Welcome to the Implausipod.  This episode covers a number of short segments, starting with some thoughts on the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike actions and what that means for Media Consumption (and commentary), as well as a dive into feedback and mail that the channel has received over the last year, addressing questions from the most important part of this show: the listeners.

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What does the relationship between a 40 year old game console company, and ancient internet protocol, and American Online have to teach us about the current issues faced by new users to the Fediverse?  Let's find out on this episode of the Implausipod.

References:
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). _A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia_. University of Minnesota Press.

De Zengotita, T. (2006). _Mediated: How the media shapes your world and the way you live in it_. Bloomsbury 

Kissane, E. (n.d.). _Mastodon is easy and fun except when it isn’t—Erin Kissane’s small internet website_. Retrieved July 29, 2023, from [https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt](https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt)

Op’tLand, R. (2009). Another Endless November: AOL, WoW, and the Corporatization of a Niche Market. _Journal For Virtual Worlds Research_, _2_(3). [https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v2i3.660](https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v2i3.660)

Ritzer, G. (2000). _The McDonaldization of society_ (New Century). Pine Forge Press.

Swisher, K. (1998). _AOL.com: How Steve Case beat Bill Gates, nailed the netheads, and made millions in the war for the Web_. Random House.

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What are "recursive publics" and "social imaginaries", how have they impacted the development of the modern internet, and what impact do they have on the state of the internet in 2023 with the implosion of Twitter, Reddit, and the rise of the Fediverse?  Stay tuned as we take a 50000 foot view of the rise of the public sphere of geeks.

References:
Anderson, B. R. O. (1991 [2006]). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso.

Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society (T. Burger, Trans.). MIT Press.

Kelty, C. (2005). Geeks, Social Imaginaries, and Recursive Publics. Cultural Anthropology,_20(2), 185–214. [https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185](https://doi.org/10.1525/can.2005.20.2.185)

Taylor, C. (2004). Modern social imaginaries. Duke University Press.

Warner, M. (2002) "Publics and Counterpublics". Public Culture 14(1): 49-90.

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Getting started with a brief rundown of an old article that details the rise of the Audience Commodity: Smythe (1977) "Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism"
we use that to explain the recent events of the internet of the last month or so, including the Twitter-pocalypse, the Reddit Meltdown, the rise of ChatGPT, and some general media theory too.

Other links and references:

Baran, P. A., & Sweezy, P. M. (1966). Monopoly Capital. Monthly Review Press.

Smythe, D. W. (1981). Dependency Road: Communications, Capitalism, Consciousness, and Canada (Revised ed. edition). Praeger.

Eastwood, J., Hongsdusit, G., & Keegan, J. (2023, June 23). How Your Attention Is Auctioned Off to Advertisers – The Markup. https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/23/how-your-attention-is-auctioned-off-to-advertisers

Keegan, J., & Eastwood, J. (2023, June 8). From “Heavy Purchasers” of Pregnancy Tests to the Depression-Prone: We Found 650,000 Ways Advertisers Label You – The Markup. https://themarkup.org/privacy/2023/06/08/from-heavy-purchasers-of-pregnancy-tests-to-the-depression-prone-we-found-650000-ways-advertisers-label-you

Note: this episode was also loaded to our youtube channel

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The Implausipod returns to cyberpunk with an look at the first two episodes of The Peripheral, the adaptation of the 2014 William Gibson novel that aired on Amazon Prime on October 21st, 2022.  In this podcast episode, we take a look at the show about communication between two future dystopias, and provide some background behind the tech that appears on screen. Mild spoilers may exist for those who haven't seen the episodes, but hopefully this episode helps explain some of the more esoteric elements in the first two episodes as they aired.

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In episode 6 of the Implausipod we'll continue our exploration of Appendix W with one of the more direct inspirations for the Warhammer 40000 universe and the iconic space marines or Adeptus Astartes, with the appearance of the OG Mobile Infantry from Starship Troopers, with by Robert A. Heinlein in 1959!  

In it we discuss the origins of the military sci-fi subgenre, the origins of some iconic 40K weaponry, and discuss which came first: Heinlein's Mobile Infantry or Marvel's Iron Man?  Also, what are some of the differences between the book and the film?  Hope you enjoy!

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Living in our cyberpunk present, sometimes we need to break the ICE.  This ICEbreaker is a quick hit on a current event or story from the last week, and how it links with the cyberpunk literature of the past.  These episodes are outside of our main story arcs, more like a rapid-fire bonus episode. In this episode, we'll take a look at a "demon" in the internet, that keeps appearing in the various AI Art tools like Dall-E and Midjourney.  Let's have a look at the "loab"

Links:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/09/07/meet-loab-the-ai-art-generated-demon-currently-haunting-the-internet/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5vjw3/why-does-this-horrifying-woman-keep-appearing-in-ai-generated-images

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In episode 5 of the Implausipod we'll start our exploration of Appendix W, with a timely look at one of the inspirations for the space hulks within the Warhammer 40000 universe, and a surprise visit from a monster originally introduced in the pages of Rogue Trader: the enigmatic Enslavers! These both appeared in S01E08 of British sci-fi series Space:1999, and it ended up being an influence on other films like Alien (and Aliens) as well.  Join us on a trip 47 years into the past to explore the source of some iconic science fiction tropes. Enjoy!

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Welcome to episode 4 of the Implausipod, introducing the Appendix W. Originally introduced on our blog last year (find it here: https://implausi.blog/?cat=17 ),  the Appendix W is a collection of the titles that defined the Warhammer 40000 universe and it early development, drawing on titles from science fiction, comics, movies, tv, anime, and heavy metal album covers.

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Welcome to Episode 3 of the Implausipod.  In this episode, we're taking a quick look at the subgenre of science fiction called cyberpunk.  It's been mentioned a few times in the first few episodes, so I thought it warranted a closer look.  So we'll draw a through line between Bladerunner and the Matrix, and from Neuromancer to the Diamond Age, and touching on the intervening points.  As cyberpunk is a transmedia genre (existing in various versions in film, television, fiction, rpgs, video games, comic books, etc.), we'll cover some of the main tropes and conventions of the genre, and key titles.  This isn't an exhaustive guide, but I hope it's enough to get your feet wet. 

This episode will also help align our episode numbering with the remainder of Season 4 of Westworld, which will help us stay on topic.  Well, help me at least.

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