Open Transcripts

Futures Podcast #6: Virtual Therapy, with Michael Carthy

presented by Luke Robert Mason, Michael Carthy

Traditional psychology and counseling will help people understand in a very linear way why they are the way they are. Whereas what I’m really focused on and what I’ve been specializing in for the last number of years is the how. And for me, virtual reality therapy is the how of change.

Futures Podcast #5: Electronic Waste, with Dani Ploeger

presented by Dani Ploeger, Luke Robert Mason

This idea of (re)performing the posthuman was pretty much based on a desire to talk about the cyborg ten years after, or fifteen years, twenty years after the Cyborg Manifesto and Katherine Hayles’ book became famous. And to really—yeah, to talk about maybe the normal cyborg, the normal technologized body. You know, technology in the everyday and its implications for the way we perceive and experience our bodies.

Futures Podcast #3: Transhumanism and Risk, with Professor Steve Fuller

presented by Luke Robert Mason, Steve Fuller

Humanity 2.0 starts to challenge a lot of the assumptions of Humanity 1.0, especially in terms of issues having to do with limitations. So in other words, you might say there are two ways to go on Humanity 2.0. And in my writing, I associate these with the transhuman and the posthuman, respectively.

Futures Podcast #2: Cybersex, with Dr. Trudy Barber

presented by Luke Robert Mason, Trudy Barber

So then I thought right, what happens with an artist who draws the body, who deals with the body all the time? I know, they have affairs with the life model, don’t they? They have their muse. So I thought right, let’s take this, let’s look at technology, let’s have an affair with this tech. Let’s try and put the sex into it. Let’s sex up the technology.

Futures Podcast #4: Emoji Delights, with Carla Gannis

presented by Carla Gannis, Luke Robert Mason

AR mixed reality has more potential, I think. With virtual reality, you’re just somewhere else altogether, right? And VR is all the rage right now. But in terms of disseminating information, in terms of keeping us in touch still with physical, you know. I mean, it’s all real life now. I don’t even distinguish IRL/URL now. I mean it’s all real life. But like, how do we maintain a foot in both simultaneously? Both the virtual and the physical.

Futures Podcast #1: Cyborg Experiments, with Professor Kevin Warwick

presented by Kevin Warwick, Luke Robert Mason

Humans, we’re pretty limited in what we can do, let’s face it, mentally particularly. We just have a bunch of brain cells. And the possibility of enhancing our brain, our mental capabilities, I think is enormous.

A Pessimist’s Guide to the Future of Technology

presented by Ian Bogost

In this moment that we’re in today with technology, where we’re I think shifting finally into a mode where it’s possible to be critical without getting sneered at, if we kind of look back at the…I don’t know, the optimistic aspirationalism that we’ve been using to encounter technology in the broadest sense, and we look back on those moments of the recent past or even the distant past, we can see how we knew how things were going to turn out, actually. We just weren’t paying them heed.

Scratching the Surface #72: Shannon Mattern

presented by Jarrett Fuller, Shannon Mattern

I used to kind of deify these people, presuming that they were presenting some gospel that I just had to work and work and work to try to understand so that I could like, put on their glasses and see the world through their lenses. But ultimately I realized that these are fallible people, often egomaniacs, often really bad writers. And that’s why I can’t understand it. So it’s not to give up on them too quickly. If you put in the work to try to understand what they’re saying. But not to regard their work as gospel.

‘Children of Men’ film talk: Srecko Horvat & Alfonso Cuarón

presented by Alfonso Cuarón, Srećko Horvat

Pretty much we were looking for angles that reminded us of Mexico City, you know. Except the posh upper classes and stuff, that had to be very iconic London. It was about trying to bring the third world into London.

De Balie x IDFA Doc Talks: You Think The Earth Is a Dead Thing

presented by Francio Guadeloupe

When you look at this film you will recognize that it’s part of a tradition that says we have to think the planet, and we have to stop thinking the Earth. Thinking the Earth is actually thinking the world in terms of distinct civilizations, in terms of continents, in terms of ownership. Who owns culture, who owns land, and how they exploit land and culture and so forth.