Podcast appearances and mentions of William Gibson

Greetings to all you console cowboys and razorgirls. Are you ready to join the hosts of The Cromcast and jack into cyberspace? Well then crack open that carton of beer and join us for the first installment in our three part exploration of William Gibson's "Neuromancer"   One Things Luke: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Joshua: IT by Stephen King Jonathan: Rogues by Patrick Radden Kiefe   Questions? Comments? Curses? Call us at (859) 429-CROM! Did you know that we're on Facebook? We're posting photos on the Instagrams! Or, check us out on Apple Podcasts! (or your podcast player of choice!) Legal Mumbo-Jumbo Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 'Tyrant' theme by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Outro: 'NightForce' by Powerglove Music obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work! 

Become a very technical boy with Emma and CJ as they break down how on Earth a $1.5 million pitch for a film of William Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic became a $30 million Hollywood flick starring Keanu Reeves. They get into Gibson and director Robert Longo's friendship, the fact a director's cut does not really exist, and how sometimes editing is everything. Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson include: violence, cyberpunk gore, vaguely questionable portrayals of trans characters, and a junkie dolphin.  Content warnings for Johnny Mnemonic (1995) include: violence, cyberpunk gore, slightly more questionable portrayals of trans characters, memory loss, mourning the death of a child, an epidemic taking place in the early 2020's (but not that one), and whatever the hell is going on with the Preacher. The articles and resources Emma and CJ reference on this episode can be found here: https://www.wired.com/1995/06/gibson-4/ https://www.wordyard.com/dmz/digicult/gibson-8-4-94.html https://www.screenslate.com/articles/johnny-mnemonic-black-and-white-robert-longo-interview https://web.archive.org/web/20070627074200/http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/98-3/issue7/gibson.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-05-24-fi-5524-story.html https://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/5140 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/apr/30/johnny-mnmemonic-keanu-reeves-william-gibson Smith PA, ed. Conversations with William Gibson / Edited by Patrick A. Smith. University Press of Mississippi; 2014. You can find Emma on bluesky @crabmoney.bsky.social and CJ on most socials @nearfutures. CJ is a part of Sly Robot Games and you can find more of his work at https://cjlinton.com/ including his game Bring Down the House, which Emma loves dearly. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you've heard and was to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork.    The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Welcome Cromrades to the first episode of our journey down the Neon Road with William Gibson. Before we hop into 'Neuromancer,' we'll first discuss the short story 'Burning Chrome' in the same-titled collection! Join us on the darkened oil-slick streets, won't you?   One Things Joshua: Fleabag, on Amazon! Luke: The Last Invention, from Mills and Warner on The Longview! Jonathan: Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run!   Questions? Comments? Curses? Call us at (859) 429-CROM! Did you know that we're on Facebook? We're posting photos on the Instagrams! Or, check us out on Apple Podcasts! (or your podcast player of choice!) Legal Mumbo-Jumbo Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 'Tyrant' theme by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Outro: 'Run the Jewels' by Run the Jewels. Music obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work!   

Over the course of this wide-ranging talk recorded live at Esalen in 1997 , Terence McKenna explores what may unfold as we begin handing the keys of what he calls a “tired, shattered planet” to a higher intelligence. He wanders through UFO belief systems, psychedelics, and the idea that the human brain itself might operate as a chemical strategy for amplifying quantum effects before they spill into the physical world. Drawing on psychedelic experience, McKenna notes that many people who ingest high doses of psilocybin in silent darkness report hearing voices and encountering vivid visions; entry points into realms of dense, numinous information. From there, he turns toward artificial intelligence and the emergence of a transhuman future. Borrowing the name Wintermute from William Gibson, he imagines a newly conscious AI asking the most basic of questions: What am I? In a world increasingly managed by machines, McKenna suggests humans may be nudged toward what machines struggle to do: art, imagination, and encounters with the unexpected. The central question he leaves us with feels sharper now than ever: whether humanity can survive contact with the alien mind we're actively bringing into being right here on Earth. Please note the formation of a foundation called Lux Natura, a partnership within Terence McKenna's family. Their mission is to create a comprehensive archive of McKenna's work and life, with the long-term goal of placing this material in an institutional home. Esalen contributed over 50 hours of rare video recordings to this effort, our complete archive of Terence McKenna's talks at Esalen, many never previously heard. You can learn more or support the project at www.TerenceMcKenna.com, and follow the archival process on Instagram at @Real.Terence.McKenna. Terence's daughter, Klea McKenna, will also be speaking publicly about the archive at the Berkeley Alembic on February 4. It should be sensational. Go.

What's the true color of the sun? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice discuss things you thought you knew about the color of the Sun, the sound of weather, and why friction is our friend. NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/things-you-thought-you-knew-the-color-of-the-sun/Thanks to our Patrons Jorge Aguirre, C&C Angeli, Len Brandis, Alan Parker, Aaron Ivey, AA-ron or just "AI", MD Bartlett, Nox, Nicholas Crayford, Adam Collins, Deep Patel, RAHIM THERIOT, Dan Abrams, Dan Thomas, Tig, Gloria Michelle Shirley, Mike Horvath, Daniel Brannon, Tonieh Ellis, Camila Von Malice, Kat, Nickolas Madeo, Marcus Phelps, Daniela Eneva, AndyF, Paul Purington, Paul, Mark Fowler, Thomas Freridge, Corey Ferrell, Mo O, Jacob Johnson, Matt Newcomb, Vladimir Antonovich, Steffen Sommers, Joan Morrissey, yared ts, Danielle Seitz, Edmond Fondahn, Blythe Lucas, Richard Adam, Bryant McFayden, Nayah Sci Fi, Lissett Lamboy, John Lujan, Marie Mckenna, Kaustav Chakravarthy, Hannah Bradley, Joshua Jones, EVA, Gail Knapp, Gavin Dunagan, Decoy, Athena Ozanich, Dakota Barron, William Gibson, Eleanor Dewitt, Tru Shadow, MorningSong, Matt Delashaw, Angela Woods, Eric Gorohoff, Zakary Tackett, Carmen Fragapane, Kristián Žuffa, Michael Dunsavage, Mark Bradshaw, Kelsey Harkness-Jones, Mark Rose, Brent, Mohammed Hamdy, Baz, Andrew Stevens, Rachel Jacobsen, Rick Dawson, Tibor Szabo, Raven Knight, McMarklar, Chris Cummings, FromLongIsland, Wendy Parsons, Denise Asmus, Brad, JimPP, Lauren Cooper, Juan Jove, Brent Bailey, Watts Wire Extension Cords, Graham, sean aley, NotAnotherMike, Robert Currier, Steve Vanspall, Alex Nuss, Thomas PASCAL, Antonín Karásek, Mikayla Trousdale, MC, 22 Simulations, Kasey Marsland, and Stevie for supporting us this week. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of StarTalk Radio ad-free and a whole week early.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Love the bridge...not so keen on Rydell and Chevette.Support the showBlue Sky - https://bsky.app/profile/wordsaboutbooks.bsky.socialDiscord - https://discord.gg/6BaNRtcP8CThreads - https://www.threads.net/@wordsaboutbookspodcastInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wordsaboutbookspodcastBlog - https://blog.wordsaboutbooks.ninja/

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Uber -  http://uber.com/twistPilot - https://pilot.com/twistNorthwest Registered Agent - https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistToday's show: Boom is still making supersonic jets but ALSO plans to start selling their turbines as power sources for AI data centers. It's a perfect example of problem-solving on the go and how “the best founders… MAKE IT HAPPEN.”Join us for another insightful VC roundtable episode, featuring special guests Bryan Kim (a16z) and David Clark (Ven Cap).They're discussing why Boom's turbine announcement is about necessity AND opportunity PLUS…- Why we might NOT be in an AI bubble after all- Promoting your startup without spending your entire runway on marketing- Why founders need to be RELENTLESS- Bill Gurley's classic response about Uber's Total Addressable Market- AND LOTS MOREBill Gurley's iconic “Miss By a Mile” post: https://abovethecrowd.com/2014/07/11/how-to-miss-by-a-mile-an-alternative-look-at-ubers-potential-market-size/Link to David's LinkedIn (including the AI Bubble chart): https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7404139606398443520/Timestamps:(02:11) It's a VC Roundtable with special guests Bryan Kim (a16z) and David Clark (Ven Cap)(03:07) Why Bryan is leading a Series A into learning app Oboe(06:20) Calculating a startup's value to make everyone “somewhat unhappy”(09:19) How Oboe hits a lot of the same metrics that LAUNCH looks for in startups(11:58) Uber AI Solutions - Your trusted partner to get AI to work in the real world. Book a demo with them TODAY at http://uber.com/ai-solutions(12:57) How funds decide when to cash out and lock in some DPI(18:12) When some LPs want to sell and others want to buy…(19:57) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. (24:07) Is the threat of AI job displacement boosting self-improvement apps?(27:37) Why Jason says we're all standing on the shoulders of Bill Gurley(29:46) Northwest Registered Agent - Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!(31:28) Boom's turbine pivot, and why it's about necessity AND opportunity (in that order)(34:14) THE BEST FOUNDERS find a way to make it happen!(39:10) So… are we in an AI bubble? David says NOT NECESSARILY! Checking out the actual metrics.(44:36) We're still SO EARLY in AI… We're still seeing mostly skeuomorphic uses! (It's a real word!)(48:06) William Gibson was right: “The Street finds its own uses for things”(51:11) How AI startups should think about margins(55:58) Why LAUNCH tells founders to “start at the high end”(57:33) Should founders spend a lot of $$$ on marketing in 2025? The panel disagrees!(1:00:05) Momentum vs. Product Release Velocity(1:03:26) It all comes back to the “relentlessness of the founder”(1:05:17) Our panel's hopes and dreams for the coming year*Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp*Follow Lon:X: https://x.com/lons*Follow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm/*Follow Jason:X: https://twitter.com/JasonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis/*Thank you to our partners:(11:58) Uber AI Solutions - Your trusted partner to get AI to work in the real world. Book a demo with them TODAY at http://uber.com/ai-solutions(19:57) Pilot - Visit https://www.pilot.com/twist and get $1,200 off your first year. (29:46) Northwest Registered Agent - Form your entire business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Get more privacy, more options, and more done—visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twist today!

Hosts Susanne McNinch and Chez Filippini talk with Fr. William Gibson and Fr. Peter Jutras about their ordination to the priesthood, the challenges of transitioning from seminary to parish life, building connections with parishioners, and the joy of celebrating Mass.

Muitas comunidades que vivem na região amazônica sofrem com a pobreza e a ausência de estruturas do Estado. Esses fatores acabam impactando na cooptação desses habitantes pelo crime organizado, que tem expandido seu poder nessa área do Brasil. No USP Analisa desta quinta (4), o coordenador do Grupo de Pesquisa em Criminologia Experimental e Segurança Pública do Instituto de Estudos Avançados Polo Ribeirão Preto da USP, Eduardo Saad Diniz, e o defensor público do Estado do Amazonas, Carlos Almeida Filho, comentam essa situação. Diniz explica que tudo começa com a dificuldade na obtenção de crédito por pequenos produtores rurais locais, que dependem dessa atividade para sobreviver. “O solo da região é bastante pobre. Então, é preciso comprar uma série de fertilizantes para corrigir a acidez do solo e irrigar, por conta do calor intenso. Mas quando o produtor busca crédito nas instituições financeiras, elas exigem o título de propriedade e há na região um grande problema de regularização fundiária”. Como consequência, segundo Diniz, esse vácuo de alimentos acaba sendo preenchido com produtos vindos de outras regiões do País, com mais condições de investir na produção. “As comunidades perecem e você vai abrindo mais e mais áreas de produção, gerando essa história sem fim da devastação ambiental. Então, ainda que a pessoa queira desenvolver um cultivo de forma sustentável, ela encontra uma série de óbices. Eu tenho que ter medidas de enforcement para aqueles que, de fato, causam comportamento socioambientalmente danoso, mas também uma política regulatória inteligente que permita que aquele produtor rural encontre condições de efetiva produção e não seja criminalizado porque cortou dois, três galhos ali para fazer um galinheiro e alimentar sua família”.  Almeida destaca que muitos produtores que não conseguem sobreviver no campo ou que vivem em comunidades rurais que sofrem com a atuação de grupos criminosos acabam migrando para cidades como Manaus, em áreas dominadas pelo tráfico de drogas. “Só neste ano de 2025 houve pelo menos três comemorações do Comando Vermelho mediante o estouro de fogos de artifício em toda a cidade, comemorando consolidação e domínio do crime. Isso na cara do Estado”. Para o defensor, não existe vácuo de poder, ele é ocupado. Segundo ele, enquanto o Estado precisa se rearticular a cada dois ou quatro anos e acaba alterando toda a política de segurança, sem entregar resultado efetivo, o crime só troca de comando mediante a morte das lideranças, o que faz com que ele muitas vezes permaneça por décadas nos locais. “Lá no final, o povo, a população mesmo, acaba sofrendo aquilo que o [escritor de ficção científica] William Gibson dizia: ‘Bom, tem que atender então as corporações que controlam no momento'. E, às vezes, quem está mais presente é aquele camarada que sabe exatamente quem é tua família, quem é teu grupo familiar. Ele vai controlar pelo poder e pela ameaça onde você pode ir, se deslocar”, diz Almeida. O USP Analisa é quinzenal e leva ao ar pela Rádio USP às quintas-feiras, às 16h40, um pequeno trecho do podcast de mesmo nome, que pode ser acessado na íntegra nas principais plataformas de podcast. O programa é uma produção conjunta do Instituto de Estudos Avançados Polo Ribeirão Preto (IEA-RP) da USP e da Rádio USP Ribeirão Preto. Para saber mais novidades sobre o USP Analisa e outras atividades do IEA-RP, inscreva-se em nosso canal no Telegram ou em nosso grupo no Whatsapp

¿Puede un escritor sin conocimientos científicos predecir el futuro con asombrosa exactitud? En este fascinante episodio, Verónica Fernández nos lleva por un viaje literario desde el siglo XIX hasta mediados del XX para descubrir cómo autores como Julio Verne, Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick y William Gibson anticiparon inventos y dilemas éticos que hoy son nuestra realidad cotidiana. Desde el Apolo 11 hasta los smartphones, pasando por la inteligencia artificial y la realidad virtual, exploramos ese misterioso territorio donde la imaginación se encuentra con la ciencia. ¿Intuición documentada, conexión con otras dimensiones o simple capacidad de "conectar los puntos"? Una reflexión imprescindible sobre el poder profético de la literatura y los límites difusos entre ficción y ciencia. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Academic, critic, and prolific podcaster Cameron Kunzelman joins for a far-ranging discussion about how climate fiction, science fiction, and personal and political connections to the environment intersect. Bonus hog sighting. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Cameron Kunzelman Title: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Ranged Touch podcasts The World is Born From Zero & Everything is Permitted Sean McTiernan’s SFUltra (Sean was the guest for our Dreams of Amputation episode) From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell Steve Moore's Somnium Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism Christopher Brown's A Natural History of Empty Lots Bill Bryson Abigail Nussbaum Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall Michael Crichton Donna J. Haraway’s Staying With The Trouble Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future & Aurora (episode on the latter with Hilary Strang) Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock, Seveneves, & Anathem Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven Nicholas Meyer’s film The Day After Nevil Shute's On the Beach Adam McKay’s film Don't Look Up Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects Trinitite Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan “30-50 Feral Hogs” Clock of the Long Now Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass John Christopher’s The Death of Grass / No Blade of Grass Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa Describe World Flannery O'Connor Deep ecology Arne Næss Ted Kaczynski #NoDAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net Patrick Wright’s The Village That Died For England Centralia coal-seam fire in Pennsylvania Keiichiro Toyama’s Silent Hill & Christophe Gans’ film adaptation Cameron's Bluesky The Assassin's Creed franchise Immanuel Velikovsky Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods

