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The Life Cycle
The Life Cycle episodes
- S2 Coda: Cosmic Hitchhikers
We've come a long way and where do we go next? Who will we meet along the way?
The season fades out as we imagine ways to travel beyond our solar system...Thanks for the ride.
Irina Mullins is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Houston Community College. She is also the creator of the ‘Cosmic Hitchhikers Hypothesis’.Cosmic Hitchhikers Hypothesis
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Discord20 min - S2E10: Some Quantum Stories (Quantum Part 2)
Many have heard about how the CIA introduced LSD to America, right? But did you know that they also wanted to introduce quantum entanglement and mind control? This episode revolves around an interview between John and David Kaiser, an American physicist and science historian. With David’s help, we take a look at how quantum evolved over the 20th century in both Europe and the US (and yes, even how the CIA and mindreading played a role). He also dives back into the topic of entanglement (or as Einstein called it ‘spooky action at a distance’) and sheds some light on the groundbreaking work of John Bell (who gave his name to the all-important Bell’s Theorem).
David Kaiser is an American physicist and science historian. He is also a Professor of the History of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. David is the author of multiple books, including “How the Hippies Saved Physics”.
LINKS
David Kaiser's Homepage
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Discord39 min - S2E9: How Much Is The Fish? (Quantum Part 1)
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘quantum’? What even is quantum physics? What does it tell us about our world and universe, and what can it offer us in the future? In this episode, John and Eva meet up with executive producer Mundi in a London pub, and get sent on a special mission to discover as much as they can about the weird and wild world(s) of quantum science.
Professor James Binney is a British astrophysicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and former head of the Sub-Department of Theoretical Physics as well as an Emeritus Fellow of Merton College.
Mundi Vondi is an artist, fashion designer and co-founder and CEO of Klang Games. He is the executive producer of The Life Cycle podcast.
LINKSProf James Binney at Oxford
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Discord43 min - S2E8: I Cloned My Cow, I Cloned My Cow
We continue our exploration of cloning with a closer look at how cloning and factory farming interact. Is animal cloning humane? Is it a technologically advanced key to the problems of factory farming? Or does it simply perpetuate the already existing issues?
Peter Stevenson is Chief Policy Advisor for Compassion in World Farming, as well as a qualified solicitor. He has worked in the animal welfare sector for over three decades and played a leading role in winning EU bans on certain cages and crates in farming as well as passing EU legislation that recognizes animals as sentient beings.
Dorrit Moussaieff is an Israeli jewelry designer, editor, and businesswoman. She was the First Lady of Iceland from 2003 to 2016.
LINKSCompassion in World Farming
Peter Stevenson
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Discord26 min - S2E7: I Cloned My Dog, I Cloned My Dog
Cloning has long been a pillar of sci-fi tales. But now it's here, as is CRISPR technology - gene editing. What does this all look like exactly and how does it work? And more importantly, are we already eating clones at the dinner table?
Professor Rudolf Jaenisch is a Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
Dorrit Moussaieff is an Israeli jewelry designer, editor, and businesswoman. She was the First Lady of Iceland from 2003 to 2016.
LINKS
Professor Rudolf Jaenisch
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
ViaGen
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Discord36 min - S2E6: AI and I
Could AI make this entire episode? And replace Eva and John altogether? In this episode we look at the range of tools and solutions that AI offers right now, and look at where it might go in the future. It feels like every week there's a new development in AI: in this episode we hear from this rapidly changing frontline. Including from within Klang Games itself!
Constant Dullaart is a Dutch conceptual artist, media artist, internet artist, and curator. His work is deeply connected to the Internet.Sarah Al-Hussaini is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ultimate.ai, the leading European virtual agent platform for customer support.
Evans Thomas is a Game Engineer at Klang Games, who is helping build SEED, a large-scale, persistent virtual world that is pushing the boundaries of what constitutes an MMO world by offering a completely player-made universe.
LINKSUltimate.ai
Constant Dullaart
Klang Games
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Discord35 min - S2E5: The Paperclip Interlude
I am a paperclip. Just don’t call me Mr. Clippy. Pull up a chair and listen to this humorous tale that tells the history - and possible future - of the humble paperclip. In this little interlude we bring together some of the various themes of the season, from Operation Paperclip (episode 2) to the future of AI and AGI. Inventions and innovations, progress and science. Because remember, the trouble is we have no idea how to imagine The Singularity.
LINKSNick Bostrom
The clicker game Decision Problems by Frank Lutz
Von Neumann Probes
John Holten is a novelist and Klang Game’s Narrative Director. His novels include Oslo, Norway (2015) and The Readymades (2011). His writing has recently appeared in Welt am Sonntag, frieze, and The Stinging Fly.
Eva Kelley is a journalist and writer. Her writing focuses on contemporary culture and has appeared in publications such as 032c, ZEITMagazin, Interview Magazine, Hearts, and on SSENSE.com among others.
