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Prot Asks: Eric about free software, art, religion, and cosmic consistency
About this film
In this near-3-hour video I talk to Eric Frederickson about a broad range of issues that can be summed up under the theme of “cosmic consistency”. We start with a discussion about Eric’s endeavours with software development. I ask about Eric’s experience with free software and open source contributions, which makes us consider not just the programming side of things but also how there is a community-building component to the whole process. The development of GNU Emacs is a case in point. We explore how participating in free software is part coding part character building due to the social skills/interactions involved. Our next big topic is art and creativity. Eric is a musician and has a keen interest in the artistic experience. Over the course of our talk we comment on ways to be creative, the different forms of expression we find from conservation to exploration, and how harmony is experienced. Many finer points here involve the sense of awe, how aesthetics cannot be reduced to words, that text alone disturbs us because we do not connect to a person’s emotional state, and more. Eric asks me what I think about the rhythm of life, also with regard to my way of choosing to live in t…
Directors & creators
Protesilaos Stavrou
Subjects
prot-asks
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