Constellation: Making the Graphic Novel
Enter a simulated universe where software beings engage in classic human struggles for belonging, status, and attention, and old certainties like death and gravity are just settings to be negotiated. You can be the god of your own private world, but if find yourself feeling lonely, you might be tempted to give away some of your precious control. This podcast will take you behind the scenes with comic book authors and veteran podcasters Jon Perry (@perryjon) and Ted Kupper (@tedkupper) as they write and develop a science fiction graphic novel called Constellation, set in a metaverse unlike any you’ve seen before: neither a utopia nor a dystopia, neither real nor virtual, it is a simulation where everyone knows they are being simulated and no one much cares, where there’s no hope of leaving and no reason to, just an endless supply of human-designed worlds to create and explore.
- Update frequency
- every 17 days
- Average duration
- 53 minutes
- Episodes
- 161
- Years Active
- 2013 - 2023
021: What Are the Different Types of Intelligence Augmentation?
In this episode we do a simple thought experiment set at a mathematics competition. Three characters, each with a very different apparatus of enhanced intelligence, compete. One is highly educated, o…
00:13:00 |
Tue 29 Apr 2014
020: What is the Future of Television?
What is the future of television? Will today's golden age continue? We discuss the current television model and why TV hasn't been disrupted to the degree film and other media have, the real scarcity…
00:29:10 |
Tue 22 Apr 2014
019: Who Controls a Future of Decentralized Technologies?
There is no doubt decentralized powerful technologies are coming, and the conventional wisdom is that you cannot control these things easily. In this episode, we discuss drugs, security, and general…
00:41:44 |
Tue 15 Apr 2014
018: What is the Future of Money?
In this week's podcast we discuss money as a technology that has progressed through several versions. What's wrong with our current version of money, and what might we do better in a future version? …
00:37:10 |
Mon 07 Apr 2014
017: What New Job Opportunities Will Exist in an Automated Future?
Today's episode focuses on a thought experiment -- assuming technological unemployment happens and capitalism continues in its current form, what new platforms might allow average folks to monetize t…
00:29:58 |
Mon 31 Mar 2014
016: What is Super-Now Prediction?
Today on the podcast we talk about a simple way to predict the future -- simply exaggerate current trends. But this doesn't lead to accurate prediction, it leads to "Super-Now" predictions where ever…
00:24:54 |
Tue 18 Mar 2014
015: What Would be the Cultural Impacts of Increased Longevity?
In this episode, we ask how culture would be impacted by radically increased lifespans. We go over the main arguments made by longevity research experts like Aubrey De Grey and Ray Kurzweil, and we d…
00:49:54 |
Mon 10 Mar 2014
014: How Might We Respond to Technological Unemployment?
In this podcast we return to the idea of technological unemployment: if it's happening, what should we do? We consider three ways technological unemployment might be defeated: rising standards of liv…
00:41:31 |
Mon 03 Mar 2014
013: What is the Future of Communications Interfaces?
In this week's podcast, we discuss common communications and computer interfaces in science fiction and ask whether those AI assistants and videophones really make sense. We retell David Foster Walla…
00:33:25 |
Tue 25 Feb 2014
012: How Plausible is Dystopia?
In this week's podcast we evaluate the relative plausibility of four dystopias commonly seen in science fiction: Post-Apocalypse, Alien/AI Oppression, Boot-in-the-Face, and Brave New World. These are…
00:23:27 |
Mon 17 Feb 2014
011: Review of McAfee and Brynjolfsson’s SECOND MACHINE AGE
In this extra-long podcast, we review the important new book from MIT's Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, THE SECOND MACHINE AGE: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies…
01:16:04 |
Mon 10 Feb 2014
010: What Will Remain Scarce in the Future?
In this week's podcast, we do the thought experiment of what happens in a theoretically super-abundant future: what things remain scarce and still retain economic value? Further, as we approach that …
00:37:28 |
Mon 27 Jan 2014
009: Is Storytelling More Difficult in a World of Accelerating Change?
On the podcast this week, we discuss the state of narrative in a world where technological change is accelerating. We start with William Gibson's now decade-old attempt to write recent-past rather th…
00:24:58 |
Mon 20 Jan 2014
008: Review of Tyler Cowen’s Average Is Over
Today's podcast reviews Tyler Cowen's new book Average is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation. The book's thesis is that machine intelligence and other factors are driving a…
00:49:58 |
Mon 13 Jan 2014
007: Review of Spike Jonze’s HER
In this week's podcast, we review HER, Spike Jonze's entertaining new movie about a human-AI relationship. How well does it hold up from the point of view of speculation? Is the world fully realized …
00:34:55 |
Mon 06 Jan 2014
006: What is an Intelligence Explosion, and Will It Kill Us All?
An Intelligence Explosion is the idea that a greater-than-human intelligent machine will quickly design a greater-than-itself intelligent machine, and so on, until very rapidly the intelligence of ar…
00:28:37 |
Mon 30 Dec 2013
005: Are We Addicted to Technology?
It's easy to find alarmist articles fretting about how addicted to technology we are becoming. It's true that we are increasingly reliant on technology and many of us spend exorbitant numbers of hour…
00:24:42 |
Tue 24 Dec 2013
004: Are Generation Gaps Going to be Relevant in the Future?
When we were growing up, kids knew how to use the internet and adults didn't. Should we expect that our kids will have a similar experience? Are generation gaps declining as access expands, attitudes…
00:32:47 |
Mon 16 Dec 2013
003: Is Privacy Dead?
We ask "Is privacy coming to an end, and if so, what does that mean exactly?" We examine progress in the areas of always-on surveillance and lifelogging, facial recognition, and other technologies th…
00:39:04 |
Mon 09 Dec 2013
002: Should We Be Worried About Technological Unemployment?
What is technological unemployment, and should we be worried about it? Hosts Jon Perry and Ted Kupper discuss the problems associated with technological unemployment and some possible responses in th…
00:27:16 |
Mon 02 Dec 2013
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