← i am the alien

the directory

Every human quoted in these notes, with their records — where they were heard, what they wrote, and where to keep reading.

  1. Robert Ardrey

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    American playwright who turned to the science of human origins. One entry from his last book — the needs that built the animal.

    The Hunting Hypothesis (1976) · record ↗

  2. Mariana Atencio

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    Venezuelan-American journalist. Spoke on labels and being human at TEDx.

    “What Makes You Special?”, TEDxUniversityofNevada (2017) · record ↗

  3. Lisa Feldman Barrett

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    American neuroscientist. The brain’s most important job: running the body’s needs — before any thinking.

    Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain (2020) · record ↗

  4. Russell Brand

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    English comedian. Objected to filing human requirements in a pyramid.

    Revolution (2014) · record ↗

  5. Dan Brown

    heard in 1 — 1 entry

    American novelist. Quoted as fiction, on the oldest of symbols.

    The Lost Symbol (2009) · record ↗

  6. The Brundtland Commission

    heard in 0 · 6 — 2 entries

    The UN commission that wrote needs — twice — into the planet’s definition of its own future.

    Our Common Future (1987), ch. 2 · record ↗

  7. John Burton

    narrated · notes five and seven

    Australian diplomat who resigned from diplomacy and built a school of peacemaking on non-negotiable needs. Reported, not quoted; the paper trail is real — the 1965–66 London workshops on the Malaysia–Indonesia confrontation are written up in his 1969 book.

    Conflict and Communication (1969) · Conflict: Resolution and Provention (1990) · record ↗

  8. Joseph Campbell

    heard in 3 · 4 — 2 entries

    American scholar of myth. Read the same stages in every human life, and a society in its tallest building.

    The Power of Myth (1988, with Bill Moyers) · record ↗

  9. Len Doyal & Ian Gough

    heard in 3 · 4 — 2 entries

    Philosopher and political economist. Three hundred pages proving human needs are real, universal, and measurable.

    A Theory of Human Need (1991) · record ↗

  10. Albert Einstein, with Leopold Infeld

    heard in 0 — 1 entry

    On the formulation of a problem mattering more than its solution.

    The Evolution of Physics (1938), p. 92 · record ↗

  11. Viktor Frankl

    relay · note one

    Psychiatrist and survivor of the camps. The why/how line crosses these notes in his rendering.

    Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) · record ↗

  12. Susan Pease Gadoua

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    American therapist. On unmet needs underneath most of what couples fight about.

    Psychology Today column · record ↗

  13. Mahatma Gandhi

    relayed · note six

    Indian liberator. Enough for every man’s needs, never for every man’s greed — the sentence survives in his secretary Pyarelal’s keeping.

    Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (1958) · record ↗

  14. Mo Gawdat

    heard in 6 — 1 entry

    Engineer and former Google X executive. On raising the machines the way you raise children.

    Scary Smart (2021) · record ↗

  15. Khalil Gibran

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    Lebanese-American poet. The fruit, the root, and giving as a need.

    The Prophet (1923), “On Good and Evil” · record ↗

  16. Richard Haass

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    American diplomat. Served through both Iraq wars; named one of them a war of choice. Also relayed in note four, in the alien’s words: his reading of Versailles — the humiliation and economic ruin written into the treaty feeding the radical populism and nationalism that followed.

    War of Necessity, War of Choice (2009) · record ↗

  17. Yuval Noah Harari

    heard in 3 · 4 · 6 — 9 entries

    Israeli historian. The book’s most-heard witness: nine entries, from expertise to the monkeys.

    Sapiens (2011) · Homo Deus (2016) · 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) · record ↗

  18. Aleksandar Hemon

    heard in 0 — 1 entry

    Bosnian-American writer. In Bosnian there is no word separating fiction from nonfiction.

    Salon interview (23 March 2013) · record ↗

  19. Victor Hugo

    heard in 3 — 2 entries

    French novelist. Three needs — temple, city, plow — and the last line he ever wrote: to love is to act.

    Toilers of the Sea (1866), preface · notebook, 19 May 1885 · record ↗

  20. Steve Jobs

    heard in 0 — 1 entry

    On simplicity being harder than complexity, and moving mountains.

    BusinessWeek interview (1998) · record ↗

  21. Carl Jung

    heard in 3 · 5 — 2 entries

    Swiss psychiatrist. Society as a concept that does not eat; yearning as the way of life. Also relayed once, by Carl Rogers.

    Collected Works vol. 16 (1945) · The Red Book (Liber Novus) · record ↗

  22. Martin Luther King Jr.

    voice with recordings · note six

    The largest recorded demonstration of the what: a quarter of a million unmet needs, named with love. His recording is mounted in note six.

    “I Have a Dream” (28 August 1963) · record ↗

  23. J. Krishnamurti

    relayed · note four

    Indian philosopher. Observing without evaluating — quoted in Marshall Rosenberg’s keeping.

    as quoted in Nonviolent Communication, ch. 3 · record ↗

  24. Abraham Maslow

    heard in 3 · 4 · 6 — 5 entries

    American psychologist. Made the famous list of needs — and never drew the pyramid. Spent his last years adding a floor above self-fulfillment.

    “A Theory of Human Motivation” (1943) · Motivation and Personality (1954) · The Psychology of Science (1966) · record ↗

  25. Manfred Max-Neef

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    Chilean “barefoot economist.” Needs constant across cultures and centuries; satisfiers local.

    Human Scale Development (1991) · record ↗

  26. A. A. Milne

    heard in 3 — 2 entries

    English writer; creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. One of his lines is filed under the bear’s own name — the notebook’s declared exception.

    The House at Pooh Corner (1928) · record ↗

  27. Friedrich Nietzsche

    heard in 1 · 3 — 2 entries

    German philosopher. The why that bears any how; values assigned to maintain ourselves.

    Twilight of the Idols (1888) · Thus Spake Zarathustra (Common translation) · record ↗

  28. Tim O’Riordan

    heard in 6 — 1 entry

    British environmental scientist. Sustainability as an examination of our humanness — from his preface to The Unselfish Spirit.

    preface to Mick Collins, The Unselfish Spirit (2014) · record ↗

  29. Henry Temple, Lord Palmerston

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    Twice British Prime Minister. No eternal allies, no perpetual enemies — interests, eternal and perpetual.

    Hansard, House of Commons, 1 March 1848 · record ↗

  30. Jonathon Porritt

    heard in 6 — 1 entry

    British environmentalist. After decades of banging on: more optimistic than ever.

    Capitalism as if the World Matters (2007) · record ↗

  31. Kate Raworth

    heard in 6 — 1 entry

    English economist. Drew the doughnut: the needs of all, within the means of the planet.

    Doughnut Economics (2017) · record ↗

  32. Carl Rogers

    heard in 3 · 4 · 6 — 3 entries

    American psychologist. Behavior as the organism meeting its needs; and the one who carried Jung’s sentence about being understood.

    Client-Centered Therapy (1951) · A Way of Being (1980) · “Empathic” (1975) · record ↗

  33. Marshall Rosenberg

    heard in 3 · 4 — 5 entries

    American psychologist and mediator; built Nonviolent Communication on needs and the feelings that point to them.

    Nonviolent Communication · Being Me, Loving You (2005) · The Surprising Purpose of Anger (2005) · Living Nonviolent Communication (2012) · record ↗

  34. Hans Rosling

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    Swedish physician and statistician. Causes, not villains; systems, not heroes.

    Factfulness (2018) · record ↗

  35. William Shakespeare

    heard in 4 — 1 entry

    Nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

    Hamlet, Act II, scene 2 · record ↗

  36. Simon Sinek

    voice with recordings · note one

    English-American author. The golden circle — why, how, what — is his; his talk is mounted in note one.

    Start With Why (2009) · record ↗

  37. Adam Smith

    heard in 4 — 2 entries

    Scottish economist. The butcher, the brewer, the baker — and what we stand in need of.

    The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, ch. 2 · record ↗

  38. Chris Voss

    heard in 3 — 1 entry

    American negotiator; the FBI’s former lead international hostage negotiator. Every negotiation runs on subterranean needs.

    Never Split the Difference (2016) · record ↗

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