G. Pascal Zachary

Aldous Huxley, author of the essay "Doors of Perception," remains an important thinker on the subject of cogntive enhancement.

Journalism is dead. Long live journalism as a form of purposeful thought: a case study in the anatomy of contemporary cognition

     The economic destruction of journalism as an occupation – and new media technologies that permit inexpensive publishing – mean anyone and everyone can act like a journalist.
     At a time when anyone can be a journalist, the desire to think like a journalist could be greater than ever.
      Hence, my idea for a book that explains how people from all walks of life can learn the art of thinking like a journalist. How journalists report, assemble and tell dramatic narratives is a capacity open to anyone with a good true tale to tell, experience to analysis, coherent views to advance and advocate for.
      Besides using the work of others to illustrate points, I intend to draw from my own experiences.
      The book will consist of the following cognitive "frames":

1. Journalist as Skeptic: Drawing from Socrates to Mencken, we examine the importance of persistent questioning, a method called "skepticism" that calls into question not only assertions, but also assumptions.

2. Journalist as Neutral Observer, as Referee or Moderator: What does it mean to report and write objectively about contentious issues? How does one evaluate one's journalism for fairness and balance? How do you tell both sides of a story, pro and con? What do you do when a story has more than two sides?

3. Journalist as Historian: What do journalists mean when they say (as Phil Graham of the Washington Post famously did) that they are writing the "first draft of history." What skills and techniques do journalists employ when they try to write history in real time?

4. Journalist as Watchdog: When should the journalist hold other people to account? How does a journalist take on the role of the police, the prosecutor, the judge and jury – without abusing his or her power as an investigator? What are the set of skills required to judge the fairness and balance of "gotcha" journalism? How can the zeal required to carry out investigative journalism by balanced by the calm grasp of what's the appropriate journalistic response to failure or wrong-doing?

5. Journalist as "fly on the wall": When should a journalist chronicle an event, a series of them, without comment, without intrusion, simply bearing witness, presenting an accumulation of vivid details – almost as an omniscient narrator -- in order to achieve the remarkable effect of holding up a mirror to the world? There is a long journalistic tradition of silent observation, with John Hersey's account of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima perhaps the most famous. We also learn how journalists can present a detailed account of events they didn't witness, using techniques of reconstruction, relying on documents and accounts of direct witnesses. Jon Krakauer's classic book, Into Thin Air (about a mountain climbing disaster), provides many lessons on do's and don'ts.

6. Journalist as Expert: How does a journalist achieve so much expertise – so much knowledge about a specific subject – that he or she can write as an expert. Or does the journalist engage in sleight of hand, merely appearing to be an expert. How does a journalist achieve such a high level of expertise (or such a convincing imitation of an expert)? What are the perils of presenting "right answers" to readers and viewers? When are journalists justified in solving problems directly, and when are such attempts over-reaching and doomed to failure?

7. Journalist as Voice of the Voiceless: I examine the various ways journalists give voice to people who have no means of speaking to wider audiences, learning how to create oral testimonies in the manner of legendary Chicago radio interviewer Studs Terkel. We specifically look at how journalists give voice to poor people, drawing on the work of Jacob Riis and Barbara Ehrenreich.

8. Journalist as Keeper of Secrets: How do journalists use (and sometimes abuse) secrets? Why might a journalist secretly work for a government, a corporation or a celebrity -- and what are the gains and losses when they do?

9. Journalist as Wolf-Crier: I look at how and why journalists sometimes frighten people into caring about an issue or story? Is there a right way to fear-monger?

10. Journalist as Cheerleader: How and why do journalists become cheerleaders, relentless boosters of others? Can a journalist respect the powerful while avoiding become fawning or obsequious? Or is boosterism inevitable?

11. Journalist as stand-up comedian: Or is it, the standup comedian as journalist? Time magazine recently called jon Stewart the rightful heir to Walter Cronkite.

12. Journalist as Myth-Maker: Great storytelling springs from a way of thinking, a habit of mind, a distinct species of consciousness.

The past, present and future of human consciousness, from the Greeks to Google; Cognitive Enhancement as a bio-medical, digital and existential project for our own times

My research and writing about Vannevar Bush, which began in the late 1980s, awakened me to the destablizing potential that computers and data networks would have on human thought.

For the Barret Honors College at Arizona State University, I taught a popular and demanding course on the intellectual history of consciousness, and the history and present of technological advances -- from writing and reading to printing and, more recently, the advent of digital media -- that transformed human consciousness over the centuries. The course, which I entitled "the Quest for Enhanced Consciousness," examined the history and future of three broad paths to enhanced consciousness, or improved thought, with a special emphasis on the contemporary pursuit of cognitive enhancement, "mind expansion," and the construction of world brains or a global super-intelligence. Individual and collective efforts to discipline the workings of the mind emerged as early as the Greeks, and evolved through the Enlightenment and the Modern era. Over the past 50 years, two important paths, or trajectories, for enhancing human consciousness have come into clearer focus: one path driven by bio-pharmaceutical technologies and the other path riven by digital electronics, computing and the Internet. All three approaches – for brevity's sake we can call them "mental discipline," "the pill," and "the processor" – coexist and co-evolve today. The class will explore the differences and similarities in approaches to enhanced consciousness in the past and into the future. Today the bio-pharma and digital computing approaches are so robust that improvements to consciousness is viewed as an everyday affair and the potential for perfect consciousness and even an immortal or everlasting individual or global mind is considered within the realm of possibility by informed and rational actors. Through readings, written reflections and a team project, students will confront urgent questions around the history and future of consciousness, including: Why have humans pursued improved means of thinking for centuries? What's new and challenging about today's approaches to cognitive enhancement? What are the dangers of new and improved consciousness, what are the potential benefits, and how can we learn from the past as well as imagine and design more appropriate paths to enhanced consciousness in future? What ways might inequality widen by commercial products, either digital or pharmaceutical, that enhance the quality and quantity of thought? Finally, how do we as individuals address these issues in our own lives?

Writer, Teacher & Historian

The past, present and future of human consciousness, from the Greeks to Google; Cognitive Enhancement as a bio-medical, digital and existential project for our own times

Books by Zachary

Biography/History of Techno-science in 20th century America

Computers, technology and society

World Affairs

African affairs

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