158 - Ramin Nazer & The TeaFaerie: Mid-Singularity Trialogues, Part 1

FUTURE FOSSILS

This week I’m delighted to bring The Teafaerie (ep. 100) and Ramin Nazer (ep. 120) back to Future Fossils Podcast! These are two of the funniest, weirdest amateur futurists I know, and I hope you agree this discussion was worth the wait while I spent hours making it sound like we didn’t just talk over each other like overexcited dorks for two-plus-hours.

In this episode, we discuss the virtualization of live events as relates to the science fiction of Charles Stross and Hannu Rajaniemi, the stratification of class according to who can afford to be somewhere in person, and my writing on AR and telepresence for H+ Magazine (“Best Seat In The House”) and the Body Hacking Conference Blog (“Being Every Drone”). We talk about the perverse incentives of social media as an outrage generator and surveillance capitalism pit trap, and how we might be able to redesign the social Web so it doesn’t drive us all (even more) insane. Plus:

• The world being transformed into an unending series of limnoid events

• Having “an affinity for the rapids”

• Should we just side with our new AI overlords?

• Beyond the Black Mirror

• A very curious fan theory about the Flintstones & Jetsons

• The Bell Riots in Star Trek DS9

• Eternal upload simulation matrix reawakenings

And more, until we all get shut down by a robot in mid-sentence.

If you aren’t sated after listening to their episodes (and who could be?), subscribe to Ramin’s Rainbow Brainskull Hour and The Teafaerie’s YouTube Channel.

Please rate and review Future Fossils on Apple Podcasts! And if you believe in the value of this show and want to see it thrive, support Future Fossils on Patreon. Patrons gain access to over twenty secret episodes, unreleased music, our book club, and many other treats.

And Happy Holidays: I just made all of the Future Fossils Book Club recordings free. You’re now welcome to enjoy at your leisure our small-group discussions on some of my favorite works of science fiction and psychedelic non-fiction: books by Peter Watts, Diana Reed Slattery, Cixin Liu, Octavia Butler, and Jeff VanderMeer…

AND here’s a Spotify Playlist for psychedelic experiences created by Future Fossils listener Rian Bevans (host of The Riancarnation Podcast) that, along with legends like Brian Eno and Four Tet, heavily features instrumental music by yours truly (some of which also made it on the official clinical playlist for FDA’s MDMA for PTSD trials).

We’d also love to have you in our thriving little Discord server, if you’re interested in meeting other members of our awesome scene. (And if you’re up for helping edit Future Fossils Podcast transcripts, please drop me a line at [e-mail].)

Intro and outro music is from Skytree’s new LP of spacey downtempo electronica, Infraplanetary, which I highly encourage you to purchase. Official podcast theme is “God Detector” by Skytree (featuring Michael Garfield).

Enjoy, and thanks for listening!

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