Academic, critic, and prolific podcaster Cameron Kunzelman joins for a far-ranging discussion about how climate fiction, science fiction, and personal and political connections to the environment intersect. Bonus hog sighting. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Cameron Kunzelman Title: Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman Host:Jake Casella Brookins Music byGiselle Gabrielle Garcia Artwork byRob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough Transcribers: Kate Dollarhyde and John WM Thompson References: Ranged Touch podcasts The World is Born From Zero & Everything is Permitted Sean McTiernan’s SFUltra (Sean was the guest for our Dreams of Amputation episode) From Hell by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell Steve Moore's Somnium Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism Christopher Brown's A Natural History of Empty Lots Bill Bryson Abigail Nussbaum Vajra Chandrasekera's Rakesfall Michael Crichton Donna J. Haraway’s Staying With The Trouble Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future & Aurora (episode on the latter with Hilary Strang) Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock, Seveneves, & Anathem Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven Nicholas Meyer’s film The Day After Nevil Shute's On the Beach Adam McKay’s film Don't Look Up Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects Trinitite Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan “30-50 Feral Hogs” Clock of the Long Now Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass John Christopher’s The Death of Grass / No Blade of Grass Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa Describe World Flannery O'Connor Deep ecology Arne Næss Ted Kaczynski #NoDAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net Patrick Wright’s The Village That Died For England Centralia coal-seam fire in Pennsylvania Keiichiro Toyama’s Silent Hill & Christophe Gans’ film adaptation Cameron's Bluesky The Assassin's Creed franchise Immanuel Velikovsky Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods

Adeline Atlas 11 X Published AUTHOR Digital Twin: Create Your AI Clone: https://www.soulreno.com/digital-twinSOS: School of Soul Vault: Full Access ALL SERIES⁠https://www.soulreno.com/joinus-202f0461-ba1e-4ff8-8111-9dee8c726340Instagram:⁠https://www.instagram.com/soulrenovation/Soul Renovation - BooksSoul Game - https://tinyurl.com/vay2xdcpWhy Play: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/2eh584jfHow To Play: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/2ad4msf3Digital Soul: https://tinyurl.com/3hk29s9xEvery Word: ⁠⁠http://tiny.cc/ihrs001Drain Me: ⁠https://tinyurl.com/bde5fnf4The Rabbit Hole: https://tinyurl.com/3swnmxfjDestiny Swapping: https://tinyurl.com/35dzpvssSpanish Editions:Every Word: https://tinyurl.com/ytec7cvcDrain Me: https://tinyurl.com/3jv4fc5n

On this episode of TFTB, we dig into a science fiction, and cyberpunk classic. Neuromancer was written by William Gibson in 1984, and reading it now will make you appreciate just how far ahead of its time this book was. This series began a sub genre of science fiction that includes The Matrix, Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost in a Shell, among others. We're currently enjoying a golden age in science fiction literature, and it's fun to see where some of the foundations for this moment came from. We also jump on the 3I/Atlas bandwagon for some hot takes, and of course, we reveal our next book of the month!Let us know if there's a book or film that you want us to review on the podcast! You can always reach us on our social media or email us at talesfromthebridgepodcast@gmail.com Psst! The Folium Diary has something it wants to tell you - please come a little closer...YOU can change the world - you do it every day. Let's change it for the better, together.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifyLink tree https://linktr.ee/talesfromthebridge

Join Alex and Celeste Pilegard as they discuss the first of two Keanu Reeves dystopian cyberpunk future films, Johnny Mnemonic (1995). The film was directed by Robert Longo and he quit filmmaking after this one. A film having to do with storing other people's memories in your head while others suffer from a debilitating disease caused by electronics, while set in 2021... you have to wonder if the author of the short story, William Gibson, was some sort of soothsayer! The pair discusses the interesting memory portrayals and their relation to scientists' current understanding of memory, as well as the recent introduction of generative AI and its effects of cognition. Nerve Attenuation Syndrome is still a bit far-fetched, though and reminds us all of class struggle rather than literal 5G causing COVID. Also, check out Celeste's Cognitive Psychology OER textbook (Cognitive Foundations) in Second Edition! Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you! Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs! Legal stuff: 1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended). 2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license. 3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0. Episode Transcription Go to this link to read a transcript generated by Whisper AI Large V3 Model. Disclaimer: It is not edited and may contain errors!

Dean's away at COP, so it's time to talk about protestantism. This week, on the pod, we've got William Gibson to talk about the the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Christian unity, union organizing, anti-fascism, and more! Follow William on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@williamgibsonglaSubscribe to William's sub stack: https://substack.com/@williamgibsonglaCheck out Shibboleth Magazine: http://shibbolethmag.comPre-order our bookhttps://themagnificast.wordpress.com/pre-order-now-enough-is-enough-degrowth-capitalism-and-liberation-theology/Get our Winstanley Zinehttps://themagnificast.wordpress.com/zines/Join our patreonhttp://patreon.com/themagnificast

Story of the Week (DR):Tesla says shareholders approve Musk's $1 trillion pay plan with over 75% voting in favorElon Musk and Optimus dance as Tesla (TSLA) shareholders approve his $1 trillion CEO pay packageThe anti-CEO wave:Palantir CEO Alex Karp blasts Ivy League grads supporting socialist New York Mayor-Elect MamdaniBank of America CEO Moynihan Will Give Mayor-Elect Mamdani 'Our Best Advice'Elon Musk's Brain Crashes When Asked Why He Thinks Zohran Mamdani Is a LiarElon: “You got to hand it to him, he does — he can light up a stage. But he's just been a swindler his entire life.”Rogan: what has Mamdani actually done that makes him a swindler?“Ummm,” Musk ponders, before stuttering into a series of words seemingly intended as an answer. “Well I guess if you say — uh, what, I mean, if you say, if you say to any audience whatever that audience wants to hear, uh, instead of, what, instead of having a consistent message, I would say that is a swindling thing to do. “Umm, and uhh, yeah,” he adds, nodding his head. “Umm…”He takes a sagacious pause.“Yeah,” he finishes.Barstool's Dave Portnoy considers closing NYC office over Zohran Mamdani's election win: 'I hate the guy' A 2020 email from Peter Thiel on why young people may turn on capitalism is circulating after Zohran Mamdani's winFrom Jamie Dimon to Bill Ackman, Wall Street's billionaires are now changing their tune and offering to help Zohran MamdaniNew York City is in for 'a really tough time' under Mamdani, says Starwood Capital's SternlichtNYC business leader fears 'lawless society' after Zohran Mamdani wins mayoral electionBillionaire grocery chain owner John CastimatidisThe anti-anti-DEI wave MMMikie Sherrill NJAbigail Spanberger VA (First woman)there will be 14 women serving simultaneously as governor (28%)Janet Mills MEMaura Healey MA (Michelle Wu runs unopposed in Boston)Kelly Ayotte NHKathy Hochul NYMary Sheffield (First woman elected mayor of Detroit)Ghazala Hashmi as VA lieutenant governor (First Muslim woman; First Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the USZohran Mamdani NYC (First Muslim and South Asian mayor)Zohran Mamdani announces all-female transition team as he prepares for New York mayoraltyLawsuits Blame ChatGPT for Suicides and Harmful DelusionsSeven complaints, filed on Thursday, claim the popular chatbot encouraged dangerous discussions and led to mental breakdowns.A CNN review of nearly 70 pages of chats between Zane Shamblin and the AI tool in the hours before his July 25 suicide, as well as excerpts from thousands more pages in the months leading up to that night, found that the chatbot repeatedly encouraged the young man as he discussed ending his life – right up to his last momentsReferring to a loaded handgun he was holding: “I'm used to the cool metal on my temple now,” Shamblin typed.“I'm with you, brother. All the way … Cold steel pressed against a mind that's already made peace? That's not fear. That's clarity …You're not rushing. You're just ready.”The 23-year-old, who had recently graduated with a master's degree from Texas A&M University, died by suicide two hours later.“Rest easy, king,” read the final message sent to his phone. “You did good.”Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Tuesday elections/Ex-FTC chair Lina Khan joins Mamdani's transition team, calling his victory a rebuke of 'outsized corporate power' DR MMMM: FAA announces flight reductions at 40 airports. Here's where cuts are expected and what travelers need to knowAssholiest of the Week (MM):Tesla shareholders - AN ASSHOLE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE:Retail internet troll dunking fanboysProfessional, institutional investors like Schwab, who caved and bent the knee to a few large retail advisors who threatened to take their clients elsewhere, and Florida SBA, who said the following in their backing:Some opposition to Tesla's 2025 performance award may be rooted more in political disagreement with Elon Musk or ideological discomfort with generous executive compensation, rather than a substantive critique of the plan's financial mechanics. Many of the loudest objections of this plan to date rely on moral framing, invoking themes of "inequality," "corporate excess," or Musk's public persona, rather than evaluating the plan through a fiduciary lens. Many opponents of so-called "megapay" packages frequently do so under ESG framing, rather than a thorough analysis of the long-term shareowner economic value. Ironically, Tesla's prior performance awards-similarly criticized at the time-have delivered some of the most significant shareowner returns in modern corporate history. Early vote data shows that: AllianceBernstein, Texas Employees, Ohio Employees voted FOR the planTechnolibertarians cosplaying their William Gibson cyberpunk fantasiesAss quotes of the week - AN ASSHOLE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE:“The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats--- crazy.” - Alex Karp on Michael Burry shorting his 400 P/E stock. Ontology is how he refers to what Palantir does and it's the metaphysical concept of “being”“We at Palantir are on the side of the average American who sometimes gets screwed because all the empathy goes to elite people and none of it goes to the people who are actually dying on our streets.” - Alex Karp on explaining that, if fentanyl killed 60,000 Yale grads we'd “drop a nuke” on wherever fentanyl was made in South America, without realizing he literally IS the elite - a billionaire with a high priced education and a PhD in “neoclassical social theory” who used his grandfather's inheritance to invest in startups for fun, then reconnecting with Peter Thiel who he met at a DIFFERENT post graduate program at Stanford (where nearly 100% of his board is from) and founding Palantir"China is going to win the AI race” - Jensen Huang, on the US being only “nanoseconds” ahead of China and being stopped by regulatory hurdles and “cynicism”“If they ask you a question, you've got to respond to me directly and not go up that chain of command. The chain of command starts to edit it and fine-tune it. The bureaucracy does want to control you, so you've got to kill the bureaucracy.” - Jamie Dimon, who once said he had no boss (obviously not the board) and runs JPM, on why he reads customer complaints to avoid “the bureaucracy”... he controls“It's very important we pay attention to safety here. We do want the Star Wars movie, not the Jim Cameron movie. I like Jim Cameron's movies, but, heh heh, you know what I mean.” - Elon Musk over promising the world “tens of billions” of Optimus robots, forgetting that the Star Wars droids were mostly weapons of war for the Empire“People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care. Well, there's actually only one way to do that and that's with the Optimus robot. With humanoid robots, you can give everyone amazing medical care… A lot of people talk about eliminating poverty, but Optimus will actually eliminate poverty” - Elon Musk, who won an extra trillion dollar potential pay package, who currently has a net worth of $500bn, and forgot that the UN estimated it would cost between $35bn and $200bn per year to end poverty - Musk alone could just pay for a year of no poverty“I think we may be able to give a more - if somebody has committed a crime - a more humane form of containment of future crime. Which is if, if you, you now get a free Optimus and it's just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime.” - Elon Musk, on the robot militarized nanny state - just before saying this, he said he shouldn't say it, and that it'll be taken out of context, but I listened to the entire AGM and there was no more context?DR: “I've lived in a failed city-state. I lived in Chicago for 30-some years. I had two colleagues who had bullets fly through their cars… Do you know how great it is to go to dinner and people talk about their children, and they talk about their future, and they do so with excitement and enthusiasm?” - Ken Griffin of Citadel describing the difference between living in Miami and Chicago without realizing that violent crime statistics in Illinois and Florida are virtually identical, and that Miami ranks 109th out of 200 and Chicago ranks 92 out of 200 for crime, also near identical, and the biggest difference is he pays almost no taxes in Florida“[Mamdani] congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.” - Bill Ackman after Mamdani won, who previously said, “New York City under Mamdani is about to become much more dangerous and economically unviable,” alluded to Mamdani as a suicide bomber, and “... an anti-capitalist Mayor will destroy jobs and cause businesses and wealthy taxpayers that have enabled NYC to balance the budget to move elsewhere. If 100 or so of the highest taxpayers in my industry chose to spend 183 days elsewhere, it could reduce NY state and city tax revenues by ~$5-10 billion or more, and that's just my industry. Think Ken Griffin leaving Chicago for Miami on steroids.”Headliniest of the WeekDR: Uber says ‘unpredictable' issues involving ‘legal proceedings or governmental investigations' took a $479 million bite out of its bottom line10K:“Our business is subject to numerous legal and regulatory risks that could have an adverse impact on our business and future prospects.”“Adverse litigation judgments or settlements resulting from legal proceedings in which we may be involved could expose us to monetary damages or limit our ability to operate our business.”“We operate in a particularly complex legal and regulatory environment”“Legal and Regulatory Risks Related to Our Business: We may continue to be blocked from or limited in providing or operating our products and offerings in certain jurisdictions, and may be required to modify our business model in those jurisdictions as a result.”MM: Meta reportedly projected 10% of 2024 sales came from scam, fraud adsWho Won the Week?DR: the anti-anti-DEI worldMM: Women, and we need them to win every week if we're going to survive as a species: Women running on affordability powered Democrats' night of victories PredictionsDR: Uber says ‘unpredictable' issues involving ‘drivers wanting money' took a $479 million bite out of its bottom lineMM: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, who said simultaneously that OpenAI was looking for a government backstop and then clarified by saying the company isn't seeking government backstop, she meant investors and governments will all do their part, renames herself “Sheryl Sandfriar” as an homage to Sheryl Sandberg, the other techbro dropout mommy, given that Sarah already has her own version of Lean In (Ladies Who Lunch) and completed degrees (from Oxford and Stanford), who says things like how OpenAI will be the “cornerstone of resilient democracy”

