The Computer Room

• What Is the Cultural Script For Six-Armed Babies? ft. Dr. Josie Zayner

  Today on The Computer Room, Katherine talks to Dr. Josie Zayner of the Los Angeles Project about genetic engineering and building the impossible. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

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• AI Natives

  On today’s episode of The Computer Room, Katherine talks to Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab, not just about Second Life, but about other synthetic lives. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

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• AI and the Return of the Unknowable

  Join Katherine and producer Taylor McMahon as they discuss Meta’s plans for AI-generated users. Gio returns next week for his regular hosting duties.Read Katherine’s article on the same topic here.00:00 Introduction and Greetings00:39 Meta’s AI Generated Users02:47 Implications of AI in Social Media04:56 Human Element in Social Media08:17 AI's Impact on Culture and Taste21:39 Fictosexuality and Imaginary Relationships24:27 The Influence of Environment on Human Behavior26:01 The Future of AI and Human Intimacy27:55 Emotional Attachment to Technology31:50 The Intersection of Technology and Religion36:29 The Era of Magic and AI43:21 Human Connections and Missed ConnectionsHousekeeping: * Remember to submit Missed Connections, advice questions, and everything else to [email protected] or by voice here. I’m also always looking for written submissions — send me stories, articles about Internet culture, and more.* For paid subscribers, our next book club pick is Read Write Own by Chris Dixon for February and our next movie club pick is All About Lilly Chou Chou for January. Dates for both TBD this week.* Also for paid subscribers, we’re rolling out Internet Studies classes! We’re running a second session of Internet Real Life and a course about everyone’s favorite fantasy series, The Gorean Saga.Help me become the best known blog of this genre, lest I live out a sort of digital Sunset Boulevard. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

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• Traumagotchi Redeemed?

  Leah Prime from our fantastic Art Bell episode and of the blog We Own the Night and I talked about my initial reaction to friend.com’s chatbot launch… and why I might be wrong about it after all. This is an experimental format I’m releasing to paid subscribers only right now. Please share your feedback! It’s very likely that a more polished version will be un-paywalled later in the week… But I wanted to get a temperature check first. Do you guys like it? Should I do more? Articles referenced:Avi Schiffmann’s Tab AI necklace has raised $1.9 million to replace God This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

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• Be My Escape

  Katherine talks to Sam L. Barker about the enduring legacy of pop-punk and emo, and crucially, about how it all coalesced online. You can also listen to this on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.Read Katherine’s article about blink-182’s unique brand of humor here.Subscribe to Sam’s Substack here.A note from Sam:Be My Escape is an essay and podcast project where I look over some of the most enduring emo (I use the term culturally and loosely) and pop-punk albums of the 00s. I want to give this selection of albums the same level of attention and analysis which more established and accepted alternative, indie, hip-hop, and electronic albums are granted. What makes them important, their cultural and personal background, and what lateral topics they uncover, be that gender, mental illness, terrorism, or sexuality. This project can be seen as a response to what might be termed the great “Emo Revival.”Since the reformation of My Chemical Romance in 2019 the genre has received a welcome critical and popular re-examination. The explosion of pure enthusiasm at the news led to an outpouring of emotions, articles and memes. Critically ignored in the 00s, and mostly forgotten in the 2010s broadsheet newspapers like The New York Times were now writing sympathetic pieces on albums like The Black Parade. Pitchfork, once happy awarding A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out a 1.5 got busy writing a series of revisionist reviews from young writers redressing the delta. The When We Were Young festival has become a major yearly draw, pitched directly at Millennial nostalgia. Warped Tour’s coming back. Everyone can admit they like Emo now, it’s fine. But this isn’t intended to be a victory lap. Nostalgia can be fun, but it can also be a sugar rush. Some albums are bad, some albums have aged poorly, some deserve to be forgotten. The genre deserves critical analysis, but it can withstand it too. I’m not interested in MySpace photos of you with shitty straightened hair and a bootleg Senses Fail shirt. I want to know about the Fall Out Boy B-side you cried to. The Dashboard Confessional lyrics of your first tattoo. How a musical album about a goth Bonnie and Clyde got you through the worst times of your life, when everything else abandoned you. You were embarrassed of it, now you’re not. Let’s talk about it.Discounts are available for students, the elderly, military, people who work at the mall, service workers, fans and friends of Ron Paul, and true believers in Default Friend. Just email me and I’ll set you up (real btw). You can also just give me the $5:And a final note from Katherine: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit default.blog/subscribe

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