“AI is amplifying both our cognition and our blind spots… it’s showing us who we are.” — Dr. Lollie Mancey

Dr. Lollie Mancey — anthropologist, futurist and Program Director at UCD’s Innovation Academy — joins Samraj to explore how AI is reshaping identity, intimacy, culture, empathy and the future human condition. A grounded, human conversation on loneliness, AI companions, ethics, neuroscience, simulation theory and how technology is transforming how we think, feel and relate.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

0:00 ➤ Intro / Guest Welcome

0:56 ➤ Lollie’s background & cyber-anthropology

2:01 ➤ Futureville: Ireland 2050 through AR

2:58 ➤ Fear, misinformation & youth pushback

3:52 ➤ Computer science’s identity crisis

4:42 ➤ “Anything + AI” & future learning

5:40 ➤ What anthropology really is

7:38 ➤ Micro-cultures & collapsing shared reality

9:14 ➤ Culture, identity & mental models

10:12 ➤ AI companions reshaping intimacy

11:14 ➤ Lonely vs alone

13:53 ➤ AI mentors & digital spirituality

15:58 ➤ Context, meaning & ethical AI

18:01 ➤ Hallucinations as “I don’t know”

19:53 ➤ Empathy vs simulation

21:14 ➤ Morals vs ethics

24:11 ➤ Are we living in a simulation?

26:55 ➤ NASA systems thinking

28:53 ➤ Unintended tech behaviours

30:32 ➤ Purpose crisis & lost entry-level work

32:28 ➤ CEO blind spots

34:43 ➤ Fake empathy & emotional illusions

36:52 ➤ “Good thinking” & meta-thinking

38:52 ➤ Why AI must remind us it’s not human

40:44 ➤ Emotional context limitations

42:35 ➤ Rationality vs emotion

44:19 ➤ The “AI magic” moment

45:17 ➤ Avatars & identity

47:18 ➤ AI relationships & emotional dependence

49:54 ➤ Tech, dopamine & cortisol

51:42 ➤ Memory offloading & shrinking hippocampi

52:47 ➤ EEGs, mind-crime & neuro-tech

54:00 ➤ Closing: “Get yourselves AI literate so that you’re prepared for what’s coming… How well do you think you understand AI right now?”

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