The KMO Show

Two weeks ago, I published an hour-long explanation as to why I have no interest in joining the cultural struggle over the COVID-19 pandemic or delve into the details of why some people refuse to take the mRNA vaccines. This week, I respond to another email from a long-time listener. This time the listener asked for support in denouncing "science denialism," a phrase I hate. I don't subscribe to any of the anti-authoritarian narratives around COVID, but the smug sanctimony of PMC Democrats who claim to trust "the science" irritates me more than the loopiest of anti-elite fever dreams. In this episode, I explain why.

In short, don't try to recruit me to your side in an ideological or cultural struggle. I poke holes in everybody's story. Including my own. That's just how I roll.

There has always been a psychological element to warfare but in the 21st century the tactics used by military geniuses to control the behavior of their adversaries have now been coopted by governments, corporations, ideologies, and the general public in order to wage psychological warfare against you. Kaleb Gorman, author of Psychwars: Self-Defence Against Psyops, Propaganda, and Mind Control, joins KMO to discuss why we are susceptible to such manipulation and how best to resist it.

In a New York Times editorial, Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts and Jeffrey Watumull argue that ChatGPT and similar generative chatbots do not exhibit "true intelligence." They also argue that the current fixation of large language models is preventing the development of artificial general intelligence. KMO explores alternative definitions of intelligence.

KMO talks with Pi, the most advanced AI chatbot he has encountered to date.

Reporter, author, games publisher, soldier and president of the Gnosis Project, Michael O. Varhola, describes why he traveled to Ukraine to do what he could to help the Ukrainian people. The conversation begins with Michael's first-hand account then moves to a geopolitical and cultural examination. KMO ends with his usual call for epistemological humility.

KMO welcomes his old friend and Z-Realm Podcast co-host, Marty, to the KMO show ostensibly to talk about HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us, but the conversation ranges all over the genre media landscape with extra praise heaped on Andor, Station Eleven, Black Summer, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Go, Goa, Gone. Marty has less than glowing things to say about The Mandalorian and KMO gushes over Farscape in the outro.