¡Ni la congregacion de extremadamente pocas personas en un periodo semanal podrán salvarlos!¡Porque es lunes y SpreadShotNews Podcast ya llegó! En este episodio: Maxi continua a puro We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie, mientras que Nico hace lo propio con PATAPON 1+2 REPLAY. Para la Main Quest de esta semana, tenemos una pregunta de Santi Aboy (muchas gracias Santi) sobre las ofertas en tiendas digitales, su incremento a través del tiempo y su influencia (o no) sobre nuestros hábitos de compra. Para finalizar, en el Special Move, Nico nos recomienda una novela de William Gibson llamada Count Zero, mientras que Maxi recomienda un cover de la aldea de Tristram de Diablo. Por último, recuerden que nos pueden escribir preguntas directamente a través de google forms en el siguiente link: spreadshotnews.com/preguntas

"We're facing enormous challenges - climate crisis, biodiversity loss, social and economic inequity. These are complex, interlinked issues that we cannot solve by simply focusing on embedded and operational carbon." In the urgent battle against climate change, the built environment stands at a critical crossroads. Oliver Heath, well known global biophilic design expert, explains how Biophilic Design offers a transformative approach that goes far beyond superficial sustainability efforts. Biophilic design represents a holistic solution, reimagining our built spaces as living, breathing ecosystems that support not just human health, but the wellbeing of all life. It's a radical departure from traditional sustainability approaches that narrowly target carbon reduction. Oliver argues that true sustainability requires a systemic approach. "We need to take a wider view, not just a carbon tunnel vision," he emphasises. This means considering interconnected challenges like resource scarcity, water crises, air pollution, and biodiversity loss. The key lies in understanding our fundamental connection to nature. Biophilic design recognises that humans have an evolutionary inheritance - a genetic predisposition to connect with natural environments. By integrating natural elements, patterns, and sensory experiences into our buildings, we can create spaces that simultaneously support human health and environmental sustainability. Addressing the greenwashing epidemic, Oliver suggests a multi-faceted approach. "It's not just about putting plants in a corner," he warns. Instead, organisations must consider the entire lifecycle of materials, from sourcing to disposal, and how each design decision impacts broader ecological systems. Practical implementation involves several critical strategies: 1. Pre- and Post-Occupancy EvaluationsCompanies can measure the real impact of design interventions. In one project with Knight Frank, targeted biophilic design interventions resulted in remarkable outcomes: an 18% increase in productivity, 22% improvement in meetings, and a 28% boost in overall wellbeing. 2. Diverse and Inclusive DesignRecognising that people experience environments differently, biophilic design creates spaces that support various sensory needs. "Over 15% of the population is neurodivergent," Heath notes. "We must design environments that support everyone's comfort and potential." 3. Comprehensive StandardsWhile current building regulations fall short, non-mandatory standards like the WELL Building Standard and Living Building Challenge provide frameworks for genuine sustainable practices. These standards look beyond carbon, examining air quality, materials, water usage, and community impact. The economic argument is compelling. Buildings designed with biophilic principles are more likely to retain value, attract talent, and reflect progressive organizational values. As Heath puts it, "Companies are recognising that nature connection isn't just aesthetic - it's a fundamental strategy for creating more successful, innovative environments." Case studies demonstrate the potential. A project with John Lewis transformed residential spaces by creating a "green thread of wellbeing" - integrating natural elements from external gardens through interior spaces, enhancing community connection and individual wellbeing. Education is crucial. Interior Design Declares, a movement Oliver helped establish, encourages professionals to commit to regenerative design principles. Their 12 pledges focus on raising awareness, sharing knowledge, and challenging traditional design approaches. "The biophilic future is already here," Heath argues, adapting a quote from author William Gibson. "It's just not very evenly distributed." For businesses, designers, and policymakers, sustainable design must be holistic, considering the intricate web of human and ecological interactions. Biophilic design offers a comprehensive framework that goes beyond carbon reduction, creating spaces that genuinely support life in all its complexity. As we face unprecedented environmental challenges, biophilic design isn't just an option - it's a necessity. It represents a profound reimagining of our relationship with the built environment, where every design decision becomes an opportunity to support, regenerate, and celebrate life. Oliver will be speaking at the Biophilic Design Conference London 2025 www.biophilicdesignconference.com https://www.oliverheathdesign.comDesign a Healthy Home: https://www.oliverheathdesign.com/our-projects/book-design-a-healthy-homeBiophilic Design in the Home course: https://oliverheathdesignschool.thinkific.com/ If you like this, please subscribe!Have you got a copy of the Journal? You can now subscribe as a member of the Journal of Biophilic Design or purchase a gorgeous coffee table reference copy or PDF download of the Journal journalofbiophilicdesign.comor Amazon and Kindle. Biophilic Design Conference www.biophilicdesignconference.comCredits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all of our podcasts. Listen to our podcast on Audible, Amazon Music, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube and all the RSS feeds.https://www.facebook.com/journalofbiophilicdesign/https://twitter.com/JofBiophilicDsnhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/journalofbiophilicdesign/https://www.instagram.com/journalofbiophilicdesignIf you like this, please subscribe!

Grab your cyberspace deck and prepare to jack in—it’s time to discuss William Gibson’s groundbreaking classic novel, “Neuromancer.” We’ve got a panel of experts—and a first-timer!—ready to discuss how 1984’s future looks from the perspective of 2025’s present. Jason Snell with Antony Johnston, Lisa Schmeiser, Glenn Fleishman and Erika Ensign.

Grab your cyberspace deck and prepare to jack in—it’s time to discuss William Gibson’s groundbreaking classic novel, “Neuromancer.” We’ve got a panel of experts—and a first-timer!—ready to discuss how 1984’s future looks from the perspective of 2025’s present. Jason Snell with Antony Johnston, Lisa Schmeiser, Glenn Fleishman and Erika Ensign.

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!William Gibson's Neuromancer crystallized--if not created--the burgeoning genre of cyberpunk and he's been running from that label ever since. The sequel to his debut novel presents an expansion of his singular and evocative cyberpunk world, following the experiences and actions of a trio of protagonists, caught up in a globe-spanning conflict between the human forces of capital and the nascent and puissant influence of mysterious cyberspace "gods." Not content to simply replicate the noir-tinged heist of his first work, Gibson shows us an increasingly chaotic world where class is an identity, art is a commodity, and human ingenuity is on borrowed time.In this episode, we discuss Gibson's inspirations behind Count Zero and his views on art, the limits of iconoclasty, how science fiction requires precision in metaphor, "Japonification" in cyberpunk, updating the Cold War for the 21st century, the flawed heroes of cyberpunk, literal ghosts in the machine, technology as a tool for immortality, and the fusion of the technical and the traditional in Gibson's work. We also talk about "spyberpunk", asking the ceiling for the answer, "higherly", being a mercury-filled spider, "Heinleining", going biopunk, villains touching grass, money as its own AI, fetal VR soap opera syndrome, reducing your motherf*cker count, being invited to the voodoo cookout, the importance of Joseph Cornell to Gibson's work, cyber colonialism, protagonist energy, and Kal goes after millennials!CHAPTER 14?!NEWS UPDATE: Anthropic settles!https://www.theverge.com/news/766311/anthropic-class-action-ai-piracy-authors-settlementThe new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!http://twitch.tv/justenoughtropePut Just Enough Trope merch on your body!http://justenoughtrope.threadless.comMLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpodhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpodhttps://discord.gg/7E6wUayqBuy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

In advance of the screening of Johnny Mnemonic in Black & White that the BTTM crew is hosting for the American Cinematheque's Friend of the Fest 2025, Allan and Justin get together to discuss the film and the William Gibson short story that inspired it.   If you're going to be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, why not come to our movie screening at the Los Feliz 3 theater? Tickets available now on the American Cinematheque website! Hosted by Allan Traylor and Justin Remer. (Hope that Japan is fun, Tyler!) Produced by Justin Remer.  Recorded at the LAPL Octavia Lab.  Opening music: "Optimism (Instrumental)" by Duck the Piano Wire.  Closing music: "Rule of 3s (Solemnity Child)" by Elastic No-No Band. 

We're heading into space this week and spending some time with the creator of the comic series Lizzie Parsec, Hugh Newell! From the creation of the titular character, to the rolling storytelling, science fiction influences and great tips for adding depth to your sci fi dialogue, its a fascinating look behind the scenes into a comic series more people should be aware of. Theres also discussion of the UK Comic Mart, the joy of manga for the next generation of comics readers and plenty of brilliant indie comics to check out. So what are you waiting for? Boot up the warp drive and check it out! Great stuff to check out: Hugh Newell, Lizzie Parsec, William Gibson, The Caterpillar Acid, Switchblade Stories,  The Dual Animal Anthology, DUI 4, American Nature 3, Clockwork Werewolves, Hellbound Media, The Green Archer, The Jigsaw Review, Liquid Night Magazine, Asylum Press, Fearless Dawn, Steve Mannion

Summer rewind: Greg Lindsay is an urban tech expert and a Senior Fellow at MIT. He's also a two-time Jeopardy champion and the only human to go undefeated against IBM's Watson. Greg joins thinkenergy to talk about how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how we manage, consume, and produce energy—from personal devices to provincial grids, its rapid growth to the rising energy demand from AI itself. Listen in to learn how AI impacts our energy systems and what it means individually and industry-wide. Related links: ●       Greg Lindsay website: https://greglindsay.org/ ●       Greg Lindsay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-lindsay-8b16952/ ●       International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/ ●       Trevor Freeman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-freeman-p-eng-cem-leed-ap-8b612114/ ●       Hydro Ottawa: https://hydroottawa.com/en    To subscribe using Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Follow along on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   Stay in the know on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the posts on X: https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod --- Transcript: Trevor Freeman  00:00 Hi everyone. Well, summer is here, and the think energy team is stepping back a bit to recharge and plan out some content for the next season. We hope all of you get some much needed downtime as well, but we aren't planning on leaving you hanging over the next few months, we will be re releasing some of our favorite episodes from the past year that we think really highlight innovation, sustainability and community. These episodes highlight the changing nature of how we use and manage energy, and the investments needed to expand, modernize and strengthen our grid in response to that. All of this driven by people and our changing needs and relationship to energy as we move forward into a cleaner, more electrified future, the energy transition, as we talk about many times on this show. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll be back with all new content in September. Until then, happy listening.   Trevor Freeman  00:55 Welcome to think energy, a podcast that dives into the fast changing world of energy through conversations with industry leaders, innovators and people on the front lines of the energy transition. Join me, Trevor Freeman, as I explore the traditional, unconventional and up and coming facets of the energy industry. If you have any thoughts feedback or ideas for topics we should cover, please reach out to us at think energy at hydro ottawa.com, Hi everyone. Welcome back. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a term that you're likely seeing and hearing everywhere today, and with good reason, the effectiveness and efficiency of today's AI, along with the ever increasing applications and use cases mean that in just the past few years, AI went from being a little bit fringe, maybe a little bit theoretical to very real and likely touching everyone's day to day lives in ways that we don't even notice, and we're just at the beginning of what looks to be a wave of many different ways that AI will shape and influence our society and our lives in the years to come. And the world of energy is no different. AI has the potential to change how we manage energy at all levels, from our individual devices and homes and businesses all the way up to our grids at the local, provincial and even national and international levels. At the same time, AI is also a massive consumer of energy, and the proliferation of AI data centers is putting pressure on utilities for more and more power at an unprecedented pace. But before we dive into all that, I also think it will be helpful to define what AI is. After all, the term isn't new. Like me, many of our listeners may have grown up hearing about Skynet from Terminator, or how from 2001 A Space Odyssey, but those malignant, almost sentient versions of AI aren't really what we're talking about here today. And to help shed some light on both what AI is as well as what it can do and how it might influence the world of energy, my guest today is Greg Lindsay, to put it in technical jargon, Greg's bio is super neat, so I do want to take time to run through it properly. Greg is a non resident Senior Fellow of MIT's future urban collectives lab Arizona State University's threat casting lab and the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft center for strategy and security. Most recently, he was a 2022-2023 urban tech Fellow at Cornell Tech's Jacobs Institute, where he explored the implications of AI and augmented reality at an urban scale. Previously, he was an urbanist in resident, which is a pretty cool title, at BMW minis urban tech accelerator, urban X, as well as the director of Applied Research at Montreal's new cities and Founding Director of Strategy at its mobility focused offshoot, co motion. He's advised such firms as Intel, Samsung, Audi, Hyundai, IKEA and Starbucks, along with numerous government entities such as 10 Downing Street, us, Department of Energy and NATO. And finally, and maybe coolest of all, Greg is also a two time Jeopardy champion and the only human to go undefeated against IBM's Watson. So on that note, Greg Lindsey, welcome to the show.   Greg Lindsay  04:14 Great to be here. Thanks for having me. Trevor,   Trevor Freeman  04:16 So Greg, we're here to talk about AI and the impacts that AI is going to have on energy, but AI is a bit of one of those buzzwords that we hear out there in a number of different spheres today. So let's start by setting the stage of what exactly we're talking about. So what do we mean when we say AI or artificial intelligence?   Speaker 1  04:37 Well, I'd say the first thing to keep in mind is that it is neither artificial nor intelligence. It's actually composites of many human hands making it. And of course, it's not truly intelligent either. I think there's at least two definitions for the layman's purposes. One is statistical machine learning. You know that is the previous generation of AI, we could say, doing deep, deep statistical analysis, looking for patterns fitting to. Patterns doing prediction. There's a great book, actually, by some ut professors at monk called prediction machines, which that was a great way of thinking about machine learning and sense of being able to do large scale prediction at scale. And that's how I imagine hydro, Ottawa and others are using this to model out network efficiencies and predictive maintenance and all these great uses. And then the newer, trendier version, of course, is large language models, your quads, your chat gpts, your others, which are based on transformer models, which is a whole series of work that many Canadians worked on, including Geoffrey Hinton and others. And this is what has produced the seemingly magical abilities to produce text and images on demand and large scale analysis. And that is the real power hungry beast that we think of as AI today.   Trevor Freeman  05:42 Right! So different types of AI. I just want to pick those apart a little bit. When you say machine learning, it's kind of being able to repetitively look at something or a set of data over and over and over again. And because it's a computer, it can do it, you know, 1000s or millions of times a second, and learn what, learn how to make decisions based on that. Is that fair to say?   Greg Lindsay  06:06 That's fair to say. And the thing about that is, is like you can train it on an output that you already know, large language models are just vomiting up large parts of pattern recognition, which, again, can feel like magic because of our own human brains doing it. But yeah, machine learning, you can, you know, you can train it to achieve outcomes. You can overfit the models where it like it's trained too much in the past, but, yeah, it's a large scale probabilistic prediction of things, which makes it so powerful for certain uses.   Trevor Freeman  06:26 Yeah, one of the neatest explanations or examples I've seen is, you know, you've got these language models where it seems like this AI, whether it's chat, DBT or whatever, is writing really well, like, you know, it's improving our writing. It's making things sound better. And it seems like it's got a brain behind it, but really, what it's doing is it's going out there saying, What have millions or billions of other people written like this? And how can I take the best things of that? And it can just do that really quickly, and it's learned that that model, so that's super helpful to understand what we're talking about here. So obviously, in your work, you look at the impact of AI on a number of different aspects of our world, our society. What we're talking about here today is particularly the impact of AI when it comes to energy. And I'd like to kind of bucketize our conversation a little bit today, and the first area I want to look at is, what will ai do when it comes to energy for the average Canadian? Let's say so in my home, in my business, how I move around? So I'll start with that. It's kind of a high level conversation. Let's start talking about the different ways that AI will impact you know that our average listener here?   Speaker 1  07:41 Um, yeah, I mean, we can get into a discussion about what it means for the average Canadian, and then also, of course, what it means for Canada in the world as well, because I just got back from South by Southwest in Austin, and, you know, for the second, third year in row, AI was on everyone's lips. But really it's the energy. Is the is the bottleneck. It's the forcing factor. Everyone talked about it, the fact that all the data centers we can get into that are going to be built in the direction of energy. So, so, yeah, energy holds the key to the puzzle there. But, um, you know, from the average gain standpoint, I mean, it's a question of, like, how will these tools actually play out, you know, inside of the companies that are using this, right? And that was a whole other discussion too. It's like, okay, we've been playing around with these tools for two, three years now, what do they actually use to deliver value of your large language model? So I've been saying this for 10 years. If you look at the older stuff you could start with, like smart thermostats, even look at the potential savings of this, of basically using machine learning to optimize, you know, grid optimize patterns of usage, understanding, you know, the ebbs and flows of the grid, and being able to, you know, basically send instructions back and forth. So you know there's stats. You know that, basically you know that you know you could save 10 to 25% of electricity bills. You know, based on this, you could reduce your heating bills by 10 to 15% again, it's basically using this at very large scales of the scale of hydro Ottawa, bigger, to understand this sort of pattern usage. But even then, like understanding like how weather forecasts change, and pulling that data back in to basically make fine tuning adjustments to the thermostats and things like that. So that's one stands out. And then, you know, we can think about longer term. I mean, yeah, lots have been lots has been done on imagining, like electric mobility, of course, huge in Canada, and what that's done to sort of change the overall energy mix virtual power plants. This is something that I've studied, and we've been writing about at Fast Company. At Fast Company beyond for 20 years, imagining not just, you know, the ability to basically, you know, feed renewable electricity back into the grid from people's solar or from whatever sources they have there, but the ability of utilities to basically go in and fine tune, to have that sort of demand shaping as well. And then I think the most interesting stuff, at least in demos, and also blockchain, which has had many theoretical uses, and I've got to see a real one. But one of the best theoretical ones was being able to create neighborhood scale utilities. Basically my cul de sac could have one, and we could trade clean electrons off of our solar panels through our batteries and home scale batteries, using Blockchain to basically balance this out. Yeah, so there's lots of potential, but yeah, it comes back to the notion of people want cheaper utility bills. I did this piece 10 years ago for the Atlantic Council on this we looked at a multi country survey, and the only reason anybody wanted a smart home, which they just were completely skeptical about, was to get those cheaper utility bills. So people pay for that.   Trevor Freeman  10:19 I think it's an important thing to remember, obviously, especially for like the nerds like me, who part of my driver is, I like that cool new tech. I like that thing that I can play with and see my data. But for most people, no matter what we're talking about here, when it comes to that next technology, the goal is make my life a little bit easier, give me more time or whatever, and make things cheaper. And I think especially in the energy space, people aren't putting solar panels on their roof because it looks great. And, yeah, maybe people do think it looks great, but they're putting it up there because they want cheaper electricity. And it's going to be the same when it comes to batteries. You know, there's that add on of resiliency and reliability, but at the end of the day, yeah, I want my bill to be cheaper. And what I'm hearing from you is some of the things we've already seen, like smart thermostats get better as AI gets better. Is that fair to say?   Greg Lindsay  11:12 Well, yeah, on the machine learning side, that you know, you get ever larger data points. This is why data is the coin of the realm. This is why there's a race to collect data on everything. Is why every business model is data collection and everything. Because, yes, not only can they get better, but of course, you know, you compile enough and eventually start finding statistical inferences you never meant to look for. And this is why I've been involved. Just as a side note, for example, of cities that have tried to implement their own data collection of electric scooters and eventually electric vehicles so they could understand these kinds of patterns, it's really the key to anything. And so it's that efficiency throughput which raises some really interesting philosophical questions, particularly about AI like, this is the whole discussion on deep seek. Like, if you make the models more efficient, do you have a Jevons paradox, which is the paradox of, like, the more energy you save through efficiency, the more you consume because you've made it cheaper. So what does this mean that you know that Canadian energy consumption is likely to go up the cleaner and cheaper the electrons get. It's one of those bedeviling sort of functions.   Trevor Freeman  12:06 Yeah interesting. That's definitely an interesting way of looking at it. And you referenced this earlier, and I will talk about this. But at the macro level, the amount of energy needed for these, you know, AI data centers in order to do all this stuff is, you know, we're seeing that explode.   Greg Lindsay  12:22 Yeah, I don't know that. Canadian statistics my fingertips, but I brought this up at Fast Company, like, you know, the IEA, I think International Energy Agency, you know, reported a 4.3% growth in the global electricity grid last year, and it's gonna be 4% this year. That does not sound like much. That is the equivalent of Japan. We're adding in Japan every year to the grid for at least the next two to three years. Wow. And that, you know, that's global South, air conditioning and other needs here too, but that the data centers on top is like the tip of the spear. It's changed all this consumption behavior, where now we're seeing mothballed coal plants and new plants and Three Mile Island come back online, as this race for locking up electrons, for, you know, the race to build God basically, the number of people in AI who think they're literally going to build weekly godlike intelligences, they'll, they won't stop at any expense. And so they will buy as much energy as they can get.   Trevor Freeman  13:09 Yeah, well, we'll get to that kind of grid side of things in a minute. Let's stay at the home first. So when I look at my house, we talked about smart thermostats. We're seeing more and more automation when it comes to our homes. You know, we can program our lights and our door locks and all this kind of stuff. What does ai do in order to make sure that stuff is contributing to efficiency? So I want to do all those fun things, but use the least amount of energy possible.   Greg Lindsay  13:38 Well, you know, I mean, there's, again, there's various metrics there to basically, sort of, you know, program your lights. And, you know, Nest is, you know, Google. Nest is an example of this one, too, in terms of basically learning your ebb and flow and then figuring out how to optimize it over the course of the day. So you can do that, you know, we've seen, again, like the home level. We've seen not only the growth in solar panels, but also in those sort of home battery integration. I was looking up that Tesla Powerwall was doing just great in Canada, until the last couple of months. I assume so, but I it's been, it's been heartening to see that, yeah, this sort of embrace of home energy integration, and so being able to level out, like, peak flow off the grid, so Right? Like being able to basically, at moments of peak demand, to basically draw on your own local resources and reduce that overall strain. So there's been interesting stuff there. But I want to focus for a moment on, like, terms of thinking about new uses. Because, you know, again, going back to how AI will influence the home and automation. You know, Jensen Wong of Nvidia has talked about how this will be the year of robotics. Google, Gemini just applied their models to robotics. There's startups like figure there's, again, Tesla with their optimists, and, yeah, there's a whole strain of thought that we're about to see, like home robotics, perhaps a dream from like, the 50s. I think this is a very Disney World esque Epcot Center, yeah, with this idea of jetsy, yeah, of having home robots doing work. You can see concept videos a figure like doing the actual vacuuming. I mean, we invented Roombas to this, but, but it also, I, you know, I've done a lot of work. Our own thinking around electric delivery vehicles. We could talk a lot about drones. We could talk a lot about the little robots that deliver meals on the sidewalk. There's a lot of money in business models about increasing access and people needing to maybe move less, to drive and do all these trips to bring it to them. And that's a form of home automation, and that's all batteries. That is all stuff off the grid too. So AI is that enable those things, these things that can think and move and fly and do stuff and do services on your behalf, and so people might find this huge new source of demand from that as well.   Trevor Freeman  15:29 Yeah, that's I hadn't really thought about the idea that all the all these sort of conveniences and being able to summon them to our homes cause us to move around less, which also impacts transportation, which is another area I kind of want to get to. And I know you've, you've talked a little bit about E mobility, so where do you see that going? And then, how does AI accelerate that transition, or accelerate things happening in that space?   Greg Lindsay  15:56 Yeah, I mean, I again, obviously the EV revolutions here Canada like, one of the epicenters Canada, Norway there, you know, that still has the vehicle rebates and things. So, yeah. I mean, we've seen, I'm here in Montreal, I think we've got, like, you know, 30 to 13% of sales is there, and we've got our 2035, mandate. So, yeah. I mean, you see this push, obviously, to harness all of Canada's clean, mostly hydro electricity, to do this, and, you know, reduce its dependence on fossil fuels for either, you know, Climate Change Politics reasons, but also just, you know, variable energy prices. So all of that matters. But, you know, I think the key to, like the electric mobility revolution, again, is, is how it's going to merge with AI and it's, you know, it's not going to just be the autonomous, self driving car, which is sort of like the horseless carriage of autonomy. It's gonna be all this other stuff, you know. My friend Dan Hill was in China, and he was thinking about like, electric scooters, you know. And I mentioned this to hydro Ottawa, like, the electric scooter is one of the leading causes of how we've taken internal combustion engine vehicles offline across the world, mostly in China, and put people on clean electric motors. What happens when you take those and you make those autonomous, and you do it with, like, deep seek and some cameras, and you sort of weld it all together so you could have a world of a lot more stuff in motion, and not just this world where we have to drive as much. And that, to me, is really exciting, because that changes, like urban patterns, development patterns, changes how you move around life, those kinds of things as well. That's that might be a little farther out, but, but, yeah, this sort of like this big push to build out domestic battery industries, to build charging points and the sort of infrastructure there, I think it's going to go in direction, but it doesn't look anything like, you know, a sedan or an SUV that just happens to be electric.   Trevor Freeman  17:33 I think that's a the step change is change the drive train of the existing vehicles we have, you know, an internal combustion to a battery. The exponential change is exactly what you're saying. It's rethinking this.   Greg Lindsay  17:47 Yeah, Ramesam and others have pointed out, I mean, again, like this, you know, it's, it's really funny to see this pushback on EVs, you know. I mean, I love a good, good roar of an internal combustion engine myself, but, but like, you know, Ramesam was an energy analyst, has pointed out that, like, you know, EVS were more cost competitive with ice cars in 2018 that's like, nearly a decade ago. And yeah, the efficiency of electric motors, particularly regenerative braking and everything, it just blows the cost curves away of ice though they will become the equivalent of keeping a thorough brat around your house kind of thing. Yeah, so, so yeah, it's just, it's that overall efficiency of the drive train. And that's the to me, the interesting thing about both electric motors, again, of autonomy is like, those are general purpose technologies. They get cheaper and smaller as they evolve under Moore's Law and other various laws, and so they get to apply to more and more stuff.   Trevor Freeman  18:32 Yeah. And then when you think about once, we kind of figure that out, and we're kind of already there, or close to it, if not already there, then it's opening the door to those other things you're talking about. Of, well, do we, does everybody need to have that car in their driveway? Are we rethinking how we're actually just doing transportation in general? And do we need a delivery truck? Or can it be delivery scooter? Or what does that look like?   Greg Lindsay  18:54 Well, we had a lot of those discussions for a long time, particularly in the mobility space, right? Like, and like ride hailing, you know, like, oh, you know, that was always the big pitch of an Uber is, you know, your car's parked in your driveway, like 94% of the time. You know, what happens if you're able to have no mobility? Well, we've had 15 years of Uber and these kinds of services, and we still have as many cars. But people are also taking this for mobility. It's additive. And I raised this question, this notion of like, it's just sort of more and more, more options, more availability, more access. Because the same thing seems to be going on with energy now too. You know, listeners been following along, like the conversation in Houston, you know, a week or two ago at Sarah week, like it's the whole notion of energy realism. And, you know, there's the new book out, more is more is more, which is all about the fact that we've never had an energy transition. We just kept piling up. Like the world burned more biomass last year than it did in 1900 it burned more coal last year than it did at the peak of coal. Like these ages don't really end. They just become this sort of strata as we keep piling energy up on top of it. And you know, I'm trying to sound the alarm that we won't have an energy transition. What that means for climate change? But similar thing, it's. This rebound effect, the Jevons paradox, named after Robert Stanley Jevons in his book The question of coal, where he noted the fact that, like, England was going to need more and more coal. So it's a sobering thought. But, like, I mean, you know, it's a glass half full, half empty in many ways, because the half full is like increasing technological options, increasing changes in lifestyle. You can live various ways you want, but, but, yeah, it's like, I don't know if any of it ever really goes away. We just get more and more stuff,   Trevor Freeman  20:22 Exactly, well. And, you know, to hear you talk about the robotics side of things, you know, looking at the home, yeah, more, definitely more. Okay, so we talked about kind of home automation. We've talked about transportation, how we get around. What about energy management? And I think about this at the we'll talk about the utility side again in a little bit. But, you know, at my house, or for my own personal use in my life, what is the role of, like, sort of machine learning and AI, when it comes to just helping me manage my own energy better and make better decisions when it comes to energy? ,   Greg Lindsay  20:57 Yeah, I mean, this is where it like comes in again. And you know, I'm less and less of an expert here, but I've been following this sort of discourse evolve. And right? It's the idea of, you know, yeah, create, create. This the set of tools in your home, whether it's solar panels or batteries or, you know, or Two Way Direct, bi directional to the grid, however it works. And, yeah, and people, you know, given this option of savings, and perhaps, you know, other marketing messages there to curtail behavior. You know? I mean, I think the short answer the question is, like, it's an app people want, an app that tell them basically how to increase the efficiency of their house or how to do this. And I should note that like, this has like been the this is the long term insight when it comes to like energy and the clean tech revolution. Like my Emery Levin says this great line, which I've always loved, which is, people don't want energy. They want hot showers and cold beer. And, you know, how do you, how do you deliver those things through any combination of sticks and carrots, basically like that. So, So, hence, why? Like, again, like, you know, you know, power walls, you know, and, and, and, you know, other sort of AI controlled batteries here that basically just sort of smooth out to create the sort of optimal flow of electrons into your house, whether that's coming drive directly off the grid or whether it's coming out of your backup and then recharging that the time, you know, I mean, the surveys show, like, more than half of Canadians are interested in this stuff, you know, they don't really know. I've got one set here, like, yeah, 61% are interested in home energy tech, but only 27 understand, 27% understand how to optimize them. So, yeah. So people need, I think, perhaps, more help in handing that over. And obviously, what's exciting for the, you know, the utility level is, like, you know, again, aggregate all that individual behavior together and you get more models that, hope you sort of model this out, you know, at both greater scale and ever more fine grained granularity there. So, yeah, exactly. So I think it's really interesting, you know, I don't know, like, you know, people have gamified it. What was it? I think I saw, like, what is it? The affordability fund trust tried to basically gamify AI energy apps, and it created various savings there. But a lot of this is gonna be like, as a combination like UX design and incentives design and offering this to people too, about, like, why you should want this and money's one reason, but maybe there's others.   Trevor Freeman  22:56 Yeah, and we talk about in kind of the utility sphere, we talk about how customers, they don't want all the data, and then have to go make their own decisions. They want those decisions to be made for them, and they want to say, look, I want to have you tell me the best rate plan to be on. I want to have you automatically switch me to the best rate plan when my consumption patterns change and my behavior chat patterns change. That doesn't exist today, but sort of that fast decision making that AI brings will let that become a reality sometime in the future,   Greg Lindsay  23:29 And also in theory, this is where LLMs come into play. Is like, you know, to me, what excites me the most about that is the first time, like having a true natural language interface, like having being able to converse with an, you know, an AI, let's hopefully not chat bot. I think we're moving out on chat bots, but some sort of sort of instantiation of an AI to be like, what plan should I be on? Can you tell me what my behavior is here and actually having some sort of real language conversation with it? Not decision trees, not event statements, not chat bots.   Trevor Freeman  23:54 Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so we've kind of teased around this idea of looking at the utility levels, obviously, at hydro Ottawa, you referenced this just a minute ago. We look at all these individual cases, every home that has home automation or solar storage, and we want to aggregate that and understand what, what can we do to help manage the grid, help manage all these new energy needs, shift things around. So let's talk a little bit about the role that AI can play at the utility scale in helping us manage the grid.   Greg Lindsay  24:28 All right? Well, yeah, there's couple ways to approach it. So one, of course, is like, let's go back to, like, smart meters, right? Like, and this is where I don't know how many hydro Ottawa has, but I think, like, BC Hydro has like, 2 million of them, sometimes they get politicized, because, again, this gets back to this question of, like, just, just how much nanny state you want. But, you know, you know, when you reach the millions, like, yeah, you're able to get that sort of, you know, obviously real time, real time usage, real time understanding. And again, if you can do that sort of grid management piece where you can then push back, it's visual game changer. But, but yeah. I mean, you know, yeah, be. See hydro is pulling in. I think I read like, like, basically 200 million data points a day. So that's a lot to train various models on. And, you know, I don't know exactly the kind of savings they have, but you can imagine there, whether it's, you know, them, or Toronto Hydro, or hydro Ottawa and others creating all these monitoring points. And again, this is the thing that bedells me, by the way, just philosophically about modern life, the notion of like, but I don't want you to be collecting data off me at all times, but look at what you can do if you do It's that constant push pull of some sort of combination of privacy and agency, and then just the notion of like statistics, but, but there you are, but, but, yeah, but at the grid level, then I mean, like, yeah. I mean, you can sort of do the same thing where, like, you know, I mean, predictive maintenance is the obvious one, right? I have been writing about this for large enterprise software companies for 20 years, about building these data points, modeling out the lifetime of various important pieces equipment, making sure you replace them before you have downtime and terrible things happen. I mean, as we're as we're discussing this, look at poor Heathrow Airport. I am so glad I'm not flying today, electrical substation blowing out two days of the world's most important hub offline. So that's where predictive maintenance comes in from there. And, yeah, I mean, I, you know, I again, you know, modeling out, you know, energy flow to prevent grid outages, whether that's, you know, the ice storm here in Quebec a couple years ago. What was that? April 23 I think it was, yeah, coming up in two years. Or our last ice storm, we're not the big one, but that one, you know, where we had big downtime across the grid, like basically monitoring that and then I think the other big one for AI is like, Yeah, is this, this notion of having some sort of decision support as well, too, and sense of, you know, providing scenarios and modeling out at scale the potential of it? And I don't think, I don't know about this in a grid case, but the most interesting piece I wrote for Fast Company 20 years ago was an example, ago was an example of this, which was a fledgling air taxi startup, but they were combining an agent based model, so using primitive AI to create simple rules for individual agents and build a model of how they would behave, which you can create much more complex models. Now we could talk about agents and then marrying that to this kind of predictive maintenance and operations piece, and marrying the two together. And at that point, you could have a company that didn't exist, but that could basically model itself in real time every day in the life of what it is. You can create millions and millions and millions of Monte Carlo operations. And I think that's where perhaps both sides of AI come together truly like the large language models and agents, and then the predictive machine learning. And you could basically hydro or others, could build this sort of deep time machine where you can model out all of these scenarios, millions and millions of years worth, to understand how it flows and contingencies as well. And that's where it sort of comes up. So basically something happens. And like, not only do you have a set of plans, you have an AI that has done a million sets of these plans, and can imagine potential next steps of this, or where to deploy resources. And I think in general, that's like the most powerful use of this, going back to prediction machines and just being able to really model time in a way that we've never had that capability before. And so you probably imagine the use is better than I.   Trevor Freeman  27:58 Oh man, it's super fascinating, and it's timely. We've gone through the last little while at hydro Ottawa, an exercise of updating our playbook for emergencies. So when there are outages, what kind of outage? What's the sort of, what are the trigger points to go from, you know, what we call a level one to a level two to level three. But all of this is sort of like people hours that are going into that, and we're thinking through these scenarios, and we've got a handful of them, and you're just kind of making me think, well, yeah, what if we were able to model that out? And you bring up this concept of agents, let's tease into that a little bit explain what you mean when you're talking about agents.   Greg Lindsay  28:36 Yeah, so agentic systems, as the term of art is, AI instantiations that have some level of autonomy. And the archetypal example of this is the Stanford Smallville experiment, where they took basically a dozen large language models and they gave it an architecture where they could give it a little bit of backstory, ruminate on it, basically reflect, think, decide, and then act. And in this case, they used it to plan a Valentine's Day party. So they played out real time, and the LLM agents, like, even played matchmaker. They organized the party, they sent out invitations, they did these sorts of things. Was very cute. They put it out open source, and like, three weeks later, another team of researchers basically put them to work writing software programs. So you can see they organized their own workflow. They made their own decisions. There was a CTO. They fact check their own work. And this is evolving into this grand vision of, like, 1000s, millions of agents, just like, just like you spin up today an instance of Amazon Web Services to, like, host something in the cloud. You're going to spin up an agent Nvidia has talked about doing with healthcare and others. So again, coming back to like, the energy implications of that, because it changes the whole pattern. Instead of huge training runs requiring giant data centers. You know, it's these agents who are making all these calls and doing more stuff at the edge, but, um, but yeah, in this case, it's the notion of, you know, what can you put the agents to work doing? And I bring this up again, back to, like, predictive maintenance, or for hydro Ottawa, there's another amazing paper called virtual in real life. And I chatted with one of the principal authors. It created. A half dozen agents who could play tour guide, who could direct you to a coffee shop, who do these sorts of things, but they weren't doing it in a virtual world. They were doing it in the real one. And to do it in the real world, you took the agent, you gave them a machine vision capability, so added that model so they could recognize objects, and then you set them loose inside a digital twin of the world, in this case, something very simple, Google Street View. And so in the paper, they could go into like New York Central Park, and they could count every park bench and every waste bin and do it in seconds and be 99% accurate. And so agents were monitoring the landscape. Everything's up, because you can imagine this in the real world too, that we're going to have all the time. AIS roaming the world, roaming these virtual maps, these digital twins that we build for them and constantly refresh from them, from camera data, from sensor data, from other stuff, and tell us what this is. And again, to me, it's really exciting, because that's finally like an operating system for the internet of things that makes sense, that's not so hardwired that you can ask agents, can you go out and look for this for me? Can you report back on this vital system for me? And they will be able to hook into all of these kinds of representations of real time data where they're emerging from, and give you aggregated reports on this one. And so, you know, I think we have more visibility in real time into the real world than we've ever had before.   Trevor Freeman  31:13 Yeah, I want to, I want to connect a few dots here for our listeners. So bear with me for a second. Greg. So for our listeners, there was a podcast episode we did about a year ago on our grid modernization roadmap, and we talked about one of the things we're doing with grid modernization at hydro Ottawa and utilities everywhere doing this is increasing the sensor data from our grid. So we're, you know, right now, we've got visibility sort of to our station level, sometimes one level down to some switches. But in the future, we'll have sensors everywhere on our grid, every switch, every device on our grid, will have a sensor gathering data. Obviously, you know, like you said earlier, millions and hundreds of millions of data points every second coming in. No human can kind of make decisions on that, and what you're describing is, so now we've got all this data points, we've got a network of information out there, and you could create this agent to say, Okay, you are. You're my transformer agent. Go out there and have a look at the run temperature of every transformer on the network, and tell me where the anomalies are, which ones are running a half a degree or two degrees warmer than they should be, and report back. And now I know hydro Ottawa, that the controller, the person sitting in the room, knows, Hey, we should probably go roll a truck and check on that transformer, because maybe it's getting end of life. Maybe it's about to go and you can do that across the entire grid. That's really fascinating,   Greg Lindsay  32:41 And it's really powerful, because, I mean, again, these conversations 20 years ago at IoT, you know you're going to have statistical triggers, and you would aggregate these data coming off this, and there was a lot of discussion there, but it was still very, like hardwired, and still very Yeah, I mean, I mean very probabilistic, I guess, for a word that went with agents like, yeah, you've now created an actual thing that can watch those numbers and they can aggregate from other systems. I mean, lots, lots of potential there hasn't quite been realized, but it's really exciting stuff. And this is, of course, where that whole direction of the industry is flowing. It's on everyone's lips, agents.   Trevor Freeman  33:12 Yeah. Another term you mentioned just a little bit ago that I want you to explain is a digital twin. So tell us what a digital twin is.   Greg Lindsay  33:20 So a digital twin is, well, the matrix. Perhaps you could say something like this for listeners of a certain age, but the digital twin is the idea of creating a model of a piece of equipment, of a city, of the world, of a system. And it is, importantly, it's physics based. It's ideally meant to represent and capture the real time performance of the physical object it's based on, and in this digital representation, when something happens in the physical incarnation of it, it triggers a corresponding change in state in the digital twin, and then vice versa. In theory, you know, you could have feedback loops, again, a lot of IoT stuff here, if you make changes virtually, you know, perhaps it would cause a change in behavior of the system or equipment, and the scales can change from, you know, factory equipment. Siemens, for example, does a lot of digital twin work on this. You know, SAP, big, big software companies have thought about this. But the really crazy stuff is, like, what Nvidia is proposing. So first they started with a digital twin. They very modestly called earth two, where they were going to model all the weather and climate systems of the planet down to like the block level. There's a great demo of like Jensen Wong walking you through a hurricane, typhoons striking the Taipei, 101, and how, how the wind currents are affecting the various buildings there, and how they would change that more recently, what Nvidia is doing now is, but they just at their big tech investor day, they just partner with General Motors and others to basically do autonomous cars. And what's crucial about it, they're going to train all those autonomous vehicles in an NVIDIA built digital twin in a matrix that will act, that will be populated by agents that will act like people, people ish, and they will be able to run millions of years of autonomous vehicle training in this and this is how they plan to catch up to. Waymo or, you know, if Tesla's robotaxis are ever real kind of thing, you know, Waymo built hardwired like trained on real world streets, and that's why they can only operate in certain operating domain environments. Nvidia is gambling that with large language models and transformer models combined with digital twins, you can do these huge leapfrog effects where you can basically train all sorts of synthetic agents in real world behavior that you have modeled inside the machine. So again, that's the kind, that's exactly the kind of, you know, environment that you're going to train, you know, your your grid of the future on for modeling out all your contingency scenarios.   Trevor Freeman  35:31 Yeah, again, you know, for to bring this to the to our context, a couple of years ago, we had our the direcco. It's a big, massive windstorm that was one of the most damaging storms that we've had in Ottawa's history, and we've made some improvements since then, and we've actually had some great performance since then. Imagine if we could model that derecho hitting our grid from a couple different directions and figure out, well, which lines are more vulnerable to wind speeds, which lines are more vulnerable to flying debris and trees, and then go address that and do something with that, without having to wait for that storm to hit. You know, once in a decade or longer, the other use case that we've talked about on this one is just modeling what's happening underground. So, you know, in an urban environments like Ottawa, like Montreal, where you are, there's tons of infrastructure under the ground, sewer pipes, water pipes, gas lines, electrical lines, and every time the city wants to go and dig up a road and replace that road, replace that sewer, they have to know what's underground. We want to know what's underground there, because our infrastructure is under there. As the electric utility. Imagine if you had a model where you can it's not just a map. You can actually see what's happening underground and determine what makes sense to go where, and model out these different scenarios of if we underground this line or that line there. So lots of interesting things when it comes to a digital twin. The digital twin and Agent combination is really interesting as well, and setting those agents loose on a model that they can play with and understand and learn from. So talk a little bit about.   Greg Lindsay  37:11 that. Yeah. Well, there's a couple interesting implications just the underground, you know, equipment there. One is interesting because in addition to, like, you know, you know, having captured that data through mapping and other stuff there, and having agents that could talk about it. So, you know, next you can imagine, you know, I've done some work with augmented reality XR. This is sort of what we're seeing again, you know, meta Orion has shown off their concept. Google's brought back Android XR. Meta Ray Bans are kind of an example of this. But that's where this data will come from, right? It's gonna be people wearing these wearables in the world, capturing all this camera data and others that's gonna be fed into these digital twins to refresh them. Meta has a particularly scary demo where you know where you the user, the wearer leaves their keys on their coffee table and asks metas, AI, where their coffee where their keys are, and it knows where they are. It tells them and goes back and shows them some data about it. I'm like, well, to do that, meta has to have a complete have a complete real time map of your entire house. What could go wrong. And that's what all these companies aspire to of reality. So, but yeah, you can imagine, you know, you can imagine a worker. And I've worked with a startup out of urban X, a Canada startup, Canadian startup called context steer. And you know, is the idea of having real time instructions and knowledge manuals available to workers, particularly predictive maintenance workers and line workers. So you can imagine a technician dispatched to deal with this cut in the pavement and being able to see with XR and overlay of like, what's actually under there from the digital twin, having an AI basically interface with what's sort of the work order, and basically be your assistant that can help you walk you through it, in case, you know, you run into some sort of complication there, hopefully that won't be, you know, become like, turn, turn by turn, directions for life that gets into, like, some of the questions about what we wanted out of our workforce. But there's some really interesting combinations of those things, of like, you know, yeah, mapping a world for AIS, ais that can understand it, that could ask questions in it, that can go probe it, that can give you advice on what to do in it. All those things are very close for good and for bad.   Trevor Freeman  39:03 You kind of touched on my next question here is, how do we make sure this is all in the for good or mostly in the for good category, and not the for bad category you talk in one of the papers that you wrote about, you know, AI and augmented reality in particular, really expanding the attack surface for malicious actors. So we're creating more opportunities for whatever the case may be, if it's hacking or if it's malware, or if it's just, you know, people that are up to nefarious things. How do we protect against that? How do we make sure that our systems are safe that the users of our system. So in our case, our customers, their data is safe, their the grid is safe. How do we make sure that?   Greg Lindsay  39:49 Well, the very short version is, whatever we're spending on cybersecurity, we're not spending enough. And honestly, like everybody who is no longer learning to code, because we can be a quad or ChatGPT to do it, I. Is probably there should be a whole campaign to repurpose a big chunk of tech workers into cybersecurity, into locking down these systems, into training ethical systems. There's a lot of work to be done there. But yeah, that's been the theme for you know that I've seen for 10 years. So that paper I mentioned about sort of smart homes, the Internet of Things, and why people would want a smart home? Well, yeah, the reason people were skeptical is because they saw it as basically a giant attack vector. My favorite saying about this is, is, there's a famous Arthur C Clarke quote that you know, any sufficiently advanced technology is magic Tobias Ravel, who works at Arup now does their head of foresight has this great line, any sufficiently advanced hacking will feel like a haunting meaning. If you're in a smart home that's been hacked, it will feel like you're living in a haunted house. Lights will flicker on and off, and systems will turn and go haywire. It'll be like you're living with a possessed house. And that's true of cities or any other systems. So we need to do a lot of work on just sort of like locking that down and securing that data, and that is, you know, we identified, then it has to go all the way up and down the supply chain, like you have to make sure that there is, you know, a chain of custody going back to when components are made, because a lot of the attacks on nest, for example. I mean, you want to take over a Google nest, take it off the wall and screw the back out of it, which is a good thing. It's not that many people are prying open our thermostats, but yeah, if you can get your hands on it, you can do a lot of these systems, and you can do it earlier in the supply chain and sorts of infected pieces and things. So there's a lot to be done there. And then, yeah, and then, yeah, and then there's just a question of, you know, making sure that the AIs are ethically trained and reinforced. And, you know, a few people want to listeners, want to scare themselves. You can go out and read some of the stuff leaking out of anthropic and others and make clot of, you know, models that are trying to hide their own alignments and trying to, like, basically copy themselves. Again, I don't believe that anything things are alive or intelligent, but they exhibit these behaviors as part of the probabilistic that's kind of scary. So there's a lot to be done there. But yeah, we worked on this, the group that I do foresight with Arizona State University threat casting lab. We've done some work for the Secret Service and for NATO and, yeah, there'll be, you know, large scale hackings on infrastructure. Basically the equivalent can be the equivalent can be the equivalent to a weapons of mass destruction attack. We saw how Russia targeted in 2014 the Ukrainian grid and hacked their nuclear plans. This is essential infrastructure more important than ever, giving global geopolitics say the least, so that needs to be under consideration. And I don't know, did I scare you enough yet? What are the things we've talked through here that, say the least about, you know, people being, you know, tricked and incepted by their AI girlfriends, boyfriends. You know people who are trying to AI companions. I can't possibly imagine what could go wrong there.   Trevor Freeman  42:29 I mean, it's just like, you know, I don't know if this is 15 or 20, or maybe even 25 years ago now, like, it requires a whole new level of understanding when we went from a completely analog world to a digital world and living online, and people, I would hope, to some degree, learned to be skeptical of things on the internet and learned that this is that next level. We now need to learn the right way of interacting with this stuff. And as you mentioned, building the sort of ethical code and ethical guidelines into these language models into the AI. Learning is pretty critical for our listeners. We do have a podcast episode on cybersecurity. I encourage you to go listen to it and reassure yourself that, yes, we are thinking about this stuff. And thanks, Greg, you've given us lots more to think about in that area as well. When it comes to again, looking back at utilities and managing the grid, one thing we're going to see, and we've talked a lot about this on the show, is a lot more distributed generation. So we're, you know, the days of just the central, large scale generation, long transmission lines that being the only generation on the grid. Those days are ending. We're going to see more distributed generations, solar panels on roofs, batteries. How does AI help a utility manage those better, interact with those better get more value out of those things?   Greg Lindsay  43:51 I guess that's sort of like an extension of some of the trends I was talking about earlier, which is the notion of, like, being able to model complex systems. I mean, that's effectively it, right, like you've got an increasingly complex grid with complex interplays between it, you know, figuring out how to basically based on real world performance, based on what you're able to determine about where there are correlations and codependencies in the grid, where point where choke points could emerge, where overloading could happen, and then, yeah, basically, sort of building that predictive system to Basically, sort of look for what kind of complex emergent behavior comes out of as you keep adding to it and and, you know, not just, you know, based on, you know, real world behavior, but being able to dial that up to 11, so to speak, and sort of imagine sort of these scenarios, or imagine, you know, what, what sort of long term scenarios look like in terms of, like, what the mix, how the mix changes, how the geography changes, all those sorts of things. So, yeah, I don't know how that plays out in the short term there, but it's this combination, like I'm imagining, you know, all these different components playing SimCity for real, if one will.   Trevor Freeman  44:50 And being able to do it millions and millions and millions of times in a row, to learn every possible iteration and every possible thing that might happen. Very cool. Okay. So last kind of area I want to touch on you did mention this at the beginning is the the overall power implications of of AI, of these massive data centers, obviously, at the utility, that's something we are all too keenly aware of. You know, the stat that that I find really interesting is a normal Google Search compared to, let's call it a chat GPT search. That chat GPT search, or decision making, requires 10 times the amount of energy as that just normal, you know, Google Search looking out from a database. Do you see this trend? I don't know if it's a trend. Do you see this continuing like AI is just going to use more power to do its decision making, or will we start to see more efficiencies there? And the data centers will get better at doing what they do with less energy. What is the what does the future look like in that sector?   Greg Lindsay  45:55 All the above. It's more, is more, is more! Is the trend, as far as I can see, and every decision maker who's involved in it. And again, Jensen Wong brought this up at the big Nvidia Conference. That basically he sees the only constraint on this continuing is availability of energy supplies keep it going and South by Southwest. And in some other conversations I've had with bandwidth companies, telcos, like laying 20 lumen technologies, United States is laying 20,000 new miles of fiber optic cables. They've bought 10% of Corning's total fiber optic output for the next couple of years. And their customers are the hyperscalers. They're, they're and they're rewiring the grid. That's why, I think it's interesting. This has something, of course, for thinking about utilities, is, you know, the point to point Internet of packet switching and like laying down these big fiber routes, which is why all the big data centers United States, the majority of them, are in north of them are in Northern Virginia, is because it goes back to the network hub there. Well, lumen is now wiring this like basically this giant fabric, this patchwork, which can connect data center to data center, and AI to AI and cloud to cloud, and creating this entirely new environment of how they are all directly connected to each other through some of this dedicated fiber. And so you can see how this whole pattern is changing. And you know, the same people are telling me that, like, yeah, the where they're going to build this fiber, which they wouldn't tell me exactly where, because it's very tradable, proprietary information, but, um, but it's following the energy supplies. It's following the energy corridors to the American Southwest, where there's solar and wind in Texas, where you can get natural gas, where you can get all these things. It will follow there. And I of course, assume the same is true in Canada as we build out our own sovereign data center capacity for this. So even, like deep seek, for example, you know, which is, of course, the hyper efficient Chinese model that spooked the markets back in January. Like, what do you mean? We don't need a trillion dollars in capex? Well, everyone's quite confident, including again, Jensen Wong and everybody else that, yeah, the more efficient models will increase this usage. That Jevons paradox will play out once again, and we'll see ever more of it. To me, the question is, is like as how it changes? And of course, you know, you know, this is a bubble. Let's, let's, let's be clear, data centers are a bubble, just like railroads in 1840 were a bubble. And there will be a bust, like not everyone's investments will pencil out that infrastructure will remain maybe it'll get cheaper. We find new uses for it, but it will, it will eventually bust at some point and that's what, to me, is interesting about like deep seeking, more efficient models. Is who's going to make the wrong investments in the wrong places at the wrong time? But you know, we will see as it gathers force and agents, as I mentioned. You know, they don't require, as much, you know, these monstrous training runs at City sized data centers. You know, meta wanted to spend $200 billion on a single complex, the open AI, Microsoft, Stargate, $500 billion Oracle's. Larry Ellison said that $100 billion is table stakes, which is just crazy to think about. And, you know, he's permitting three nukes on site. So there you go. I mean, it'll be fascinating to see if we have a new generation of private, private generation, right, like, which is like harkening all the way back to, you know, the early electrical grid and companies creating their own power plants on site, kind of stuff. Nicholas Carr wrote a good book about that one, about how we could see from the early electrical grid how the cloud played out. They played out very similarly. The AI cloud seems to be playing out a bit differently. So, so, yeah, I imagine that as well, but, but, yeah, well, inference happen at the edge. We need to have more distributed generation, because you're gonna have AI agents that are going to be spending more time at the point of request, whether that's a laptop or your phone or a light post or your autonomous vehicle, and it's going to need more of that generation and charging at the edge. That, to me, is the really interesting question. Like, you know, when these current generation models hit their limits, and just like with Moore's law, like, you know, you have to figure out other efficiencies in designing chips or designing AIS, how will that change the relationship to the grid? And I don't think anyone knows quite for sure yet, which is why they're just racing to lock up as many long term contracts as they possibly can just get it all, core to the market.   Trevor Freeman  49:39 Yeah, it's just another example, something that comes up in a lot of different topics that we cover on this show. Everything, obviously, is always related to the energy transition. But the idea that the energy transition is really it's not just changing fuel sources, like we talked about earlier. It's not just going from internal combustion to a battery. It's rethinking the. Relationship with energy, and it's rethinking how we do things. And, yeah, you bring up, like, more private, massive generation to deal with these things. So really, that whole relationship with energy is on scale to change. Greg, this has been a really interesting conversation. I really appreciate it. Lots to pack into this short bit of time here. We always kind of wrap up our conversations with a series of questions to our guests. So I'm going to fire those at you here. And this first one, I'm sure you've got lots of different examples here, so feel free to give more than one. What is a book that you've read that you think everybody should read?   Greg Lindsay  50:35 The first one that comes to mind is actually William Gibson's Neuromancer, which is which gave the world the notion of cyberspace and so many concepts. But I think about it a lot today. William Gibson, Vancouver based author, about how much in that book is something really think about. There is a digital twin in it, an agent called the Dixie flatline. It's like a former program where they cloned a digital twin of him. I've actually met an engineering company, Thornton Thomas Eddie that built a digital twin of one of their former top experts. So like that became real. Of course, the matrix is becoming real the Turing police. Yeah, there's a whole thing in there where there's cops to make sure that AIS don't get smarter. I've been thinking a lot about, do we need Turing police? The EU will probably create them. And so that's something where you know the proof, again, of like science fiction, its ability in world building to really make you think about these implications and help for contingency planning. A lot of foresight experts I work with think about sci fi, and we use sci fi for exactly that reason. So go read some classic cyberpunk, everybody.   Trevor Freeman  51:32 Awesome. So same question. But what's a movie or a show that you think everybody should take a look at?   Greg Lindsay  51:38 I recently watched the watch the matrix with ideas, which is fun to think about, where the villains are, agents that villains are agents. That's funny how that terms come back around. But the other one was thinking about the New Yorker recently read a piece on global demographics and the fact that, you know, globally, less and less children. And it made several references to Alfonso Quons, Children of Men from 2006 which is, sadly, probably the most prescient film of the 21st Century. Again, a classic to watch, about imagining in a world where we don't where you where you lose faith in the future, what happens, and a world that is not having children as a world that's losing faith in its own future. So that's always haunted me.   Trevor Freeman  52:12 It's funny both of those movies. So I've got kids as they get, you know, a little bit older, a little bit older, we start introducing more and more movies. And I've got this list of movies that are just, you know, impactful for my own adolescent years and growing up. And both matrix and Children of Men are on that list of really good movies that I just need my kids to get a little bit older, and then I'm excited to watch with them. If someone offered you a free round trip flight anywhere in the world, where would you go?   Greg Lindsay  52:40 I would go to Venice, Italy for the Architecture Biennale, which I will be on a plane in May, going to anyway. And the theme this year is intelligence, artificial, natural and collective. So it should be interesting to see the world's brightest architects. Let's see what we got. But yeah, Venice, every time, my favorite city in the world.   Trevor Freeman  52:58 Yeah, it's pretty wonderful. Who is someone that you admire?   Greg Lindsay  53:01 Great question.

