Beautiful Illusions

Darron Vigliotti, Jeffrey Horton
  • 0.0 (0)
  • PHILOSOPHY
Beautiful Illusions

Jeff & Darron ponder the intersection of reality, consciousness, and culture. These conversations comprise an ongoing attempt to construct meaning by exploring art and science, developing understanding of the context underpinning our current moment in time, and imagining possible futures for human civilization. No expertise here, just two guys who enjoy learning, thinking, and talking about big ideas, deep questions, and the “beautiful illusion” that is the subjective human experience. *New episodes released every one to two months on Sunday mornings*

  1. EP 36 - Authenticity In The Age Of AI

    22/12/2024

    EP 36 - Authenticity In The Age Of AI

    Darron and Jeff explore the idea of what it means to be “authentic” in terms of the self, how this is influenced by context, memory, and shared experiences, and how increasingly powerful artificially intelligent systems and apps might impact how we record and remember events by altering or outright inventing memories and further blurring the already hazy lines between reality and our perceptions. They then discuss whether or not AI created content can really be considered authentic even if we can’t easily differentiate it from human-created content, the significance of the burgeoning ability through AI to quickly output products without the friction associated with more traditional human artistic processes, and the value of “doing the work” slowly over time in order to develop the depth of understanding and expertise that leads to truly authentic human creation

    1h 8m
  2. EP 35 - The Albums Of Our Lives

    29/09/2024

    EP 35 - The Albums Of Our Lives

    Darron and Jeff each select ten albums that hold particular significance for them. They list the albums in chronological order from when they personally experienced them as important in some way, and they reflect on how they came to that particular album at that point in time, the meaning it once held for them and still might hold, how it shaped their life, relationships, and identity then and what it meant for them moving forward, and many other recollections that they associate with that particular album. This episode is by far their longest and it was an extremely fun and engaging process for both of them which in many ways represents the kind of conversation that initially bonded them together as friends almost 30 years ago. This episode also marks two Beautiful Illusions firsts in that the released conversation is the almost completely the unedited raw audio of their discussion and also in order to prevent spoilers there are very few show notes. If you want to know their ten then you have to slow down and listen.

    2h 38m
  3. EP 34 - Icy Hot Takes on Artificial Intelligence

    11/08/2024

    EP 34 - Icy Hot Takes on Artificial Intelligence

    Darron and Jeff discuss the sudden and ubiquitous onslaught of artificially intelligent apps and the conversation they engender currently pervading our culture. From a position of relatively low information, they try to grapple with the implications of this technology on art, learning, and education, and while they barely make it to the latter topics, they do explore the nature of art and how artificially intelligent tools might contribute, or take away from, what has up until now has been an exclusively human creative endeavor. Where will all of this lead? They certainly don’t know, and even though they do some sense making here, ultimately they're left with more questions than answers, which is essentially the epitome of the larger collective cultural situation. There’s certainly a lot more learning and thinking to do, and they're sure this is a topic they will revisit again and again.

    1 hr
  4. EP 33 - The Post-Entertainment Culture of Addiction

    23/06/2024

    EP 33 - The Post-Entertainment Culture of Addiction

    Darron and Jeff discuss a model of creation and consumption put forth on Substack by cultural critic Ted Gioia in which he draws distinctions between art, entertainment, distraction, and addiction, and they evaluate his hypothesis that we are entering what he refers to as a “post-entertainment society.” They delineate what he sees as the differences between these different forms in terms of what they are, why they are created, how they are consumed, and the subsequent effects their consumption has on both individuals and culture at large. Finally, as they try to make some sense for themselves they synthesize this framework with some previous thinking, and then speculate a bit on where these changes might all be leading.

    56 min
  5. EP 32 - We Read So We Can Talk

    14/04/2024

    EP 32 - We Read So We Can Talk

    Jeff and Darron work their way into a meandering conversation about one of their favorite topics, art, specifically Shakespeare and the extent of the influence of his work on the literature, thought, and culture that came after him, which is prompted by Jeff’s brief discussion of his non-fiction reading habit. This leads into a discussion of Darron's fiction reading where they talk about why novels are often better than the movies and/or television they inspire, the idea of seeing the imagery on the page as you read, the use of specific devices in writing that can sometimes feel gimmicky, and the conversational and social nature of art.

    1h 3m
  6. EP 31 - Life, Art, & Experience: A Conversation

    14/01/2024

    EP 31 - Life, Art, & Experience: A Conversation

    Darron and Jeff have a free-form discussion that was inspired by a Bruce Springsteen concert, a Beatles song, and a subsequent text message, about the role of art in our lives and experiences - both how our experiences shape our perceptions of art, and how art shapes our experiences. They talk about children and how their interaction with art helps them develop their self concept, they talk about the feelings and emotional responses we have to art, and how art connects us to both the artist and each other while at the same time helping us to shape meaning in our lives.

    47 min
  7. EP 30 - What Does It Mean To Be A Man?

    26/11/2023

    EP 30 - What Does It Mean To Be A Man?

    Darron and Jeff grapple with the idea of masculinity and what it means to live as a man in 2023. First they briefly touch on how masculinity is frequently discussed in the context of “toxic masculinity” and then begin to examine how they have come to understand what it means to be a man. This leads to a discussion of their relationships and experiences with their own fathers, how concepts such as masculinity might exist on a spectrum that changes over time, and how we might move forward and build a more positive and affirmative vision of masculinity. Although this conversation is very much an attempt to make meaning for themselves, it is by no means an end to their thinking on this subject, and is in fact quite the opposite - an initial conversation about a complex topic they plan on delving into more deeply in the future.

    53 min
  8. EP 29 - Vacation Part 2: It's A Process

    08/10/2023

    EP 29 - Vacation Part 2: It's A Process

    Darron and Jeff follow up on a conversation they had back in November 2022 about the nature of vacations. If you haven’t heard that episode you might want to go back and listen (or maybe relisten) for context. The occasion for the conversation is Jeff’s return from a month-long summer vacation journey up and down the east coast. They discuss the general contours of Jeff’s trip, the experience of parenting while traveling with young children, Disney World, seeing and appreciating the country you live in, the terrible beauty of modern civilization, instant gratification culture, and the value of seeing ourselves engaged in processes as opposed to experiencing outcomes.

    53 min
See All (37)

Trailer

About

Jeff & Darron ponder the intersection of reality, consciousness, and culture. These conversations comprise an ongoing attempt to construct meaning by exploring art and science, developing understanding of the context underpinning our current moment in time, and imagining possible futures for human civilization. No expertise here, just two guys who enjoy learning, thinking, and talking about big ideas, deep questions, and the “beautiful illusion” that is the subjective human experience. *New episodes released every one to two months on Sunday mornings*

Information

  • Creator
    Darron Vigliotti, Jeffrey Horton
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2024
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2020 The Beautiful Illusions Podcast
  • Show Website
    Beautiful Illusions

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada