THE FUTURE IS NOW!
by Savas Abadsidis on 2012-05-24

"A Timothy Leary of the Viral Video Age" was how The Atlantic recently described television personality, filmmaker and philosopher, Jason Silva, who has also been described as “part Timothy Leary, part Ray Kurzweil, and part Neo from The Matrix.”

From 2005 to 2011, Venezuela-born Jason Silva was a presenter on Current TV, the Emmy winning, independent cable network started by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, where he hosted, wrote and produced over 100 hours of original content. Last year, he left the network to become, according to The Atlantic, "a part-time filmmaker and full-time walking, talking TEDTalk."

Jason recently launched a series of non-commercial micro-documentaries exploring the co-evolution of human and technology, that "play like movie trailers for ideas," according to The Atlantic. TED Conference curator Chris Anderson referred to one of Jason's recent videos as 'Stunning', and Jason will be premiering an exclusive new short video on 'Radical Openness' at TEDGlobal this June, where he will be a presenter.

Ross Andersen from The Atlantic wrote that Jason has a "conversational style, marked by a virtuosic ability to quote his favorite thinkers verbatim, and a rhetorical endurance that allows him to riff long and deep on an impressive range of topics."

Others have described Jason as "a modern performance philosopher, a Digital DJ, a re-vitalizer and remixer of optimism, and above all, a curator: of ideas, of inspiration, and of awe… like a trumpet player or modern-day digital Mingus, he jams, riffs and rhapsodizes through a tumbling thicket of ideas with such a sharp and vital alacrity that it can take the breath away."

An active and prolific speaker, Jason has recently spoken at Google, The Economist Ideas Festival, the prestigious DLD Digital Life Design Conference in Munich, The Singularity Summit, the PSFK Conference.

Silva has been featured in The Atlantic, The Economist, Vanity Fair, Forbes and Wired, among many others. Silva was also featured as part of the GAP ‘Icons’ campaign.

The Imaginary Foundation wrote of Jason, "like some kind of Ontological DJ, he recompiles the source code of western philosophy by mixing and mashing it up into a form of recombinant creativity, which elevates understanding from the dry and prosaic, to a sensual cognitive romance.”

Silva resides in Los Angeles, California and New York City. In 2011 he became a fellow at the Hybrid Reality Institute, examining the symbiosis between man and machine. Herein Jason shares his love of travel with Escape Republic. And if you love to be intellectually stimulated, follow him on Twitter @jason_silva.

What's your favorite getaway destination?
I love Tulum. I went last year with my girlfriend and found it to be stunningly beautiful. It felt like being in a trendy backpacker's Mecca. I also love getting to Europe.... Something about it, probably it's visceral history gives me a great feeling. I pretend I'm Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise.

Why?
Anything that removes me from context makes the world seem new again. Travel feeds the thirst for novelty. It enlivens me. It makes me revel in moment.

What's your favorite way to entertain when you're away?
I like immersion. The right context, company, novelty etc allow me to lose myself in the adventure. This is what I love.

What are your favorite activities?
Philosophizing long and deep with friends. Watching films. Baths. Sex. Experiences that give aesthetic overflows.

What is it about the local culture that you love?
The delightful strangeness of a culture different from mine. I was in Goa and it was a trip. I rode scooters through the countryside. It was rapturous. Subtle differences are magnified and you feel like Alice in wonderland.

What drew you to becoming a futurist?
I love big bold ideas. The exponential growth curves of technology are transforming our possibilities. I like to muse about these possibilities.

Tell me what the singularity is.
It's a metaphor to describe a convergence of info tech, biotech and Nano-technology. It's a moment where we can radically upgrade ourselves. It's the moment when reality becomes a blank canvas for our aesthetic design.

Hear Jason in his own words: