This week we are discussing E.T.A. Hoffman's short story, The Sandman, which presciently anticipates some potential psychological consequences of a too-deep dependence on artificial beings for companionship, while also pointing towards the fundamentally destabilizing possibilities a world filled with autonomous, robotic beings might bring. We go over the story, making reference to Freud's famous essay "The 'Uncanny'" which he partly based on this story, while also connecting the concerns of the tale to elements from our own contemporary experiences. It's an hilarious story, perhaps one of the greatest masterpieces we have yet covered.

We open the episode discussing the potential apocalyptic consequences of Trump's decision to fund a "golden dome" missile defense system, plus we talk about the final episode of season two of Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal.

E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman"

Freud's Essay "The 'Uncanny'"

NewScientist on Trump's "Golden Dome" Missile Defense System

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This week we are talking about the growth of emotional dependency on AI as programs like ChatGPT become more ubiquitous and more sophisticated. We recognize that this has the potential to be, in a sense, a double apocalypse, as the rise of AI threatens to make human beings completely redundant while at the same time the resources used to power AI make the planet increasingly uninhabitable as climate change accelerates. We segue directly into a consideration of a film that deals with these ideas, albeit not in the most serious way, 2025's Companion, directed by Drew Hancock. This film offers a vision of the way an AI powered robotic paramour might be used and abused.

This episode contains spoilers for Companion.

TechPolicy.press on AI Emotional Dependency

Novara Media on Mark Zuckerberg's recent comments on AI replacing real friends

PS: I (Stu) realize now that Stalin's birthday is December 18 and NOT December 8. We apologize for any confusion this error caused.

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This week we are discussing Rian Johnson's 2012 film Looper, a time travel movie that (perhaps accurately) predicts a bleak future where class stratification and rampant criminality have flourished unchecked. Time travel has been invented and its primary use seems to be the elimination of hit men who are sent back in time to be murdered by their younger selves. We get into some of the problems with this premise while also praising aspects of the world building; while we didn't love the picture, we had a good time pointing out its flaws.

We open the episode by discussing the ongoing problems at Newark Liberty Airport before segueing into a discussion of Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal, which Stu is willing to defend and which Michael is willing to attack. We also make reference to the New Jersey drones phenomenon...whatever happened with all that?

Chaos at Newark Airport (from NJ.com)

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