Science Fiction

Psychohistory is among the most important ideas born in science fiction. A science that allows us to predict the future of human civilisation. It's tempting to ask...could Psychohistory be real? Algorithms can control masses of humankind. Complexity science and agent based modelling are already predicting mass human behaviour. And as we face our civilisational "Seldon Crisis" can we learn a less from Isaac Asimov about the future of humankind? 00:00 We are in a Seldon crisis 01:48 Isaac Asimov's Foundation 03:51 Why do civilisations collapse? 06:17 What is the Foundation saga about? 12:12 Psychohistory 17:50 The Metacrisis 26:07 Psyche & Civilisation 39:28 Resolving the Metacrisis Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 The best book to understand Ken Wilber https://amzn.to/3NSwBnu Read the Foundation saga https://amzn.to/3yp65MN

Transhumanism makes grand claims about the future of humankind, from genetic engineering and artificial wombs to immortality and uploading humanity to the cloud. Lead by pseudo-scientific thinkers like Ray Kurzeil, Transhumanism has become a popular ideology among Silicon Valley tech leaders including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. In recent years it has also become the focus of conspiracy theorists from Anti-Vaxxers to Qanon, who claim the ultimate goal of the "global elite" is to turn humans into post-humans. The truth is that Transhumanism is a fantasy born in the pages of science fiction. While authors like Bruce Sterling and William Gibson warned against the terrors of Transhumanism, today's Transhumanists see it as an inevitability, and have transformed the fantasy of Transhumanism into an anti-human religion. 00:00:00 The Torment Nexus 00:01:34 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 00:04:06 Beyond our ape brained meat-sacks - a profile of Elise Bohan 00:08:23 We are in a time between worlds & Transhuman conspiracy theories 00:13:14 Understanding Transhumanism as narrative, storytelling and modern mythos 00:19:15 ONE - Transhumanism is Utopian 00:24:06 TWO - Transhumanism assumes fundamental change 00:26:00 THREE - Transhumanism is a pseudo-science 00:29:34 FOUR - Transhumanism is a religious vision of transcendence 00:34:38 FIVE - Transhumanism is authoritarian 00:39:12 SIX - Transhumism wants to liberate us from our human bodies 00:44:38 SEVEN - Transhumanism is science fiction 00:48:04 EIGHT - Transhumanism believes technology is the force of progress 00:51:40 NINE - Transhumanism devalues the human 00:55:58 TEN - "We're building God you know." 01:06:53 ELEVEN - Transhumanism is a power structure 01:13:01 TWELVE - Transhumanism is dystopian 01:16:20 THIRTEEN - Transhumanism is anti-humanism Beyond Our Ape Brained Meat Sacks - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/04/beyond-our-ape-brained-meat-sacks-can-transhumanism-save-our-species Jonathan Rowson on Zak Stein and our time between worlds - https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Rowson/status/1532318004071084034 Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

When did Superman get so "Dark"? He's as American as apple pie, coca-cola and black-ops interventions in the politics of other sovereign nations. Superman is the symbol of all that is best about the United States of America. An indefatigable powerhouse, an Apollonian sun deity, child of the gods but raised by mortal man, and the archetype of post-WW2 American self image. But as America has re-learned its own history, so Superman has changed and mutated. From shining demigod hero. To dark underworld evil. 00:00 Superman gets a ride in a London cab 00:59 Have we had enough of Dark Superman? 03:50 Content Warning 05:30 Superman is a strange hero 07:55 Superman as Apollonian archetype 11:12 A brief history of Dark Superman 15:42 THE ARCHETYPAL BEING 26:39 Shadow & Ego of Carl Jung 31:54 A shadow-work exercise 39:33 Integrating the Shadow of the Superman Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197

Why does science fiction not get the respect it deserves...from literary fiction? It’s the East coast vs West cost gangster rap rivalry but fiction writers (except without the drive-by shootings…that I know of?) An ancient feud between the Realists and the Fantasists. But beneath the surface of the LitFic vs SciFi argument is a more serious issue, about the power of storytelling, and the duty of storytellers. Are we just the people paid to cast shadows for your entertainment, or is it the storyteller’s job to lead you out of the cave? Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Batman. Luke Skywalker. Conan. Paul Atreides. And now The Northman. Just a few of the Unfathered men that dominate our storytelling. Why are we obsessed with the Unfathered man? Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Advanced Scifi & Fantasy Writing https://damiengwalter.com/advanced-scifi-and-fantasy/ The Rhetoric of Story https://damiengwalter.com/the-rhetoric-of-story/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

