The KMO Show

This is an addendum to episode 016, in which I read and responded to an email from Static Warp Shell trying to persuade me to listen to the Joe Rogan interview with Robert Kennedy Jr, and episode 018 in which I gave the same treatment to feedback from Tom, who voiced his frustration at the reflexively anti-authoritarian conspiracy-mongering around COVID which had driven a wedge between him and his wife. This episode mostly consists of a follow-up recording from Static Warp Shell.Static quoted from a speech from RFK Jr. in his feedback. The full speech can be found here: https://youtu.be/Tz1T-mEnbPI?t=686

Two weeks ago, I published an hour-long explanation as to why I have no interest in joining the cultural struggle over the COVID-19 pandemic or delve into the details of why some people refuse to take the mRNA vaccines. This week, I respond to another email from a long-time listener. This time the listener asked for support in denouncing "science denialism," a phrase I hate. I don't subscribe to any of the anti-authoritarian narratives around COVID, but the smug sanctimony of PMC Democrats who claim to trust "the science" irritates me more than the loopiest of anti-elite fever dreams. In this episode, I explain why.In short, don't try to recruit me to your side in an ideological or cultural struggle. I poke holes in everybody's story. Including my own. That's just how I roll.

Both host and guest in this week's show once subscribed to idea that technological civilization would be collapsing in short order. Both have since moderated their views, but while KMO has repudiated any involvement with Doomerism, Christopher Harrison still thinks that the current technological, ecological, economic and political modes of societal operation are unworkable.

Listeners have encouraged me to get invested in the cultural contest between defenders of the establishment's account of COVID-19 and the mRNA vaccines and those who gravitate to a darker interpretation of events. Wrapped up in the ideological antagonism is the presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.. I will not be investing my time or attention in that struggle. In this episode of the podcast I explain why.To illustrate my points, I read from The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe and Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How by Theodore John Kaczynski.

Chris Cutrone is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Departments of Art History, Theory and Criticism and Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of a trio of infamous essays published on the Platypus Affiliated Society that begins with Why Not Trump? He is also the author of The Death of the Millennial Left, published by Sublation Media.

There has always been a psychological element to warfare but in the 21st century the tactics used by military geniuses to control the behavior of their adversaries have now been coopted by governments, corporations, ideologies, and the general public in order to wage psychological warfare against you. Kaleb Gorman, author of Psychwars: Self-Defence Against Psyops, Propaganda, and Mind Control, joins KMO to discuss why we are susceptible to such manipulation and how best to resist it.

Dermot O'Connor is an animator, author, teacher, podcaster and voracious reader. This episode is the middle part of a conversation that started in C-Realm Vault Podcast #456 and concluded on a YouTube livestream. You can find more of Dermot's content on his website, YouTube channel and podcast.

In a New York Times editorial, Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull argue that ChatGPT and similar generative chatbots do not exhibit "true intelligence." They also argue that the current fixation of large language models is preventing the development of artificial general intelligence. KMO explores alternative definitions of intelligence.

KMO talks with Pi, the most advanced AI chatbot he has encountered to date.

Reporter, author, games publisher, soldier and president of the Gnosis Project, Michael O. Varhola, describes why he traveled to Ukraine to do what he could to help the Ukrainian people. The conversation begins with Michael's first-hand account then moves to a geopolitical and cultural examination. KMO ends with his usual call for epistemological humility.