Jack Kevorkian's Public-Access Cable Show

"Well, the time has come for us to enter the realm of pure human reason. So come along with me as we travel through The Door...." so Jack Kevorkian invites us into his TV show The Door, before he goes into an explanation of a series of optical illusions and how perception works.

Kevorkian was a polymath -- in addition to being a doctor, he was a painter, musician, writer and failed politician. In his TV show he meanders his way through a series of ideas focused on his notions of human perception, limits of understanding, and boundaries. At times it seems meaningful (and weird), at other times just plain weird. As Jake Goldman wrote in his article O, The Humanity: The Door starring Dr. Jack Kevorkian:

In his brief and hard-to-find cable-access program, The Door, Kevorkian hammers home somewhat these beliefs [about life and death] in much broader strokes, digging into the operational mind. The show does meander quite a bit as Kevorkian doesn’t seem to have much of a script, constantly tumbling over his words, and pausing to collect himself -- but still, it’s an incredibly engaging episode. Mainly what Kevorkian focuses in on is absolutes. Absolutes, meaning, that we [human beings] focus too much on concretes and don’t engage in the idea of limitless possibilities. For example, he posits that the speed of light isn’t actually the fastest speed in the universe, but it’s the fastest speed we know of. There may be other, immeasurable speeds out there in the ether, ones which we’ve never discovered and may never discover. Written down, or said aloud, the immediate reaction is some sort of combination of “duh,” and “boring, bro.” But, after thinking about it for a bit, that Kevorkian is right on. The more we dub things as absolutes, the more our imaginations are stunted because we humans don’t have, and will never have what Kevorkian calls “maximal awareness.” This “maximal awareness” is impossible to achieve since it would involve having a hyper-awareness, one that would show us every single possibility in the universe. And that’s just crazy talk. Or crazy think. Whatever.

Read the rest of Goldman's article for more analysis (warning: some coarse language), or just check out the show below:

Check out part 2 and part 3 on YouTube.

(Via Network Awesome.)