The End of the World with Michael and Stu
The Apocalypse is Everywhere. The End of the World with Michael and Stu is a (hopefully) insightful and (hopefully) humorous exploration of the rise of apocalyptic news, apocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic culture. Each week, we’ll be looking at a work of art, a piece of media, or an historical event related to the (hopefully not) impending End of the World.
The End of the World with Michael and Stu
70: Bring Me A Dream
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"
NewScientist on Trump's "Golden Dome" Missile Defense System
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