Synthetic content: scale versus real influence

Gabriel Custodiet speaks with John Robb, a futurist military analyst. They discuss his original book, Brave New World, and how thinking about modern warfare involves understanding how cultural movements and politics are shaped by viral moments and the scarcely predictable movements of "the network." Episode was recorded in late 2025.

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TIMELINE 00:00 – Introduction 2:45 – Guerrilla warfare as the way to understanding current events 4:45 – How us guerrilla warfare like open source software? 14:15 – How does the powerful force respond to guerrilla movements? 17:30 – What is "The Network" 27:20 – Mass SIM network found in New York City 33:10 – Other examples of dangerous military technology 41:00 – Race hustling 45:40 – Fake online content: how influential? 49:00 – AI futurism 57:00 – Final thoughts

Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio