Foundation for the Ancestral Health Symposium and the Ancestral Health Society

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Announcing Ancestry: The Foundation for the Ancestral Health Symposium and the Ancestral Health Society

Einstein said he had one idea.

Nassim Taleb says, "Two ideas, you're dead" (thanks to Dave Lull).

Ancestry is one idea.

And it's foundational to the Ancestral Health Symposium and the Ancestral Health Society, so I am excited to announce the new, official Web site:

ancestryfoundation.org

Click around and check it all out. Spread the good news too!

Brian Geremia did an awesome job with the Web design and Michal Naisteter did a fabulous job with the surveys/forms. The Ancestral Health Team and the Symposium Presenters (which now includes Art DeVany) have been tinkering collaboratively behind-the-scenes beautifully. Please fill out the Attendee Survey to receive updates as we organize. All people who attend the Symposium can submit abstracts for the lunchtime poster sessions; everyone can participate in that forum--feel free to submit a Poster Proposal at anytime (co-presentations encouraged).

Dates, venue, and other details to follow soon; stay tuned ... we'll let you know when ticket sales go live!

In the meantime, please check out Game Plan Academy (GPA), the nonprofit program that I co-founded and co-operate voluntarily with my friends. Our Spring 2010 camps in Sacramento and Compton start soon, so if you feel like supporting our work, you can "Chip In" and donate here:

Grazie!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend (my friend & mentor) Mark Sisson's PrimalCon because it falls on the first weekend of GPA, but he's put together a tremendous opportunity to enjoy that I encourage folks to take advantage of in April.

Finally, check out the Ancestral Resources on the AncestryFoundation.org home page:

Modern Paleo & Paleo Hacks

Diana Hsieh, Patrick, and others made these sites into fantastic resources for the Ancestral Health Epistemocracy community!

Now, back to reading for me:

1) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty (recommended to me by mentor/friend Dr. Kurt Harris at PaNu).

2) Food and Western Disease by Dr. Staffan Lindeberg (he sent me a copy, graciously)

3) The Evolutionary Biology of Human Body Fatness (Dr. Robert Lustig recommended it to me)

To good health,

Brent

3 comments:

Aaron BlaisdellMarch 29, 2010 10:41 AM
Brent, all I can say is WOW! I am humbled to be a part of this amazing, stellar group of talented individuals so generous of their time and resources to help create this amazing event. I can't even begin to conceive what the ramifications of all of this will be down the road. Parkour!
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MarcMarch 30, 2010 4:43 AM
Brent,

Check email. Question and time-line.

Great work! I'm very much looking forward to this.

Marc
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epistemocratMarch 30, 2010 11:12 PM
Thanks, Aaron and Marc.

We're certainly fostering a wonderful spirit with our collective thinkering.

That's the Ancestral Health Team's modus operandi.

Parkour!

Cheers,

Brent
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What is an Epistemocrat?

Caveat: Individuality is the spice of life ... Cura Personalis.

History: In his book, The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb defines an epistemocrat as "someone of epistemic humility, who holds his own knowledge in greatest suspicion." For Jerome Groopman, this person continues to search for answers by asking, "What else could it be?" Richard Feynman recommends to "keep the door to the unknown ajar." From Chester Newland's perspective, an epistemocrat never stops "searching for human dignity." Like Socrates said, "Wisdom is knowing how little we know."

Epoche, a Greek word that translates as "suspending judgment," lies at the heart of an epistemocrat's quest.

Today, an epistemocrat is a person who, concerned with what he or she does not know, engages in life-long learning and erudition to hedge dynamically against and to embrace uncertainty.

Essentially, an epistemocrat is a practitioner (a thinker and a doer; a Jesuit-spirited "contemplative in action") who respects (via paradoxes) the humble limits of being human and searches (via thinkering) for practical, real-world solutions that help us live and grow together in our increasingly complex and recursive world: diversify.

What is m=1/n=1 thinkering?

Thinking + Tinkering = thinkering.

It's an approach to searching and acting that combines m=1 personal my-thology and n=1 self-experimentation. Personal my-thology encompasses all the unique thoughts, feelings, inklings, beliefs, and reflections that flow through your stream of consciousness each day: your m=1 thinking. Self-experimentation is awareness of all the feedback and insights perceived from daily experiences: your n=1 tinkering. Hybridizing these two activities produces the bimodal modus operandi of thinkering.

The m=1/n=1 notation captures and respects individuality when it comes to the art and science of living gracefully.