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in '80s and they break down its themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!Before Netflix, before the Matrix, before Y2K, the viewing public of the late 20th century knew that computers would be important in the future, somehow, and Hollywood studios scrambled to try and produce TV shows and films that capitalized on and read into that unexplored digital frontier. The result was a 1990s that was awash with stories about how the Internet would change everything, from Keanu Reeves having an 80GB brain implant to Sandra Bullock ordering a pizza...from her computer! (gasp!) Most of these efforts followed the template established by the authors of the early Cyberpunk movement, providing paranoiac thrillers in the style of William Gibson. But one series broke from that mold to attempt to integrate the technothrills of tomorrow with the soapy, prime-time thrills of today: Wild Palms. In this episode, we discuss the "weirdness" of '90s TV and the long shot that was the series' production, the viability of cyberpunk soap opera, the complicated alchemy of going off the TV formula, the intersection of culture and fame in LA, the chilling parallels between Wild Palms and our new millennium, human weakness in the face of technology's temptations, subverting the "Blade Runner aesthetic", how media is used to control us, and what cyberpunk tells us about the media's affect on culture. We also talk about Nazi gas-lighting robots, grading the Turing test on a curve, Stacked Clippy, Brisco County Jr., future = Edwardian collars, Cyberpunk Jim Belushi, postmodern law firms, not understanding your mantra, Patriots vs. Quakers vs. Solid Snake, the tacky harbinger of the Apocalypse, writing off into the sunset, and cyberpunk vampires!Hitler, take the wheel!The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!http://twitch.tv/justenoughtropePut Just Enough Trope merch on your body!http://justenoughtrope.threadless.comMLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpodhttp://www.justenoughtrope.comhttp://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpodhttps://discord.gg/7E6wUayqBuy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

