The KMO Show

I've been comparing notes with Douglas Rushkoff about technology, memes, drugs and walking on the weird side for about 30 years. Not surprisingly, I remember the details better than he does. He talks to a LOT of people.

KMO inspired Doug Lain to get into podcasting 15 years ago. To mark the anniversary, Doug conducted a 15-hour YouTube livestream. KMO was the first guest of the day.

This episode includes a recording of the first 6 chapters of my novella, Last Train to Mordor. It is a prelude to my novel Fear and Loathing in the Kuiper Belt: Gen X Science Fiction.If you like the story and want to hear more, you can find the next chapter here.

KMO reads of his recent Substack posts on what happens when discarded consumer electronics with embedded AI start to pile up. Who will find a use for that idle intelligence. Later, Jim from the Attack Ads! podcast shows up to discuss the points raised in the essays.

"A Few Notes on the Culture" is an essay by Iain M. Banks describing elements of the universe of the Culture series. Most topics pertain to the culture, society, and technology of the Culture. The cosmology of the universe is also described.I'd describe the Culture stories as being about a post-scarcity, post-capitalist, post-work, anarchist, socialist utopia, managed by benevolent superintelligent AI. The Culture novels explore what such a society might look like, and how people might live their lives in such an environment. They also explore how such a society would interact with less advanced civilizations, and the moral and philosophical implications of that interaction. -Pi, Inflection.AI

KMO details how artificial intelligence unites the seemingly disparate stories around the Senate UAP hearings, the Hollywood writers and actors strike, and the Silicon Valley cult known as e/acc (effective accelerationism).

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.