Crazy Town

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Happy Earth Day! There are two concepts that every person should understand to be a better Earthling: entropy and self-organization. It seems like a paradox, but systems on Earth are simultaneously breaking down into disorder and arranging themselves into complex superorganisms. Everything on Earth (well, really in the whole universe) is subject to the second law of thermodynamics, which means it all dies and decays. But with access to steady flows of energy, organisms, ecosystems, and human societies can hold back the death and decay for a spell. After dropping the kids off at the pool, Asher, Rob, and Jason cover the interplay of entropy and self-organization and contemplate how to manage the inevitability of entropy with elegance (beyond morphing into a lizard person).

Originally recorded on 4/8/25.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Geoffrey West, Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, Penguin Books, 2018.
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Scribner, 2024.
• William Rees, “End game: the economy as eco-catastrophe and what needs to change,” Real-World Economics Review, 2019.
• The laws of thermodynamics, as explained by the website “Physics for Idiots"
• "Telegraph Road" - song by Dire Straits
• David Owen, "Green Manhattan," The New Yorker, October 10, 2004.

Other Crazy Town episodes you might like:

• Crazy Town 100 - A Temporary Techno Stunt: Tom Murphy on Falling out or Love with Modernity
• Crazy Town 35 - Self Domestication and Overshoot, or… the Story of Foxes and Russian Melodrama
• Crazy Town Bonus Riff - Vanilla Andreessen, Pygmy Marmosets, and Hi-Tech Delusions

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Who knew that the breakthrough moment of AI sentience would come from interacting with an annoying neo-Luddite?

After failing to raise a single dollar for PCI’s newest initiative — the $350 billion Transdisciplinary Institute for Phalse Prophet Studies and Education (TIPPSE) —  Jason, Rob, and Asher devise the only profitable pitch for raising capital: using AI technology to cure the loneliness that technology itself causes. The only problem is that AI chatbots won’t talk to us, as evidenced by Asher’s experience of being blocked by an AI “friend.” So Asher turns to the flesh-and-blood author of Blood in the Machine, Brian Merchant, to discuss the rise of the neo-Luddite movement — the only people who might be able to stand your humble Crazy Town hosts. 

Brian Merchant is a writer, reporter, and author. He is currently reporter in residence at the AI Now Institute and publishes his own newsletter, Blood in the Machine, which has the same title as his 2023 book. Previously, Brian was the technology columnist at the Los Angeles Times and a senior editor at Motherboard.

Originally recorded on 1/3/25 (warm-up conversation) and 3/24/25 (interview with Brian).

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Press Release announcing closure of TIPPSE
• Funding for Friend
• Screenshot of Asher’s conversation with Friend’s bot, Faith
• Lyrics to “Not Going to Mars” by Pyrrhon
• Brian Merchant’s Substack, Blood in the Machine
• Brian’s book, Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech  
• New York Times article on the Luddite Club: “‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes”
• Crazy Town Episode 72: Sucking CO2 and Electrifying Everything: The Climate Movement’s Desperate Dependence on Tenuous Technologies
• Brian’s essay in The Atlantic, “The New Luddites Aren’t Backing Down”

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Recovering technology booster Tom Murphy visits Crazy Town to discuss his journey from shooting lasers at the moon, to trying to "solve" the energy predicament, to falling out of love with modernity itself. Asher, Jason, Rob, and Tom discuss the roots and short-lived nature of modernity, which has not only shaped the world we inhabit but conquered our very imaginations. They reminisce about aspects of hi-tech society that have already fallen away in its hubristic march towards mastering (or should we say undermining?) nature. They close by contemplating what it means to detach from humanocentric delusions of grandeur and make peace with living with one foot in and one foot out of the modern world. Originally recorded on 3/4/25.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• "Acceptance and Agency at the End of Modernity," a live online Resilience event on April 1, 2025 featuring Vanessa Andreotti and Dougald Hine
• Tom Murphy's Do the Math

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How will we feed people living in the megacities of the 21st century, especially while confronting climate chaos and the depletion of fossil fuels and fossil water? According to the mainstream media: ecomodernism! Massive deployment of technology on factory farms and an extreme ramp-up of industrialization will save the day – right? RIGHT?!? If you read the New York Times, you might think that supermarket shelves will forever overflow with 3D-printed fish sticks, mylar bags full of genetically modified cheesy poofs, and faux corn dogs that ooze out of laboratory vats. Jason, Rob, and Asher question the wisdom of doubling down on industrialization in food and farming. It’s no surprise they recommend paying attention to nature and ecological limits. Stick around for ideas you can use in your community to support a healthy, regenerative food system (and keep on eating). Originally recorded on 1/21/25.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Jason Bradford, The Future Is Rural, 2/19/19.
• Eliza Barclay, "What to Eat on a Burning Planet," The New York Times, 7/29/24.
• David Wallace-Wells, "Food as You Know It Is About to Change," The New York Times, 7/28/24.
• Andrew Nikiforuk, "A Reality Check on Our 'Energy Transition'," Resilience, 1/6/25.
• Michael Grunwald, "Sorry, but This Is the Future of Food," The New York Times, 12/13/24.
• "Changing How We Grow Our Food: Readers disagree with an essay about factory farms," The New York Times, 1/4/25.
• Jay Famiglietti, "Will We Have to Pump the Great Lakes to California to Feed the Nation?" The New York Times, 8/5/24.
• Clip of the Hydrologist in Chief "explaining" the oh-so-simple solution to water shortages.

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Do you contemplate topics like climate change, biodiversity loss, and the risk of civilizational collapse? If so, then you probably understand something about bargaining – a psychological defense mechanism that’s one of the five stages of grief. With just a wee bit of embarrassment, Asher, Jason, and Rob reveal damning episodes of bargaining from their personal histories (involving green consumerism and cult-like devotion to technology). Having admitted their sins, they discuss the allure of false solutions to our environmental predicaments and how even veteran environmental journalists can be susceptible to it. Stay to the end for thoughts on how to avoid getting hoodwinked by the horde of ecomodernist tech bros who continuously shove unworkable "solutions" down our throats. Originally recorded on January 16, 2025.

Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.

Sources/Links/Notes:

• Julia Musto, "The end of the world as we know it? Theorist warns humanity is teetering between collapse and advancement," Independent, January 13, 2025 (about Nahfeez Ahmed's take on superabundance versus collapse).
• Rob Dietz, "Chris Smaje Vs. George Monbiot and the Debate on the Future of Farming," Resilience, October 27, 2023.
• Crazy Town episode 32 on cognitive bias
• Megan Phelps-Roper's six questions
• Crazy Town episode 45 on feedback loops, featuring an interview with Beth Sawin
• Post Carbon Institute's Deep Dive on building emotional resilience

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