Sloww Sunday 050: Spiritual Intelligence, Synthesizing Minds, Unnatural Selection

Sloww Sunday Newsletter 050 (Feb 21, 2021) — Spiritual Intelligence, Synthesizing Minds, Unnatural Selection, & More

Hi friends,

Sloww Sunday is a free newsletter delivering the latest from Sloww along with the most interesting things I came across last week.

Sloww Stuff

🆕 A Look Inside “A Synthesizing Mind” by Howard Gardner (Book Summary)

While this book is technically a memoir, I’ve focused my notes specifically on what Howard Gardner says about synthesis, synthesizing, and the synthesizing mind. He also gives brief overviews of his “multiple intelligences theory” (MI Theory) and “five minds.”

“In the twenty-first century, the most important kind of mind will be the synthesizing mind.” — Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1969

🆕 What is Spiritual Intelligence? The Twenty-One Skills of “SQ21” by Cindy Wigglesworth (Book Summary)

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book—it’s a nice balance of the philosophical and the practical. Cindy is highly educated, spent two decades working in the corporate world, and has obviously invested a considerable amount of time and energy in self-taught pursuits on her own journey through life. It’s immediately obvious that she’s well-read and knows her stuff. This is a summary that I’ll revisit often in the future.

“If you have picked up this book … you are someone who wants to become more fully human … Once this hunger awakens, no distractions, purchases, or promotions at work will satisfy it. You just know there is ‘something more.'” — Cindy Wigglesworth

Modern Knowledge

🧬 Unnatural Selection
(Netflix)

I’ve only watched the first episode of this four-part docuseries, but I already know I’ll watch the entire thing. It’s about gene technology and genetic engineering. The future really is now. And, it’s not just leading geneticists and large corporations making use of it. The film also highlights citizen biohackers working out of their garages. I had no idea this was already happening.

If you decide you want to watch this, I’d start with the documentary Human Nature (highlighted in Sloww Sunday #035) which will give you a far better foundational understanding of the science and technology. Then watch Unnatural Selection to dive into the moral, social, and environmental questions and implications.

“We know very well from human history we’re not going to put this back in the bottle. The technology is there. It’s going to be used.” — Leeor Kaufman, film-maker of Unnatural Selection (The Guardian)

Timeless Wisdom

☯️ Tao Te Ching (Compare 10 Translations)
(Tasuki.org & Terebess.hu)

I find myself on this website fairly often—whether it’s for my own benefit or I’m sending the link to others. I’d like to eventually choose my favorite passages from each translation to create my own go-to version.

Want even more translations?

Pair with: 10 Life-Transforming Themes & 25 Top Quotes from “Tao Te Ching” by Lao Tzu (Book Summary)

“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” — Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell Version)