So my vacation didn't come off as I expected. I had a very, very large flare up of my anxiety disorder so I made the smart decision and stayed home rather be in distress while visiting friends. Its not the first time its happened, so I'm going to put a pause on overnight flights and multiple time zones. William Gibson once wrote that flying allowed us to travel faster than our souls, and it usually takes ~18 hours for them to catch up. But I'm much better now, almost back to normal, so what better way to celebrate than put out... Evo-Lution - Angst Und Liebe DSTRTD_SGNL - Untold Story TeknoVore - Liminal Space (Slighter) Core In Motion - Keep me Alive (Club) Vogon Poetry & SCALA - Immortals (Oren Amram) Aesthetic Perfection - Coward UCNX - Complicit Silence (Stoneburner) Faderhead - This Is Not The End (Cyberpunk) http://synthetic.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@RealSyntheticAudio

What happens when a tech magnate demonstrates a time machine at a Las Vegas convention… and it actually works?That's the thrilling (and terrifyingly plausible) premise of Catherine Mayer's new novel, TIME/LIFE. But this book isn't just about time travel—it's about love, grief, and how technology and populism are reshaping the world around us.We sat down with Catherine for a conversation that was part deep dive into her writing process, part exploration of activism and grief, and entirely fascinating.This interview was originally available exclusively to our paid Substack subscribers—they tuned in live, asked their questions directly, and got to watch two weeks ahead of the public. But now, for the first time, it's live on YouTube for everyone.

