This week we talk about the intersections of large language models, the golden age of television and its storytelling mishaps, making one’s way through the weirding of the labor economy, and much more with two of my favorite Gen X science fiction aficionados, OG podcaster KMO and our mutual friend Kevin Arthur Wohlmut. In this episode — a standalone continuation to my recent appearance on The KMO Show, we skip like a stone across mentions of every Star Trek series, the collapse of narratives and the social fabric, Westworld HBO, Star Wars Mandalorian vs. Andor vs. Rebels, chatGPT, Blade Runner 2049, Black Mirror, H.P. Lovecraft, the Sheldrake-Abraham-McKenna Trialogues, Charles Stross’ Accelerando, Adventure Time, Stanislav Grof’s LSD psychotherapy, Francisco Varela, Blake Lemoine’s meltdown over Google LaMDA, Integrated Information Theory, biosemiotics, Douglas Hofstadter, Max Tegmarck, Erik Davis, Peter Watts, The Psychedelic Salon, Melanie Mitchell, The Teafaerie, Kevin Kelly, consilience in science, Fight Club, and more…

Or, if you prefer, here’s a rundown of the episode generated by A.I. c/o my friends at Podium.page:

In this episode, I explore an ambitious and well-connected conversation with guests KMO, a seasoned podcaster, and Kevin Walnut [sic], a close friend and supporter of the arts in Santa Fe. We dive deep into their thoughts on the social epistemology crisis, science fiction, deep fakes, and ontology. Additionally, we discuss their opinions on the Star Trek franchise, particularly their critiques of the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard and Discovery. Through this engaging conversation, we examine the impact of storytelling and the evolution of science fiction in modern culture. We also explore the relationship between identity, media, and artificial intelligence, as well as the ethical implications of creating sentient artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the philosophical questions surrounding AI's impact on society and human existence. Join us for a thought-provoking and in-depth discussion on a variety of topics that will leave you questioning the future of humanity and our relationship with technology.

✨ Before we get started, three big announcements!

* I am leaving the Santa Fe Institute, in part to write a very ambitious book about technology, art, imagination, and Jurassic Park. You can be a part of the early discussion around this project by joining the Future Fossils Book Club’s Jurassic Park live calls — the first of which will be on Saturday, 29 April — open to Substack and Patreon supporters:

* Catch me in a Twitter Space with Nxt Museum on Monday 17 April at 11 am PST on a panel discussing “Creative Misuse of Technology” with Minne Atairu, Parag Mital, Caroline Sinders, and hosts Jesse Damiani and Charlotte Kent.

* I’m back in Austin this October to play the Astronox Festival at Apache Pass! Check out this amazing lineup on which I appear alongside Juno Reactor, Entheogenic, Goopsteppa, DRRTYWULVZ, and many more great artists!

✨ Support Future Fossils:

Subscribe anywhere you go for podcastsSubscribe to the podcast PLUS essays, music, and news on Substack or Patreon.Buy my original paintings or commission new work.Buy my music on Bandcamp! (This episode features “A Better Trip” from my recent live album by the same name.)Or if you’re into lo-fi audio, follow me and my listening recommendations on Spotify.This conversation continues with lively and respectful interaction every single day in the members-only Future Fossils Facebook Group and Discord server. Join us!Episode cover art by KMO and a whole bouquet of digital image manipulation apps.

✨ Tip Jars:

@futurefossils on Venmo $manfredmacx on CashApp michaelgarfield on PayPal

✨ Affiliate Links:

• These show notes and the transcript were made possible with Podium.Page, a very cool new AI service I’m happy to endorse. Sign up here and get three free hours and 50% off your first month.

• BioTech Life Sciences makes anti-aging and performance enhancement formulas that work directly at the level of cellular nutrition, both for ingestion and direct topical application. I’m a firm believer in keeping NAD+ levels up and their skin solution helped me erase a year of pandemic burnout from my face.

• Help regulate stress, get better sleep, recover from exercise, and/or stay alert and focused without stimulants, with the Apollo Neuro wearable. I have one and while I don’t wear it all the time, when I do it’s sober healthy drugs.

• Musicians: let me recommend you get yourself a Jamstik Studio, the coolest MIDI guitar I’ve ever played. I LOVE mine. You can hear it playing all the synths on my song about Jurassic Park.

✨ Mentioned Media:

KMO Show S01 E01 - 001 - Michael Garfield and Kevin Wohlmut

An Edifying Thought on AI by Charles Eisenstein

In Defense of Star Trek: Picard & Discovery by Michael Garfield

Improvising Out of Algorithmic Isolation by Michael Garfield

AI and the Transformation of the Human Spirit by Steven Hales(and yes I know it’s on Quillette, and no I don’t think this automatically disqualifies it)

Future Fossils Book Club #1: Blindsight by Peter Watts

FF 116 - The Next Ten Billion Years: Ugo Bardi & John Michael Greer as read by Kevin Arthur Wohlmut

✨ Related Recent Future Fossils Episodes:

FF 198 - Tadaaki Hozumi on Japanese Esotericism, Aliens, Land Spirits, & The Singularity (Part 2)

FF 195 - A.I. Art: An Emergency Panel with Julian Picaza, Evo Heyning, Micah Daigle, Jamie Curcio, & Topher Sipes

FF 187 - Fear & Loathing on the Electronic Frontier with Kevin Welch & David Hensley of EFF-Austin

FF 178 - Chris Ryan on Exhuming The Human from Our Eldritch Institutions

FF 175 - C. Thi Nguyen on The Seductions of Clarity, Weaponized Games, and Agency as Art

✨ Chapters:

0:15:45 - The Substance of Philosophy (58 Seconds)

0:24:45 - Complicated TV Narratives and the Internet (104 Seconds)

0:30:54 - Humans vs Hosts in Westworld (81 Seconds)

0:38:09 - Philosophical Zombies and Artificial Intelligence (89 Seconds)

0:43:00 - Popular Franchises Themes (71 Seconds)

1:03:27 - Reflections on a Changing Media Landscape (89 Seconds)

1:10:45 - The Pathology of Selective Evidence (92 Seconds)

1:16:32 - Externalizing Trauma Through Technology (131 Seconds)

1:24:51 - From Snow Maker to Thouandsaire (43 Seconds)

1:36:48 - The Impact of Boomer Parenting (126 Seconds)

✨ Keywords:

Social Epistemology, Science Fiction, Deep Fakes, Ontology, Star Trek, Artificial Intelligence, AI Impact, Sentient AGI, Human-Machine Interconnectivity, Consciousness Theory, Westworld, Blade Runner 2049, AI in Economy, AI Companion Chatbots, Unconventional Career Path, AI and Education, AI Content Creation, AI in Media, Turing Test

✨ UNEDITED machine-generated transcript generated by podium.page:

Feed and Flourish: The Klosters Forum in conversation with Pavan Sukhdev