Bio:

Mark Pearrow has been a research engineer at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts since 1996, although, before that, he was a professional musician and toured nationally with his ill-monikered band, Techno-Squid Eats Parliament. Since his teen years, he has been a student of the Mysteries, having started and led a Hermetic Study group in 1988. He only became a Mason in 2010, but since then has been a two-year Worshipful Master of Norfolk Lodge in Needham, MA; a member of the AASR NMJ and is currently a line officer in the Valley of Boston Consistory; was taking his Royal Arch degrees when COVID hit, and has thus not received the ultimate RA degree (but is eagerly awaiting it!); is a member of the Kansas Lodge of Research, an officer in the Massachusetts Lodge of Research, the Master of the Lodge of Instruction of the Fifth Masonic District in Massachusetts; Chaplain of the Fifth Masonic District in Massachusetts; Chair of the education committee of Norfolk Lodge (MA); and a contributor to Masonic publications like the Trowel (MA GL), “The Freemason” (a UK publication); the Fraternal Review (from the Southern Californa Research Lodge), Montana Freemason Magazine, and many others. He is also the video schlep for the “Being Human Kind” podcast and the sponsor of the Further Light research group in Massachusetts. He also has a lot of cool analog synthesizers!

Prepared Topics:

Codes, Ciphers, and Secrets: a Masonic View of Cryptography – 45 Minutes
Keeping secrets safe has been a major tool in the arsenal of modern civilization. How does cryptography figure into our Masonic heritage? How can the secrets of encoding be applied to the Craft? What implications are there for the Human Race and beyond?

Otherization: Our Ancient Brains’ Influence Over Our Present Condition – 45 Minutes
Not so long ago, it was really hard to have an intellectual conversation with a sabre-tooth tiger who was about to eat you. There were few options: kill or be killed. It was adaptive, from an evolutionary perspective, to cut short such debates and to cling to one way of thinking. It was the difference between life and death! But now, in an era where we are our own worst enemies, Humans still have old-model wiring, but vastly different environments where information outpaces our capacity to make sense. How do we move forward in a Masonic Way when our instincts tell us not to?

Infobesity: the Effects of Over-consumption of information – 60 Minutes
Until the advent of Sedetinism, humans roamed the Earth in tribes, foraging for food wherever they could find it. Once agrarian technology emerged, the ability to create more food than was needed for immediate sustenance became a reality. Once high-calorie food, once a rarity in the Human world, became commonplace, we began to consume more and more of it, in accordance with our ancient wiring. This overwhelmed our bodies ability to process such rare nutrients. and obesity was born. The same pattern has happened in Humanity with information. Once a rare substance, only seen on cave walls and in ritual art and writing, information exploded within the last 500 years, overwhelming our ability to healthily process it. The result is infobesity – a disease of overconsumption and limited absorption of that which is “nutritious.”

Travel information: Zoom: Anywhere, anytime. Physical travel must be covered by travel and lodging.

Websites: NA