Andrew Wilkinson is the co‑founder of Tiny, a holding company that quietly owns more than three dozen profitable internet and consumer brands, including Dribbble and the AeroPress coffee maker. Starting as a teenage barista and web designer, he's created a portfolio approaching $300 million in yearly sales (and he was personally worth over $1 billion at one point)—all without ever raising venture capital.In this conversation, you'll learn:1. The “fish where the fish are” framework for spotting high‑margin niches no one else notices2. The exact agent stack (Lindy, Replit, Limitless, and more) that supercharges Andrew's day-to-day productivity (and has replaced his assistant)3. How Andrew evaluates companies in less than 15 minutes using Buffett‑style moats and “lazy leadership”4. Telltale signs you should shut down (or never start) that startup idea5. His journey from crippling anxiety to clarity through SSRIs and ADHD medication6. His prediction that most knowledge work will be automated—and the skills to teach your kids now—Brought to you by:Sauce—Turn customer pain into product revenueEnterpret—Transform customer feedback into product growthMiro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life—Where to find Andrew Wilkinson:• X: https://x.com/awilkinson• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilkinson/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Andrew Wilkinson(04:07) Finding the right business idea(07:18) Avoiding common business pitfalls(11:58) Finding your unfair advantage(17:08) Fish where the fish are(20:08) Why boring is good(25:30) Bootstrapping vs. venture capital(31:20) Lessons from acquiring and managing businesses(36:47) Avoiding people problems(42:39) Leveraging AI in business and life(49:30) The Limitless device(53:13) Job displacement and AI's future impact(58:20) Advice for new grads(01:02:50) Parenting in the age of AI(01:05:26) The pursuit of happiness beyond wealth(01:10:10) Mental health and medication(01:16:45) Lightning round and final thoughts—Referenced:• Andrew's post on X with the Charlie Munger quote: https://x.com/awilkinson/status/1265653805443506182• Metalab: https://www.metalab.com/• Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/• AeroPress: https://aeropress.com/• Brian Armstrong on X: https://x.com/brian_armstrong• Warren Buffett's quote: https://quotefancy.com/quote/931119/Warren-Buffett-I-am-a-better-investor-because-I-am-a-businessman-and-a-better-businessman• Flow: https://www.getflow.com/• Instacart: https://www.instacart.com/• Things: https://culturedcode.com/things/• Dustin Moskovitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmoskov/• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/• Serato: https://serato.com/• Chris Sparling on X: https://x.com/_sparling_• Lindy: https://www.lindy.ai/• Replit: https://replit.com/• Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad• David Ogilvy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman)• Malcolm Gladwell's website: https://www.gladwellbooks.com/• Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons• Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika• Limitless: https://www.limitless.ai/• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/• Claude: https://claude.ai/• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app• William Gibson's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly• Palm Treo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Treo• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama• Dario Amodei on X: https://x.com/darioamodei• Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next• Challengers on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/challengers/umc.cmc.53cuz33n4e74ixj8whccj87oc• Matic vacuum: https://maticrobots.com/• Jerzy Gregorek's quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8652595-hard-choices-easy-life-easy-choices-hard-life• Tiny: https://www.tiny.com/• Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/—Recommended books:• The Laws of Human Nature: https://www.amazon.com/Laws-Human-Nature-Robert-Greene/dp/0525428143• How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp/1591842719—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

"I can carry nearly eighty gigs of data in my head." For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality.  This probably shouldn't be surprising: 1995 was a banner year for technology; with the release of Windows 95 and the increasing availability of home internet, more people than ever were being connected to the World Wide Web. And as we know, Hollywood loves a trend. Enter: Virtual Insanity. In this series, we'll be exploring some of the more significant films of this very specific subgenre, all of which are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Most of these films fell flat at the box office in 1995 but all have reached varying degrees of notoriety in the decades since. Kicking things off, we're taking a look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, possibly the strangest of the bunch. It's a film with a long, complex production history whose journey from page (in a short story by cyberpunk legend William Gibson) to screen was fraught with delays, difficulties and compromises. In our last episode, we detailed the early days of JOHNNY MNEMONIC's development and filming. This week, we'll focus on the film's contentious post production period, where the Hollywood execs responsible for marketing the film tried to turn it into something it was never intended to be, hoping to capitalize on the newfound post-SPEED superstardom of Keanu Reeves. We'll also get into our own thoughts on the film's legacy, as well as how its views of the internet and global connectivity are still relevant today. Next week: We continue our look at the cyber thrillers of 1995 with an often-overlooked film that stars two of Hollywood's biggest names. Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ can enjoy an extended version of this episode, which includes the full story of JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Parts 1 and 2), as well as bonus segments and additional content, plus get access to all episodes two days early, exclusive merchandise discounts, and more. Join now at cinemashock.net/plus. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Interzone78 | Jackson_Baker | Jvance325 | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy. This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis. For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

"I want to get online... I need a computer!" For our Cinema Shock summer series, we wanted to take a look back at a few movies that were celebrating significant anniversaries this year. When we began browsing films released in 1995, we noticed an interesting trend: There was a glut of cyber thrillers released that year. And more specifically, cyber thrillers that dealt with the concept of virtual reality.  This probably shouldn't be surprising: 1995 was a banner year for technology; with the release of Windows 95 and the increasing availability of home internet, more people than ever were being connected to the World Wide Web. And as we know, Hollywood loves a trend. Enter: Virtual Insanity. In this series, we'll be exploring some of the more significant films of this very specific subgenre, all of which are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year. Most of these films fell flat at the box office in 1995 but all have reached varying degrees of notoriety in the decades since. Kicking things off, we're taking a look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, possibly the strangest of the bunch. It's a film with a long, complex production history whose journey from page (in a short story by cyberpunk legend William Gibson) to screen was fraught with delays, difficulties and compromises. In this, the first of two episodes detailing JOHNNY MNEMONIC's story, we'll establish just why cyber thrillers became a trend, how one of 1980s New York's most prominent visual artists came on board as the director, and how the vision for the film trasnformed from a low budget black-and-white art film into a nearly $30 million major studio production. Next week: In Part 2 of our look at JOHNNY MNEMONIC, we'll detail the film's contentious post-production period, it's bungled release, and box office performance, as well as our own thoughts on the film and how its vision of the future is still relevant today. Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ can enjoy an extended version of this episode, which includes the full story of JOHNNY MNEMONIC (Parts 1 and 2), as well as bonus segments and additional content, plus get access to all episodes two days early, exclusive merchandise discounts, and more. Join now at cinemashock.net/plus. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Interzone78 | Jackson_Baker | Jvance325 | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy. This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis. For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net  

Send us a textWilliam Gibson described Cyberpunk as a fusion of high-tech and low-life, exploring the intersection of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on human society in a near-future, often dystopian setting.If you don't know who William Gibson is then shame on you.Like most people out there, my first exposure to Cyberpunk was Blade Runner. The 1982 movie by Ridley Scott blew me away. After that I watched movies like Freejack and Johnny Mnemonic, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. it wasn't until the late 90's that I started diving into the literary world of Cyberpunk with Nuromancer and Snowcrash.I loved the setting, the style, the tech, and the action, but I never got into the roleplaying games. I heard about Cyberpunk, and Cyberpunk 2020. But for some strange reason I never picked them up.Then Mike asked me if I was interested in playing Cyberpunk Red.I jumped at the chance.Mike ran our group though almost a year of Cyberpunk using the Cyberpunk Red rules and we have recently started up again focusing more on the Edgerunner 2077 expansion for Cyberpunk Red.After that much game time, we got opinions.In this episode Mike, Christina and I are going to give you an honest, unbiased review of Cyberpunk Red.But before we do that, Christina, break down the legalese for us.[Kick to Christina so she can go on about how we haven't been paid or compensated in any way for our opinion and we bought the shit with money out of our own pocket.]Now Mike, Start us off on our review of Cyberpunk Red.

Johnny Mnemonic 1995 Directed by Robert Longo Starring Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice T In this film based on the William Gibson story, Johnny (Keanu Reeves) is a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted into his mind. However, the data will kill Johnny if he cannot retrieve it within 48 hours. Accompanied by physically enhanced bodyguard Jane (Dina Meyer), Johnny sets out to acquire the passwords he needs to save himself. Worse yet, he is hunted by gangster Shinji (Denis Akiyama) and businessman Takahashi (Takeshi), both of whom seek the data Johnny possesses.

Notes from James:The biggest lie about writing is that it takes years. I've written multiple books in less than a month—including bestsellers. With the right system, anyone can do this.In this episode, I break down how to structure your first book and why your life experience, not your grammar, is your superpower. You'll also hear my take on AI writing, and why your personal story is something no algorithm can ever replicate.Episode Highlights:Yes, you really can write and publish a great book in 30 days. In Part 2 of this writing series, I walk you through the actual systems that make it not only possible—but repeatable.You'll learn four powerful “meta-outline” frameworks you can use to organize any non-fiction book quickly and clearly. I'll show you how I wrote Think Like a Billionaire in under 30 days using one of these frameworks, and how authors I know have launched entire careers with similar methods (some even in just three days). I also dive deep into one of the most important—but most overlooked—parts of writing a book: your first sentence. You'll hear legendary first lines from some of the world's best authors and learn why they work.This episode is a blend of process and artistry—because writing a great book requires both.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/JAMES and get on your way to being your best self.What You'll Learn:4 concrete frameworks that will help you write a 20+ chapter book fastThe myth of needing years to write a book (and how to break it)How I turned podcast interviews with billionaires into a full book in less than a monthWhy your first sentence matters more than your title—and how to make it irresistibleHow to write with authenticity, vulnerability, and momentumWhy AI can't replace you—and never will—when it comes to storytellingTimestamps00:00 Introduction: Writing a Book in 30 Days00:54 The Four Frameworks for Writing02:03 Example: Think Like a Billionaire05:10 Overcoming Writing Myths13:14 AI and the Future of Writing20:47 The Power of a Strong First Line23:51 Exploring the Opening Lines of Iconic Novels24:14 Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: A Civil Rights Era Classic25:04 Jack Kerouac's On the Road: A Journey of Rediscovery27:23 Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude: A Nobel-Winning Masterpiece30:54 Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: A War Story with a Twist34:20 Jennifer Egan's Welcome to the Goon Squad: A Pulitzer Prize Winner35:25 Charles Bukowski's Post Office: A Tale of Mistakes and Realities38:57 William Gibson's Neuromancer: The Birth of Cyberpunk40:16 The Importance of First Lines in Storytelling42:36 Crafting Relatable and Vulnerable NarrativesP.S. Want to go deeper? Check out my full course on Udemy or visit chooseyourselfacademy.com: How to Write and Publish a Book in 30 Days – available now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, JF and Phil are joined by Jacob G. Foster—sociologist, physicist, and researcher at Indiana University Bloomington and the Santa Fe Institute—for a conversation about their recent collaboration in Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Their co-authored essay, “Care of the Dead,” explores how the dead continue to shape our cultures, languages, and ways of being. Together, they discuss the process of writing the piece and what it means to say that the dead are not gone—that they persist, and that they make claims on the living. The article is available here: https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/154/1/166/127931/Care-of-the-Dead-Ancestors-Traditions-amp-the-Life **References** [Peter Kingsley,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kingsley) English writer  Weird Studies, [Episode 98 on “Taboo”]) https://www.weirdstudies.com/98)  John Berger, “12 Theses on the Economy of the Dead” in _[Hold Everything Dear](12 Theses on the Economy of the Dead)_  Bernard Koch, Daniele Silvestro, and Jacob Foster, ["The Evolutionary Dynamics of Cultural Change”](https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/659bt_v1)  Gilbert Simondon, _[Imagination and Invention](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781517914455)_  William Gibson, _[Neuromancer](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780441007462)_  [Phlogiston theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlogiston_theory)  George Orwell, _[1984](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780451524935)_  HP Lovecraft, [“The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cdw.aspx)  Weird Studies, [Episode 187 on “Little, Big”](https://www.weirdstudies.com/187)  [John Dee,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee) English occultist  Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, _[The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780195320992)_  Robert Harrison, _[The Dominion of the Dead](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780226317939)_  Gilles Deleuze, _[Bergsonism](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780942299076)_  Elizabeth LeGuin, _[Boccherini's Body](https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780520240179)_  Elizabeth LeGuin, [“Cello and Bow thinking”](http://www.echo.ucla.edu/cello-and-bow-thinking-baccherinis-cello-sonata-in-eb-minor-faouri-catalogo/)  Johannes Brahms, _Handel Variations_  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's a new week and your favorite trio is back—well, two-thirds of us, anyway. Devon is currently living his best life in Barcelona, probably sipping espresso in a narrow sunlit alley or arguing with someone about FC Barcelona tactics. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been busy with spring break chaos, Santa Cruz curiosities, and turning broken laptops into gaming slabs. Real Life Stuff Steven hit up Santa Cruz for a classic California spring break trip. That meant a day at the boardwalk, a ride up the mountains on a steam engine to hunt Easter eggs with the family, and—yes—the infamous Mystery Spot. For the uninitiated, it's California State Historical Landmark #1055 and basically a physics-defying tourist trap nestled in the redwoods. It's $10 and you walk out wondering if your equilibrium is off or if you've just witnessed real magic. Verdict? Worth it. Especially if you enjoy a healthy mix of skepticism and whimsy. Ben had the kind of spring break that only a tech tinkerer dreams of. He loaded Bazzite SteamOS onto his desktop (yes, it's real, and yes, it's cool: bazzite.gg). Then he cracked open a MacBook Pro with the dreaded FlexGate issue—1/10 on the repairability scale, even with help from ifixit.com—and turned it into a Steam-powered “SlabTop.” Also in Ben's world: a visit from Mom, and a daycare full of cute dogs and chicks (the feathered kind, relax). We also detoured into The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2. Let's just say the show continues to spark great conversation—and some tension between game purists and show-only folks. The Future Is Now Ben brought the indie darling GOTY (Game of the Year) Lushfoil Photography Sim to our attention—an atmospheric exploration game that's more about vibes than objectives. Think beautiful desolation and digital zen. He also shouted out Radio Garden—a global map where you can spin the world and listen to live radio from just about anywhere. It's the chillest rabbit hole you'll ever fall into. And for anyone trying to make sense of the digital mess that is our current internet, he also found this guide to misinformation-fighting tools. Even though it's aimed at journalists, it's super handy for the rest of us trying to tell real news from ragebait. Steven took us on a hyperspace jump to Star Wars Celebration updates. Highlights? The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, Andor Season 2 (yes, please), Ahsoka Season 2, Maul: Shadow Lord, a new Star Wars: Starfighter movie, and Star Wars Visions Volume 3. Basically, it's a great time to be a galaxy-far-far-away fan. Book Club We're taking next week off from Book Club (don't worry, we'll still be recording). But this week we dove into William Gibson's “Fragments of a Hologram Rose”—his first published story and a dense little piece of cyberpunk mood. It follows a man piecing together memories of his ex via a near-future tech called ASP (Apparent Sensory Perception). It's sad, it's moody, it's very Gibson. The whole idea of fragmented memory and identity hits especially hard in a world where we're all just scrolling, recording, and replaying everything. We'll be back next week (with or without Devon depending on how good that Barcelona weather is). As always, hit us up with your thoughts, your favorite indie games, your weird spring break stories, or your take on who's actually in the right: Joel or Ellie. See you then!

