Author Archives: Tor Nørretranders

About Tor Nørretranders

Writer, speaker, thinker. Based in Klampenborg near Copenhagen, Denmark. Books published about numerous issues dealing with the modern worldview and being human. Phenomenons like consciousness, generosity, social behaviour and environmental issues are present in most of my books. Themes like food for the world, daylight in everyday life and the importance of epistemology are presently on my mind. My last name is often spelled differently from the Danish Nørretranders: Norretranders, Noerretranders, Nörretranders or Nrretranders -- all of which are fine with me. My best known books also include the weird Danish letters ø or æ or å in the title: Mærk verden (The User Illusion), Det generøse menneske (The Generous Man), Menneskeføde, Fælledskab (with Søren Hermasen), Glæd dig, Børnespørgehjørne, at tro på at tro. But not all titles include the unusual Danish letters: eg. vild verden, afskaf affald, Civilisation 2.0.

Thinking about thinking machines

Annual Question on Edge

What do you think about machines that think? That is literary agent John Brockman’s question this year to an international group of outstanding and outspoken scientists, thinkers and writers. Every year, Brockman calls for answers to a pertinent question and  share them on his terrific website Edge.org.

Answers are also this year many and varied — from ideas about machines as enemies to  the helpfulness of thinking machine to how kids can help computers learn to think . My own thought: let’s show thinking machines some love, so that they can learn the way mammals do.

Exhibition final week

We are entering the final week of the exhibition The Heart of The Stone  on Danish Arcihtecture Center in Copenhagen, ending Sunday Sept. 21st. It is open all days this week 10-17 — wednesday also open in the evening.

One of the more original elemnts in the exhibition is a gigantic stereoscope that employs four mirrors to draw Skuespilhuset (The Royal Playhoiuse) into the exhibition room as a 3D-experience. Óne looks into a mirror wedge, welded i iron by the exhibitions blacksmith Stefan Leunbach.

 

The exhibition is my take on what architecture is all about — with the wonderful works Lundgaard & Tranberg as the case to study.

Go see!

 

 

The Heart of the Stone — an exhibition on architecture

Here is a banner with Danish text:

It describes an exhibition about architecture that can be seen at Danish Architecture Center DAC in Copenhagen until September 21.

I strongly recommend seeing the exhibition (perhaps not surprising since I am the curator of it). It attempts to bring a new take on architecture — not seeing it as a display of aesthetic objetcs, but as the channeling of flows through life.

The exhibition is as much in English as in Danish — all texts and videos are in both languages. On display is the work of the outstanding Danish studio Lundgaard & Tranberg and for of  their many buildings in Copenhagen.

The exhibition was created involving a lot of talented people contributing wonderful visions — a treat of sensory experience, huge models, drone photography, stereoscopes and running water. It is an eye-opening show — I hope. Go see!

Here is how the exhibition ins described at DACs homepage:

Architecture is not merely about beautiful buildings and eye-catching structures. Architecture is about creating settings for people’s lives and experiences: settings for the current of light, energy, substance and people, who are the very pulse of life.

This is the fundamental contention made by the writer, Tor Nørretranders, who has curated The Heart of the Stone, Danish Architecture Centre’s major summer exhibition, which looks at the work of the internationally renowned Danish architecture practice, Lundgaard & Tranberg.

The Heart of the Stone is not a classic architectural exhibition with a display of models of architects’ works. It is a diverse presentation, involving brickwork, images, texts, running water, mirrors, optical effects, computer models and poems, which will stimulate visitors’ sense of touch, spatial awareness, sense of depth, perception of time and scientific curiosity.

While the exhibition is of course about the work of Lundgaard & Tranberg, it also investigates the essence of the endeavours made by architects to create settings for the progress of life.

But the most fundamental aspect of this exhibition is that it is not located in the exhibition space. The experience provided by the galleries of the Danish Architecture Centre is intended to be an eye-opener, an introduction to an excursion around the city, and an opportunity to look at the buildings from the perspective engendered by the exhibition.

The exhibition is the third in Danish Architecture Centre’s exhibition series, Close Up.

 

Three courses — MAD food

MAD means food in Danish — and is also the name of the breathtaking and mindblowing annual global symposium for chefs arranged by Rene Redzepi and friends around restaurant noma, the world’s best restaurant.

I have had the unusual honour of giving talks all of first three symposia. These three talks have now been collected into a handy little package at the MAD blog called MAD feed.

New amongst the videos now collected by from MAD Food is my talk from last summer — it has been mentioned here earlier on this site, but not previously been available as video. Now it is. If you would like to watch 500 chefs tickle each other — here’s your chance. In the end I complain that they should tickle their guest’s more — on the inside …


You can compare this tickling exercise with chefs to the one done some years ago in Berlin with artists. You could ask yourself — which are the more ticklish professionals — cooks or artists?

Danish book on communities and commons: commonities

From the Danish energy revolution at the island Samsø, a world leader in renewable energy, comes this charming and thoughtful book on communities and commons. The theme is communities governing commons, dubbed commonities. Written by the driving force behind Samsø’s remarkable feat, Søren Hermansen, and the internationally acclaimed Danish science writer and thinker Tor Nørretranders, the book brings together practical experience, down-to-earth cleverness and theoretical ideas of community and commons.

