Implausipod

The box office for the summer of 2024 has been driven by titles relying heavily on the audiences nostalgia, with titles like Deadpool and Wolverine and Alien: Romulus leading the charge.  But nostalgia as a driver for the movies isn't new, and we're seeing nostalgia across all areas of our society as well.  So what's going on?  What are the factors that places something along The No...

What is behind the recent trend seeking a wistful return to a more idyllic age of the internet, real or imagined? We'll call this the Dial-up Pastorale. The trend became apparent in a number of papers and blog-posts that have popped over the last few months (or at least came to my attention).  Let's find out what is going on. (Parts of this episode appeared in the May issue of our newsle...

What happens if your community disappears? How do online groups deal with the challenges of maintaining their social ties across fickle and fleeting platforms? And are there lessons to be learned by the TikTok creators from the online MMO communities that were shut down in the early 2000s? Bibliography: Bartle, R. (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds . New Riders Press. Granovetter, M. (1973). The Str...

How much of your experience online is dictated by the environment you're in, and how it was constructed?  What is you rebuild Twitter, and it still ends up being toxic?  Did you fail, or succeed without knowing it? These are the kinds of questions that arise when we look at technology from a deterministic point of view: that technology is the driver of cultural and social change and growth. ...

Are the new GPTs - Generative Pre-trained Transformers - powering the current wave of AI tools actually the emergence of a new GPT - General Purpose Technology - that we will soon find embedded into every aspect of our lives? Earlier examples of GPTs include tech like steam power, electricity, radio, and computing, all tech that is foundational to our modern way of life. Will our AI tools soon joi...

With the release of Dune part 2 in cinemas, we return to Appendix W with a look at Frank Herbert's original novel from 1965.  Dune has had a massive influence on the Warhammer 40000 universe in many ways, especially when looking at the original release of the Rogue Trader game in 1987, in everything from the weapons and wargear, to space travel and technology, to the organization of the Imper...

Why does it always come down to a Butlerian Jihad, a War on Robots, when we imagine a future for humanity.  Why does nearly every science fiction series, including Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer 40K, Doctor Who, The Matrix, Terminator and Dune have a conflict with a machinic form of life? With Dune 2 in theatres this weekend, we take a look at the underlying reasons for this conflict in our colle...

How does your technology work? Do you have a deep understanding of the tech, or is it effectively a "black box"?  And does this even matter? We do a deep dive into the history of the black box, how it's understood when it comes to science and technology, and what that means for AI-assisted science. Dr Implausible can be reached at drimplausible at implausipod dot com Bibliography: B...

The parable of the Old Man and the River tells us it isn't now deep the water is, but how swift the water flows when it comes to looking at pop culture.  There's magic in how crystal clear those swift waters flow.   Join us for a review of the theories underpining the value of studying pop culture for academic analysis, what that means for the future of the Implausipod, and hints at who...

Silicon Dreams are those glittering visions of mythic intensity that inspire the continued development of revolutionary technologies.  Listen to this episode of the Implausipod to learn more about where they come from, and how the mythic imagination has been behind the development of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and other tech innovations. Contact the show at drimplausible @ implausip...

Echanger - a French verb meaning to trade, to replace, or to swap, is a metaprocess of translation, that covers three main factors contributing to technological unemployment - automation, virtualization, and agentrification , the replacement of workers with generative AI tools.  Join us for our introduction and overview of the concept of echanger, in the third of our two part series inspired by th...

In our final episode on the 2023 Dr Who specials, we take a look at the 2023 Christmas Special and the introduction of the 15th Doctor as played by Ncuti Gatwa.  We'll take a quick take at some of the larger themes of the show, and how it connects with the past and the (possible) future(s) of Dr Who. Dr Implausible can be reached at drimplausible@implausipod.com Our guest Dr. Aiden Buckland c...

