Keck

In this episode Dom, Rob and Marty chat about a script called “Repo Men,” bird flu, cadaveric dissection, and a bunch of other nonsense that most people don't want to spend their valuable time listening to. 

People with prosopagnosia are unable to recognise other people by looking at their face, but can live into adulthood without realising that other people find it easy.  In this episode Dom discovers that most people can perform tasks they don’t like and instead of hating the experience they can simply change their minds and enjoy it instead (and they’re not just blatantly lying about it).  It’s a simple thing that just about everyone can do, except Dom, apparently.

Anyway, AI is the future and it’s going to take your job and it’s so dangerous that we should probably stop making it but we have to keep making it and did you see how we set one up that we neglected to do anything to contain what it did and then specifically programmed to do crazy shit and then it totally did the crazy shit we programmed it to do wow that’s great press to both say so it’s really dangerous but also we’re on the verge of post scarcity that everybody is welcome to share like an Ian M. Banks novel that didn’t have any creepy overtones about AI at all and had a reference to “knife missiles” that is fortunately not a real name for a weapon and is just a nickname for one so we don’t need to worry about anyone building something like the real thing because that would be totally fucked up, right?  

Dom references two books that he believes are still an interesting read, if you can find them and have the time:

Nils J. Nilsson (2010).  The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements. Cambridge University Press.  ISBN 978-0-521-12293-1.

(The interwebs says Nilsson’s book was published in 2009, but the print copy Dom has specifically states it was first published 2010.  Maybe that’s the paperback edition.  The ISBN for the hardback is 978-0-521-11693-8 so maybe that has something different.  Publishers love to do this kind of stuff.  Take, for example, the Grosset and Dunlap print of Dracula where they couldn’t be bothered mentioning the reprint in the verso)

Theodore Roszak (1986).  The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking.  Pantheon Books and Random House.  ISBN 0-394-54622-9.

Dial-up internet is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 

Have you ever noticed that a lot of detective shows are shit?

Could the unfilmable, unthinkable, distasteful short film Foreign Yeast become the seed of an international media franchise that eclipses the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Of course it could. And it will! 

It's 1998. Dom is writing many scripts, but they're all terrible. Anybody reading likely wouldn't get past the first page, but one stands out. People are interested in making it. They rehearse. They film the rehearsal. Then things just peter out, nobody knows why.

After a brief, sixteen-year hiatus from finishing a short film, Rob and Dom have decided that their recent brush with productivity justifies an entirely new season of Keck. Because nothing says "fresh start" like arbitrary milestones and a complete lack of internal consistency. 

In this episode Rob attempts to set a grand course for the future, only for the duo to immediately spiral into a deep dive about a film that’s already been made. 

The bowels of an urban/rural myth/legend is also explored. Facts? Does anyone actually do that? They get to the bottom of what humans are genuinely capable of (besides procrastination). 

Also included, is a remarkably unenlightening conversation about AI. It’s shallow, it’s trendy, and it’s purely here so the SEO gods don't smite our metadata.

Tune in for the creative insights, stay for the contradictions. It’s Season 2. We’re as surprised as you are.

Contrary to the broadly agreed perspective that Rob and Dom have never been in touch with society, for a few years in the ‘90s they channelled the zeitgeist along with other members of La Boite Youth Theatre. This episode sees them reunited with an early mentor as they wax nostalgic on their largest ever audiences, creative liberty, and a cultural exchange at the Tanami Desert. 

In 2004 video cameras had become more affordable, which meant Luke and Rob could get cheap thrills filming themselves posing and dancing in the streets of Brisbane. Twelve years later the resulting footage was resurrected in the form of Do It Try It, a silly little music video. In this episode, Dom makes enquiries as to how all this came together.

Could a sequel to X be in the works?  In this episode Dom shares some of his very personal special effects secrets and pitches a fresh angle on an old script. Our hosts also discuss what they might do if they met their clones.