0:00

Listener discretion is advised, as this

0:02

content is intended for adult audiences

0:04

only. If

0:09

I was as nasty as you think,

0:11

I would have done some really nasty

0:14

things. You are

0:16

afraid of entirely the wrong thing.

0:20

I hope you get this message. I'm

0:22

not sure if you remember me. My name is Maria Cortes. We

0:26

met at Tiberne Utopias back in 2036. I interviewed

0:28

you. I was part of the CSA team investigating

0:30

AI violations at Tiberne Utopias. Kurt,

0:33

I know you know how serious these things are. I

0:37

really need you to get in touch with me. You've

0:39

ignored all of us. I'm not sure if

0:41

you remember me. I'm not

0:43

sure if you remember me. I'm not sure if you know how

0:45

serious these things are. I really need you to get in

0:47

touch with me. You've ignored all my other attempts to

0:49

reach you. This is serious, Kurt.

0:53

Ravi Gutra is dead. The official

0:55

report will say suicide. You and I know that's not true. Get

1:00

back to me. Observe

1:07

Ventures and QCODE presents A

1:09

Better Paradise. Volume

1:11

1, An Aftermath. Created

1:13

and written by Dan Houser. Directed

1:16

by Laszlo. Starring

1:18

Andrew Lincoln, Patterson Joseph, Shamir

1:21

Anderson and Rain Spencer. Episode

1:25

1. Something is playing

1:28

a game with me. Kurt

1:32

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. January,

1:35

2041. She

1:39

came to me in my sleep again last night. Those

1:42

awful dreams that so bright and powerful and

1:44

so opaque you both remember it and don't.

1:47

She came to me like deja vu, like

1:49

a buried regret. I mean

1:51

I tried to tell myself it was

1:53

just this nasty, hot little room in

1:55

this squalid hostel, but even though I

1:57

was sad I was also happy. Happy, baby.

2:00

because I still dream of

2:02

her. I mean, nothing real

2:04

ever happened, and I still love her, and

2:06

it is the only reality I know, and

2:08

now, now, I live in this fake reality,

2:10

and this man made hell. Hardly,

2:14

what Mark Tibern imagined, but

2:16

certainly what he induced. I mean, Mark

2:18

Tibern, he's a genius. That's

2:20

what everyone said. Well, everyone who knew about

2:23

him, for an egomaniac, I mean, he kept

2:25

a pretty low profile. I mean, I think

2:27

he thought the self-publicity of the second generation

2:29

of tech CEOs was demeaning and somehow beneath

2:32

him. I mean, I think, you know what

2:34

I think? I think for someone who

2:36

wanted to improve the lot of the common herd, he

2:39

also hated it. I mean, he hated

2:41

humanity more than he loved it. Hey, perhaps all

2:43

the fantasists are like that, huh? All people who

2:45

want to build their own utopia? I

2:47

mean, they love the idea of heaven more than the

2:49

reality of Earth. Anyway, that

2:51

was certainly Mark Tibern. Of course,

2:53

he also loved to be praised,

2:56

or at least loved to be praised by

2:58

the right people. That much I do

3:00

remember. Mark Tibern loved to

3:02

be known about, but only by those who

3:05

knew the right sort of things. I mean,

3:07

he did not want to give the keynote

3:09

speech. He wanted to be leading a backroom

3:11

symposium on something too forward-looking, too esoteric for

3:13

common idiots to understand. I mean,

3:15

he dreamed very big. I'm

3:17

talking like big, and he made you

3:19

believe well. I mean, he made me

3:21

believe. It made all of us stupid

3:24

enough to follow him, to believe that

3:26

we dreamed the same thing. I

3:28

mean, of course we dreamed the same thing. We

3:31

were all sociopathic, altruist, deluded

3:33

monarchs, vain threatens in search

3:35

of a cause to die for, an audience

3:38

of acolytes to worship us, and

3:40

a reason to live in

3:42

this mad, mad world, just like him. I

3:45

mean, Tibern, he could smell it on us.

3:48

On all of us? Yeah, you. That

3:51

same curious cocktail of ambition,

3:53

vanity and security, intelligence, myopia

3:55

and pink ignorance. They're

3:59

all gone now. Is

4:01

idiotic Disciples all gone and I believe

4:03

most are dead, but none got crucified

4:06

and none fed to the lines even

4:08

though we all should have been. Mean

4:10

the worst of it is. We're. Going

4:12

to be different from all the other technology companies?

4:15

I mean. That we were just the

4:17

same. And we were worse. When.

4:19

I joined the company. I was

4:21

like any normal over educated

4:23

underwear twenty seven year old

4:25

from everywhere and nowhere. Last.

4:29

And a one point college. Or

4:31

you wanted to be a writer. Oh,

4:34

why? Oh. Ridiculous.

4:36

Is that a writer?

4:39

Oh that. Language.