Not quite a full Festivus message, just a few quick tidings of joy and a message of gratitude here as 2023 draws to a close.  All the best to you and your loved ones, and we'll chat again soon. Reach out to the show Support the show

Join us for the final of our three episodes on the 2023 Season of Specials for Dr Who, with the return of familiar nemesis (both within the show and to yours truly as well) and the introduction of the 15th Doctor through an unique turn of events.  We're joined by our guest Dr. Aiden Buckland to discuss this momentous episode. Dr. Buckland can be contacted at doctoraidenwho@gmail.com   Reach o...

While I can't say I'm a sci-fi fan who hasn't scene Doctor Who any longer, my experience is still on the lower end of the scale, so we'll bring back our friend and guest Dr Aiden Buckland an academic and Dr Who fan to help guide us through some of the intricacies of the "Wild Blue Yonder", the second of the 2023 Dr Who Specials.  You can contact our guest at doctoraid...

We continue with part two of our three part look at The Sphere  in Las Vegas, this time with a review of the film on the "screen", Darren Aronofsky's "Postcard From Earth".  We look closer at whether the film can be separated from the theatre, and if Postcard, and the experience at the Sphere approaches what Andre Bazin called "Total Cinema"> Join us for our f...

In the first of episode of a two-parter, we visit The Sphere, in Las Vegas Nevada with a before and after personal reflection of my first encounter with the site, and how my expectations meshed with the reality of the experience.  We ponder the site both inside and out, and whether The Sphere is the future of filmmaking, or if it is just a one-shot globe in the dark.  Also: Robots!  What's up...

Spreadable media is a theory of how media is distributed in online culture, but is the theory, originally proposed in 2013, still relevant in 2023 when everyone is trying to "go viral" online?  We take a deep dive at the theory, and look at how at it's core it is really a question of value, and how competing ways of determining the value of a cultural good continually clash against...

What does a sci-fi fan who's never seen Doctor Who think of their first exposure to a full episode of the series?  Can you even be a sci-fi fan if you haven't?  Well, we're about to find out.  Welcome our guest, an academic and Dr Who fan Dr Aiden Buckland who helps guide yours truly Dr Implausible through some of the details of "The Star Beast".  You can contact our guest...

 In episode 18 of the Implausipod we return to Appendix W with a little known but pivotal short story for both science fiction generally and Warhammer 40000 specifically, and the creation of the Warp, and the daemons that dwell within: Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" from 1955. Read along here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29614/29614-h/29614-h.htm Reach out to th...

If you had asked me on October 15th, 2023, how to self describe myself, I might say I was a techno optimist. But on October 16th, Mark Andreesen, the founder of Netscape, released the Techno-optimist manifesto, and I can no longer say that I'm a techno optimist.   In this episode we'll walk through the quick scan of the document, and the red flags that it raised while looking through it,...

EEE, or Embrace Extend Extinguish has been making the rounds again in 2023 as a number of silicon valley tech companies have been coming under the spotlight for their business practices, and some striking similarities are showing to a strategy outlined by Microsoft in an internal memo back in the 1990s.  Everything old in tech is new again.  Reach out to the show Support the show

What happens when you're forcibly ejected from Virtual Reality?  You may experience "dumpshock" - a bewildering disorientation from the rapid change in context, and you may experience something similar on the internet if you shift from an ad-saturated to an ad-free environment.  Like a fish out of water, you have no anti-environment by which to understand your reality, and the disco...

Tiktok has a noise problem, and it's indicative of a larger issue ongoing within social media, that of "context collapse".  But even context collapse is expanding outside its original context and evidence of it can be seen in the rise of generative AI tools, music and media, and the rise of the "Everything App".   Starting with a baseline in information theory and anthropo...

AI provides a refection of humanity back at us, through a screen, darkly.  But that glass can provide different visions, depending on the viewpoint of the observer.  Are the generative tools that we call AI a tool for advancement and emancipation, or will they be used to further a dystopic control society?   Several current news stories give us the opportunity to see the potential path before us l...