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
110: Return to Forever
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This week we are talking about the alleged plan on the part of Meta to enable profiles to remain active after death, powered by AI. Of course Meta says this is just a "hypothetical" patent they have filed that they have "no intention of implementing" but we suss out the implications nonetheless, just in case, just on the off chance that this comes to pass. We then transition into a discussion of the 2013 episode of Black Mirror "Be Right Back" which anticipated the possibility of something like this happening by over a decade. We note, in particular, all the ways that this very prescient episode of TV in fact underestimates how ubiquitous, addictive, and world-altering the social media apps within our phones have turned out to be, so much so that this episode from thirteen years ago feels almost quaint.
We open the episode discussing the recently launched strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel and consider what some of the potentially disastrous consequences of this endeavor might be.
Business Insider on Meta's Patent
On teenagers's use of AI companions
CBS on a study of teen AI usage and psychosis
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