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Discord26 min - S2E4: Synthetic Vice
The future of booze. What does it taste like? Join us while we look at the role of the oldest of human concoctions: alcohol, and how it we may just be on the cusp of a radical revolution in all things inebriation.
Professor David Nutt is a neuropsychopharmacologist and the Co-Founder of GABA Labs. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Drug Science, a UK based independednt drug advisory committee.LINKS:
GABA Labs
Sentia
Drug Science
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Discord40 min - S2E3: Dr. Philippson, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Aliens and Started to Govern from my Sofa
Hear that? In the blink of an eye we could be not just contacted but overtaken by loud aliens. Are we , here on earth, quiet aliens in the universe? What is the difference exactly between loud and quiet aliens? And if we’re ever going to become loud aliens, traveling the cosmos, how would we manage such a civilisation-wide endeavor when we seem to only ever disagree, humanity's history being mainly one of war and division? Perhaps the Internet can offer a way to work together, to learn to be one world. Metagovernance could be one such tool to help us get there. In this episode Klang advisor Adam Philippson point John and Eva toward Robin Hanson about his latest theory of ‘loud’ and ‘quiet’ aliens, and Klang friends Prof. Laurence Lessig and Joshua Tan about the exciting possibilities of metagovernance.
Robin Hanson is an associate professor of economics at George Mason Univeristy. He is the author of The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule The Earth, among other titles.
Joshua Tan is the executive director of The Metagovernance Project, as well as a practitioner fellow at Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab. He is also a doctoral student studying computer science at Oxford University.
Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. He was also the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.
LINKSGrabby Aliens
The Metagovernance Project
Robin Hanson’s Homepage
Joshua Tan’s Homepage
More Info on Lawrence Lessig
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Discord19 min - S2E2: Getting There
It’s the age of Artemis! This means humanity is going back to the moon. And beyond! But where did this journey begin exactly? We’ve got a wild story that involves Nazis, bad novels, Walt Disney and the tyranny of the rocket equation. Listen as we explore the life and work of Wernher von Braun and the space race of the 1960s before looking to the present day Artemis programme and even the future of interstellar travel beyond the solar system. It’s time to back-up Earth, ready for a reboot.
Dr. Michael J. Neufeld is is a Senior Curator in the Space History Department at the Smithsonian and author of The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era (1995), among other titles.
Avi Loeb is a theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology at Harvard. His newest book, Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars, is planned to be published in 2023.
LINKSSpace Scouts By Adam Phillipson
For All Mankind on Apple+
Disneyland 1955 - Man in Space - Wernher Von Braun
Tom Lehrer’s "Wernher Von Braun"
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Discord26 min
About The Life Cycle
From the publisher's feed
We have reached the forth season of The Life Cycle! July 21, 2026 sees SEED move into Early Access, and to celebrate we wanted to share a chapter from The Radix, the backstory of SEED. We plan to…
have a rolling schedule of podcasts going forward, as we continue to talk to experts in science, AI, philisophy as well as game development, as we continue to look at the future of humanity and what it means for SEED - and indeed all of us.
In the third season we bring the podcast right down to earth and get in deep with the things that matter to us all and our collective future. And what better way to do that than to have long, engaged conversations with some brilliant people? We talk food, we talk fertility, we talk about life online and we also visit the site of one of humanity’s most exciting endeavors: the mission to create nuclear fusion here on Earth, and harness the power of the Sun itself! Beginning with a chat with Klang CEO Mundi Vondi, this season promises to deepen our understanding of the life cycle, and just what it is we’re all doing here….
John Holten is a novelist and Klang Game’s Narrative Director. His novels include The Trains of Europe (2024), Oslo, Norway (2015) and The Readymades (2011). His writing has recently appeared in Welt am Sonntag, frieze, and The Stinging Fly.
In the third season we bring the podcast right down to earth and get in deep with the things that matter to us all and our collective future. And what better way to do that than to have long, engaged conversations with some brilliant people? We talk food, we talk fertility, we talk about life online and we also visit the site of one of humanity’s most exciting endeavors: the mission to create nuclear fusion here on Earth, and harness the power of the Sun itself! Beginning with a chat with Klang CEO Mundi Vondi, this season promises to deepen our understanding of the life cycle, and just what it is we’re all doing here….
John Holten is a novelist and Klang Game’s Narrative Director. His novels include The Trains of Europe (2024), Oslo, Norway (2015) and The Readymades (2011). His writing has recently appeared in Welt am Sonntag, frieze, and The Stinging Fly.
Eva Kelley is a journalist and writer. Her writing focuses on contemporary culture and has appeared in publications such as 032c, ZEITMagazin, Interview Magazine, Hearts, and on SSENSE.com among others.