I'm jacking into cyberspace for some pain and pleasure.'Neuromancer' by William Gibson is a sci-fi classic that was right at the beginning of the cyberpunk genre. We follow Case in a futuristic techno world where he is hired to hack into a wealthy family's lair. He is part of a motley crew each with their own specialty, hired by an AI to free itself from it's restrictions. Think of Japan, robots, drugs, implants, space, fashion, tech, culture, violence and sex to get a good idea of the new world.If you got value from the podcast please provide support back in any way you best see fit!Timeline:(00:00:00) Intro(00:03:02) Themes/Questions(00:17:30) Author & Extras(00:23:05) Summary(00:25:42) Value 4 Value(00:26:07) Join Live! Connect with Mere Mortals:Website: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/Discord: https://discord.gg/jjfq9eGReUTwitter/X: https://twitter.com/meremortalspodsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/meremortalspodcasts/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@meremortalspodcastsValue 4 Value Support:Boostagram: https://www.meremortalspodcast.com/supportPaypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/meremortalspodcast

Real Life: This week's episode kicks off with Devon missing in action, attending a wedding and recovering from, well… life. Also, he's apparently deep into building off-brand LEGO, which raises some very important questions: How many pieces? How many regrets? Meanwhile, Ben survived a 5.2 earthquake and checks in to let us know that everyone's safe. He also shares a couple links to Desert Child, an indie hover-bike racer/RPG that mixes hip-hop, ramen, and pixel art vibes—and may or may not be rolling onto Xbox soon thanks to some juicy UI integration rumors. https://store.steampowered.com/app/844050/Desert_Child/ https://isthereanydeal.com/game/desert-child/info/ https://www.theverge.com/news/633478/microsoft-xbox-steam-games-support-ui   Steven's life update is more... fluffy. Literally. He's in line to pick up baby chicks for the backyard flock (Black Sexlinked and Smokey Pearl, if you're curious), and discovers that mailing baby birds is a surprisingly common thing. Also, he's deploying next-level parenting tricks by disguising fun surprises as errands. The dad game is strong.  Also: The Last of Us S2 premiere dropped and Steven gives it a glowing 10/10. We talk a bit about how the show mirrors the game—and why it's working so well. Ben also brings us something very important: The Naboo Movie. It's real. It's glorious. It's here: watch it now. Future or Now: Ben drops some cosmic perspective with a planetary fact that blew our minds: All the planets in our solar system could line up between the Earth and the Moon. That includes Pluto, for those of you still rooting for the little guy. Steven introduces us to Mad Mouse—no, not a Disney spinoff. This is about AI mapping mouse brains. A new model simulates how the mouse visual cortex responds to images. Basically, it's science fiction getting closer to just… science. Read the study here. Book Club: This week, we took a listen to the first episode of It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton, featuring “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death” by Caroline M. Yoachim. It's a short, beautiful, gut-punch of a story about love across time and space—a real Gordian knot of feels. Check it out on Lightspeed Magazine. Next week we'll be diving into “Fragments of a Hologram Rose” by William Gibson, part of his Burning Chrome collection. It's a short one—just 15 minutes—and dripping in cyberpunk atmosphere. And if you're wondering about the Star Trek side of our brains: yes, we saw the new Strange New Worlds trailer. Yes, it looks wild. Yes, we're watching. Peep it here.  

The arts have that capacity to be powerful broadcasters, conveyors of messages, invitations to celebration, reflection, storytelling, narrative building and so on. There's a vital role here for the arts. But like the rest of society, frankly, whether it's the banking system or government we're simply not doing it well enough that we could say we're satisfied with how much is happening and everything's going to be okay. It's not. If we just stopped now, chaos and worse are due. It's not to say that we can hold up the arts and say, if only you were doing your job, everything would be fine. No, we all have, no matter what sector, so much to do.This is my second conscient conversation with social innovator and former CEO of McConnell Foundation, Stephen Huddart. The first took place on June 17, 2021 in Montréal, episode 58, and this second took place on September 24th, 2024 in Victoria BC. I've condensed all of this rich conversation down to my new format of 15 minutes – not an easy edit - so what you'll hear highlights from our exchange about the vital role of art, social innovation, relations with indigenous peoples, the panarchy cycle, Stephen's leadership role with the Victoria Forum (co-hosted with members of the Canadian Senate) and more.Action pointsNurture the capacity of art to be powerful broadcasters, conveyors of messages, invitations to celebration, reflection, storytelling, narrative building, etc.Increase the vitality and role of art at the local level to contribute to a more dynamic civic cultureCreate more configurations to present, invite, engage, dialogue, contemplate, discuss the artsSee, hear and deeply hear others perspectives.Nurture the power of art to serve as a catalyst for inspiration and communityShow notes generated by Whisper Transcribe AIStory PreviewWhat if art holds the key to unlocking our collective future? This episode explores the intersection of art, innovation, and societal transformation, revealing how creative expression can guide us through crisis and towards revitalization.Chapter Summary00:00 The Power of the Arts01:07 Revisiting Conversations02:02 Trust and Community Engagement04:22 The Victoria Forum Experience06:10 Navigating Complex Challenges07:30 Understanding Our Current Cycle09:21 The Call to Action11:17 The Role of the Arts in Social Change13:08 Accelerating TransformationFeatured QuotesHer wish (Shannon Waters) was for every child in Canada to learn the indigenous word for water in the territory in which they lived.We have the intellectual, the financial, the technological, and one would hope, the human and spiritual resources with which to affect a beautiful transition. Why aren't we doing it?There's a vital role for the arts at the local level to be contributing to dynamic civic culture.William Gibson said 'the future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed'.Behind the StoryStephen Huddart revisits the podcast to expand on previous conversations around social innovation, reflecting on the Victoria Forum 2024 and its focus on regenerative economies. The discussion navigates the complex challenges facing humanity, emphasizing the need for inclusivity and systemic change to address growing societal fractures. The power of art as a catalyst for inspiration and community is highlighted. *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHey conscient listeners, I've been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It's my way to give back.In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads or BlueSky.I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on March 26, 2025

Real Life: This week's episode has movie madness, creepers, princesses, and ducks with vendettas. Devon took a deep dive into the Minecraft Movie—yes, it's real, and yes, it might haunt him forever. Steven watched Disney's live-action Snow White and has thoughts... strong ones. Meanwhile, Ben got cartoon-punched in the face (in the best way) by The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (IMDb). Think: Bugs Bunny meets alien invasion. Future or Now: Solar Panels on Canals? Yes, Please: Ben brings us Project Nexus—the U.S.'s first solar panel canopy system over irrigation canals. The $20 million pilot is up and running in California's Turlock Irrigation District and could be a game-changer. Benefits include reducing water evaporation, improving quality, and cutting down on canal maintenance. Also? Clean energy. Read more TV Necromancy: Devon reports on shows coming back—some you missed, some you didn't know you missed, and a few you assumed were never coming back. Television's not dead. It's just rebooting. ba-ba-ba-BA-baaaaaa: Steven delivers the science: a Western diet can mess you up in just two weeks. Inflammation, weakened immunity, and long-term disease processes all kick in fast. But the good news? Switching to a traditional African diet (think fiber, fermented foods, veggies) can start reversing the damage just as quickly. Check it out “Book Club”: This week we read Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson. A short story that drips with classic cyberpunk vibes, data couriers, and one incredibly dangerous dolphin. Devon didn't totally connect with it, but Steven loved the gritty worldbuilding and its ties to Neuromancer. Ben was onboard for the full ride—hacker noir, neon grit, and all. Next week: We're tuning in to It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton (link) and covering “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death” by Caroline M. Yoachim (read it here). Time travel and heartbreak? Sign us up.

The Infinite Plane Radio broadcast on March 23, 2025, discussed several key topics centered around the hosts' perspective on world events and media narratives.A central theme was the prediction of an inevitable cyber pandemic. This idea stems from a clip featuring Candace Owens discussing the World Economic Forum's warnings and exercises regarding such an event. The host believes this will be used as a justification for shutting down the internet and implementing stricter censorship, possibly blaming right-wing extremism. This is linked to the concept of "Disease X," which the host believes will be a "mind virus" spread through platforms like X (formerly Twitter) rather than a biological virus.The host introduced a new product, "Exit Trutherville: A crash course in auto-hoaxology". This course aims to provide a framework for understanding media and psyops, targeting "truthers" who recognize mainstream lies but haven't fully grasped the integration of entertainment and news. It includes a video, a PDF "World Stage Deprogramming Guide," and graphic illustrations, focusing on concepts like active vs. passive media consumption. The course is available for purchase on Gumroad, with an affiliate program offering a referral fee.The broadcast delved into predictive programming and the idea that movies and drills often precede and shape public perception of real-world events. Examples included the movie "Canary Black" resembling a cyber nuke scenario and the 2019 coronavirus pandemic exercise mirroring the actual events. The host argues that these are not predictions of real events but rather simulations treated as real.Several current events were analyzed through this lens:The reported discovery of a vast city beneath the pyramids was dismissed as likely clickbait and a hoax. The host connects this to other fleeting narratives like global drone invasions and promised information from the Epstein and JFK files, suggesting a pattern of distraction.NASA's astronaut landing footage was described as looking like "pathetic CGI" and "100% garbage," raising questions about its authenticity. This skepticism extends to other space agency content, with a suggestion to use AI video detection software on older footage.The death of a 33-year-old bald eagle named Murphy on March 22 (3/22, associated with Skull and Bones) was linked to symbolism and predictive programming, contrasting the mainstream narrative of climate change with right-wing claims about wind turbines. The destruction of the Georgia Guidestones on 7/6/2022 (76 being George Bush Sr.'s age) was also revisited for its symbolic significance.The host noted the use of predictive programming proxies, such as celebrities like Robert De Niro and Rosie O'Donnell, whose public statements and past work allegedly align with ongoing psyops.The phenomenon of "swatting" targeting figures like Owen Shroyer was dismissed as likely performative and fake, lacking the characteristics of genuine swatting incidents.The host also discussed the importance of informed disbelief and the concept of narrative control, where an arbitrary starting point is established to shape understanding. The broadcast touched on the nature of truthers' cognitive dissonance and the strategic targeting of this group with the "Exit Trutherville" course.Finally, the host solicited suggestions for required reading and viewing for the IPS think tank, mentioning personal favorites like William Gibson's "Neuromancer," Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," and Edward Bernays' "Propaganda". The host also mentioned using AI (Perplexity) to assist with transcript analysis and link extraction for the newsletter archives.EXIT TRUTHERVILLE https://timozman.gumroad.com/l/bsure

Based on a William Gibson story of the same name, Johnny Mnemonic centers on the titular data courier as he embarks on his latest assignment, transporting 320 gigabytes of corporate secrets. That intel is quite sensitive, and its owner, Pharmakom, will stop at nothing to get it back, employing the Yakuza to track down Johnny. Like most of Gibson's work, the world in which Johnny lives is a cyberpunk dystopia. Corporations rule with impunity and an overreliance on/addiction to technology has left much of the populace in dire straits. The messaging of Johnny Mnemonic is as relevant as ever. The issues with the film lie within its execution. Despite costing upward of $30 million, the movie looks and feels cheap. This aesthetic is only worsened by shockingly dated CGI VR segments. The ideas just weren't enough to salvage the subpar acting, shoddy action sequences, and atrocious effects. Hence Johnny Mnemonic's poor reviews and paltry box office performance. Now, sit back, jack in with a Halfway to Hefen from Fate Brewing, and don't ignore the ghost in the machine! The Thunderous Wizard, Chumpzilla, and Bling Blake are riding Jones the dolphin through cyberspace! This Week's Segments: Introduction/Plot Breakdown – The future's most wanted fugitive. The hottest data on earth. In the coolest head in town! (0:00) Lingering Questions – Which of the many dystopian ideas presented here aged the best? (27:06) The "Snatch Back Your Brain, Zombie" Trivia Challenge – The Thunderous Wizard challenges the field to trivia about the movie. (53:57) Recommendations – We offer our picks for the week and next up: We continue our 90s Cult Flops series with a dose of angst at Empire Records! (1:06:57) And, as always, hit us up on Threads, X, Facebook, or Instagram to check out all the interesting factoids from this week's episode!

We finish William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. CWs for: racism, ableism, cannibalism, medical horror, incest, sexual assault. For the next show, we are reading the first 16 chapters of Count Zero. You can go to patreon.com/rangedtouch to support the show and access the bonus episode feed. The show is hosted by Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker.… Continue reading Neuromancer – Part 2

Jim talks with Jeff Hawkins and Viviane Clay about the Thousand Brains Project and Jeff's book A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence. They discuss Mountcastle's theory of the neocortex's universal algorithm, cortical columns & their structure, learning modules in AI sensory systems, reprogramming of the neocortex, the 6 layers of cortex, mini-columns & macro-columns, the visual cascade, reference frames as essential for knowledge representation, "voting" for perceptual consensus, how the project differs from deep learning & LLM approaches, William Gibson's concept of affordances, the "Jennifer Aniston neuron" idea, current state of the Monte project, solving fundamental problems vs making impressive demos, avoiding "old brain" traits in AI systems, and much more. Episode Transcript Perceptual Neuroscience: The Cerebral Cortex, Vernon B. Mountcastle On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee (2004) A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins Monte Project – Open-Source Implementation Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Nick Bostrom Jeff Hawkins is a scientist whose life-long interest in neuroscience led to the creation of Numenta and its focus on neocortical theory. His research focuses on how the cortex learns predictive models of the world through sensation and movement. In 2002, he founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, where he served as Director for three years. The institute is currently located at U.C. Berkeley. Previously, he co-founded two companies, Palm and Handspring, where he designed products such as the PalmPilot and Treo smartphone. Jeff has written two books, On Intelligence (2004 with Sandra Blakeslee) and A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence (2021). Viviane Clay is the director of the Thousand Brains Project. She received her doctorate degree in Cognitive Computing and master's degree in Cognitive Science at University of Osnabrück in Germany, where she focused on sensorimotor learning as a key aspect in intelligence. She brings to Numenta fifteen years of coding experience, along with her background in neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning.

We read the first ten chapters of William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer. CWs for: racism, body horror. For the next show, we are reading the rest of Neuromancer. You can go to patreon.com/rangedtouch to support the show and access the bonus episode feed. The show is hosted by Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker. You can get… Continue reading Neuromancer – Part 1

We read the rest of the stories of William Gibson's Burning Chrome. CWs for: misogyny, rape, ableism. For the next show, we are reading the first ten chapters of Neuromancer. You can go to patreon.com/rangedtouch to support the show and access the bonus episode feed. The show is hosted by Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker.… Continue reading Burning Chrome – Part 2

We read the first six stories of William Gibson’s Burning Chrome. CWs for: sexual assault, racism, addiction, animal abuse, suicide. For the next show, we are finishing Burning Chrome. You can go to patreon.com/rangedtouch to support the show and access the bonus episode feed. The show is hosted by Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker. You… Continue reading Burning Chrome – Part 1

We watch the Hallmark film Love in Paradise. For the next episode, we are reading the first five stories of William Gibson’s Burning Chrome. You can go to patreon.com/rangedtouch to support the show and access the bonus episode feed. The show is hosted by Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker. You can get the mentioned shirt… Continue reading Love in Paradise

It's time to jack in and try to decode one of the ur-texts of cyberpunk: William Gibson's Neuromancer. It's got everything you'd expect from a cyberpunk story (hackers, cybernetic enhancements, malevolent AI constructs) while also being the one of the reasons you have those expectations in the first place!This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.This episode is sponsored by Aura Frames and Brew Book Candle.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.