The book is available as a Kindle book from Amazon. It has been beautifully translated from Danish by Jonathan Sydenham. It was published on paper in Denmark in December 2011 by Samsø Energiakademi, home of the energy expertise of Samsø.

 

The book presentation at Amazon:

Communities can overcome the forces that split societies apart. After decades dominated by selfishness, cooperation is now back on the agenda. The climate crisis and the green technology challenge calls for curiosity and the joy of finding new ways. The solutions of the future do not come from the headquarters, but from the outskirts where communities govern common resources. Communities governing commons is a new force in history. This book propose the term commonities.

Gothenburg-award winning, Time magazine Hero of the Environment Søren Hermansen, the driving force behind the transformation of the Danish island Samsø into one of the worlds leading success stories about renewable energy governed by a community, tell a breathtaking series of down-to-earth stories about renewables and communities, from Samsø to the rest of the world. Internationally acclaimed bestselling science writer and social thinker Tor Nørretranders, author of books on consciousness, creativity, social behavior and the environment, tell the story of modern behavioral science perspectives on communities and commons, drawing on traditions spanning from neurobiology and experimental economics to Elinor Ostrom’s work on governing the commons.

The book comprises a duet of practical tales and theoretical essays united by the idea of commonities as a stronger force than the market and the state. The new world does not originate from the top level, but from the bottom up.

An optimistic and generous vision: Commonities as the future of human societies in the age of climate challenges.

More info on the Danish-language part of Tor.dk.

From a lecture slide

Take a deep breath

A wonderful little 12 minutes long film on breathing – resulting from the rich activities at the art Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin.

The video (availabale here below as well as on Vimeo) includes a string of outstanding spiritual personalities (and lesser mortals like myself) commenting on the role of breath and breathing in our lives. It is a moving and simple testimony to the importance of this bridge between the body and the the mind.

Where mind and body swing back and forth from Studio Olafur Eliasson on Vimeo.

Compendium on Compassion Cultivation

A wonderful e-book on compassion and how to cultivate it, nourish it and train it was published today by Tania Singer and Matthias Bolz at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. Bringing together many fields of study and practice, the book gives a wide panorama of the compassion problem: How do human beings learn to care for each other? Truly an important challenge in terms of knowledge and practice. The book has beautiful art work by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson at whose Studio in Berlin the book was presented.

The book is available for free download in several formats at the info page for the scientifically based project of practical importance.

Also available is a 38-minute film on many of the issues involved:

Raising Compassion from Studio Olafur Eliasson on Vimeo.

The e-book is mentioned in my recent Danish-laguage book “Vær nær” on empathy, compassion and social connectedness. Parts of the book were vailable for me in writing the book. I thank Singer and Bolz for their courtesy.

Tickle me, chef!

Tickling was a major issue in a talk today at the MAD Food symposium i Copenhagen. The tickling experiment led to the call for kitchens to explore our senses: Tickle us, chefs.

More to follow on this talk.

The MAD Symposium runs on Refshaleøen on Monday also in a large tent.

Photo Lars Lundø.

Why worry?

What are the forgotten reasons to be concerned?

The wonderful annual question from the Edge website conducted by New York literary agent John Brockman brings together voices from the world of science and thinking about science to reflections on vital questions. This years question is “What should we be worried about?” – that is, what are the things that we do not worry about – but should.

Answers range from the lack of interest in politics amongst smart people (Brian Eno) over Magic, Physics, Viruses, Teenagers and Men. Several respondents touch upon the same worry that I pointed to: The future of human reproduction (Geoffrey Miller, David Buss, Kevin Kelly and more).

 

My contribution is here:

The Loss of Lust

We should worry about loosing lust as the guiding principle for the reproduction of our species.

Throughout history human beings have executed great wisdom in choosing partners for reproduction through the guidance of instincts and intense desire. Much of the aesthetic pleasure and joy we take from watching other members of our species is rooted in indicators for fertility, gene quality and immune system compatibility. Thus our lust holds considerable prudence.

When it comes to the number of offspring, we have now collectively managed to stabilize the world population by the middle of this century through decentralized decision-making. The demographic transition is not a result of scientific planning but of the biological cleverness of individual couples.

The stabilization of the population means that it is ever more important that the biological preferences expressed in lust dominate the reproduction since fewer babies are born and they will live longer.

Attempts to rationalize reproduction through biotechnologies and screening of eggs, sperm, partners and embryos will interfere with the lust-dominated process. It is worrying that this could mean the loss of an evolved expertise in survivability.

Also, the desire to reproduce leads to the advertising of good genes and general fertility through a cultural and societal display of skills and sexiness. These are major, if not dominant sources of the unconscious drive for creating great results in science, art and social life. Attempts to shortcut mating preferences and the matching process through clinical control could lead not only to a loss of quality in the offspring but also to a loss of cultural fertility.

 

Katinka Matson’s beautiful scan of a clematis decorates the Edge Question 2013 responses.