Episode 156: Reality, the Singularity and the Politics of Despair with Professor WHAM

“Dimensions” Digital, created in Procreate. 2023. Barbara Fisher

First, a trigger warning: we talk about some violent events in this episode, including the murder of Charlie Kirk.

This episode was recorded not long after the murder of Charlie Kirk shook the nation, and some of what Professor Wham and I talk about seems to be quite prescient to things that occurred between when we recorded and when I put the episode together. There’s a lot here. Ideas on the nature of reality, the Singularity, the “Dark Enlightenment” of the Tech Bros, philosophy, film, history and how a person’s psychology can create a political philosophy that takes their own despair, and launch it out into the world to affect entire populations.

It’s not very cheerful, but neither is it terribly depressing. I hope you find it enlightening, but not darkly so.

Happy Thanksgiving!