It's Arthur C Clarke's greatest novel and a classic of "hard" science fiction. The Fountains of Paradise is a brilliantly realized story of humankind's ascent to the stars, not on rockets, but by building the first space elevator. Clarke predicted the discovery of carbon super materials with the "diamond hyperfilament" that is strong enough to stretch 36,000km from Earth to geosynchronous orbit. But it's not the science that makes Arthur C Clarke's novel so great. It's the symbolism. 00:00 The Fountains of Paradise 03:50 Science Fiction Q & A 06:49 The forgotten masterpiece of Arthur C Clarke 09:49 The three stages of Clarke's career 14:07 Was Clarke a good writer? 17:04 The competent engineer 19:30 Hyperfilament 24:50 The Clark-o-verse of Low Orbit SF 27:04 Symbolism and the poetic beauty of hard SF 37:57 Could we...and should we...build a space elevator? 43:51 The Wealth Transfer Frontier we need Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read the classic of hard SF https://amzn.to/3jJNWCb Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

“With Jules Verne and the publisher Hugo Gernsback, H.G. Wells invented the genre of science fiction.” Tweet by @nytimesbooks, November 2021 A badly worded tweet by the New York Times revealed a deep anger at the false history of science fiction. Written out of that history were hundreds of women writers of the 1800s who created what today we call science fiction. The true history of science fiction is deeper and richer than many fans and readers know. It reaches back to the Enlightenment and the collapse of belief in the Christian mythos. It is the search for a new mythos for the modern world, that continues into the 21st century. 00:00 The forgotten authors of science fiction 02:30 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 07:07 The true history of science fiction...why does it matter? 09:21 Commercial Genre vs Creative Movement 17:12 The Problem : the collapse of the Christian mythos 23:36 All science fiction is myth, not all myth is science fiction 26:38 The seeds of science fiction 29:01 The Novel Experiment 36:20 Birth of Genre 38:41 The ideological capture of science fiction by John W Campbell 43:47 The New Mythic 50:01 The process of genrefication 54:44 Writing the 21st century myth Follow the the Science Fiction podcast and become a member https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR Pre-1950 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/utopias/utopias.html

Fascism lures people in with a fantasy of return to older, better times. A golden age before the modern world. Nazi Germany had the fantasy of the Third Reich and the Ubermensch. Today the Russia of Vladimir Putin has a fantasy of a Eurasian Empire and the Return of the Tsar. Critics of Lord of the Rings sometimes compare JRR Tolkien's fantasy to the fantasies of fascism. Is Lord of the Rings a fascist fantasy? Or did Tolkien create a mythos beyond the understanding of his critics? 00:00 An alternate history of England 03:59 Welcome to the Science Fiction podcast 07:17 The rise of a fascist fantasy 10:09 Is LotR a fascist fantasy? 11:54 Premodern, Modern, Postmodern 13:45 The pre-modern fantasy 17:15 The synthetic fantasy of fascism 21:51 The fascist fantasy in 2022 27:22 The Return of the King 33:22 The bit people who are angry at the title should listen to first 34:23 The modern vision of scifi 38:51 The postmodern vision of transhumanism 43:22 A mass retreat to the premodern 47:24 LotR as integrated mythos 52:33 LotR as a call for WISDOM 56:16 LotR as path into the Unreal Follow the the Science Fiction podcast https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Humankind had it within our grasp to become a K1 civilization, the first stage of the Kardashev scale. But we allowed K1 to slip through our fingers. As the scientist Carl Sagan argued, much of 20th century history can be understood as the effort, and failure, to achieve K1. Today that failure has returned us to the threat of World War 3, as Russia invades Ukraine. How did we miss our chance at K1? And how can we still become a K1 civilization? Follow the the Science Fiction podcast https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the discussion on the Science Fiction community https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197 Read my top science fiction to rewire your consciousness https://amzn.to/3gQqfGR

Explore the symbolic meaning of severance and the misinterpretation of symbolic stories. Delve into the concept of severance and its effects on individuals' lives, including the feeling of playing a fake self at work. Analyze the effects of severance in the corporate world, discussing enforced behavior and specific corporate uniforms. Discover the connection between severance and the violence of work, and the choice we make to participate. Join the Science Fiction podcast for more thought-provoking discussions.