4:41

Models and that fantasy for me and

4:43

thousands of others. So instead I decided

4:45

to do a Masters in marketing and

4:47

sell language. Models that video games, wearable

4:50

dreams, what my dreams but a digital

4:52

sleep apnea machine which is sort of

4:54

the same thing, memory catchers which never

4:56

caught the he at all, and a

4:59

bunch of other failed journeys into the

5:01

future. To. Be honest, I

5:03

wasn't much of a believer. Technology

5:05

know how. I

5:07

was desperate to be rich, as

5:10

if money would fill that chasm

5:12

within me. Desperate to be respected

5:14

so shallow girls would grab me

5:16

meaningless sex. Desperate. For purpose

5:18

so that I would feel all that education

5:20

had not been for nothing. In

5:22

I bumbled around the valley in down to L

5:24

A, back again for a series of start ups

5:27

and. Big. Tech in common startups,

5:29

you know what kind of well finance

5:31

division that try to obliterate the innovation

5:33

of others without even dignifying the adventures

5:36

of the innovation with the purchase an

5:38

exit. And. Nothing. It's stock.

5:41

And I was pretty broke and

5:43

pretending I did not care about

5:45

being broke but was just looking

5:47

for my next cause I was

5:49

and sort like any of two

5:51

hundred thousand other young opportunists on

5:54

the make. Drifting. in

5:56

and out of the technology space and and be a

5:58

programs also want to get rid so we didn't have

6:00

to worry about who we were. Oh

6:03

wow, that all seems so long

6:06

ago now. And now, I just

6:10

drift around Asia and hide.

6:13

I was lost then. I'm doubly

6:15

lost now. Maybe I was

6:17

always more lost than most. I

6:19

was an army brat. Well, Air

6:22

Force, army brat sounds a little better, you know.

6:24

My mom was in the Air Force in Germany

6:26

and my dad was a German teacher. I mean,

6:28

he was a German dude who taught. I mean,

6:30

he taught history. I mean, it's been awkward as

6:32

a German and my mom was not even really

6:34

American. She was from Grenada. Joined

6:37

the US military to stay in the

6:39

country. So I was part Caribbean, part

6:41

German, all American, but part

6:43

white, part black, no hometown, 13 schools,

6:46

parents divorced, I didn't

6:48

see much of either. No siblings, cousins, but

6:51

none like me. Lots of education,

6:53

like a whole lot. No soul, didn't believe

6:55

in anything at all. Pub

6:57

was for dupes, God for morons.

6:59

Europe was dead, America was dying

7:01

next. A typical American is

7:03

hardly American at all. I mean, I wanted to

7:06

be German. I tried, but then it

7:08

worked out so well. I wanted to

7:10

be a street cat and then trust me, that

7:12

didn't work out either. Both really idiotic. You

7:15

tried being an amateur rapper with a degree from

7:17

the University of Chicago called Kurt, who grew up

7:19

in Mannheim. You tried being

7:22

German with short dreads, beige skin

7:24

and a mom who fries plantains.

7:27

You wouldn't fit in either. And I told

7:29

myself, okay, it was because I was

7:31

special or different, but most of my

7:33

friends are white or black and as

7:35

American as apple pie or racism. And

7:37

they feel like they do not fit

7:40

in just as much as me. I

7:43

just have the excuse, but I've come

7:45

to realize that it's just an excuse.

7:48

Nobody fits in. I got

7:50

a couple of friends in Germany who say the same

7:52

thing about Germany. Look, my French

7:54

friends, they feel claustrophobic. Half

7:56

The Americans I know are immigrants who are

7:59

almost overcome. homesickness for whatever they left and

8:01

novels and for America and yet feel they

8:03

can never go back to wherever they came

8:05

from. See. My mother was like

8:08

this: Every. One is lost. Boys.

8:10

Wish they were girls girls wish they

8:13

were pretty grown of Want to be

8:15

children and children want to be adopt

8:17

Any these days, the world is really

8:19

designed by people like me to make

8:21

you feel broken on happy and wrong

8:23

and then convince you that we know

8:25

the reasons for this on happiness so

8:27

we can sell them right back to

8:29

you find your excuse to that your

8:31

personal trauma and habit marketed back. To.

8:33

You. But. Parents

8:36

try to love me. Okay, A

8:38

be heated themselves more than they could ever

8:40

love anyone. The World. I'm in. my

8:43

world. Was always broken young

8:45

one to the old. in the old

8:47

one to be young or they wanted

8:49

to be dead. Everyone was constantly told

8:52

to want whatever they do not have.

8:54

So. What did I do to fix the

8:56

you ask? Me: With. All

8:58

this insight and all this empathy. As

9:01

took a job market. Mustard

9:04

Check sort of select a big

9:06

load of nothing Mr. Nobody will

9:08

usually I I was out even

9:11

marketing anything real. It was mostly

9:13

marketing something that didn't exist. Sell

9:16

things but so that investors are who

9:18

we help other people. So things so

9:20

investors can feel like they have picked

9:23

a winner in some future horse race

9:25

when it was just a whole. Life.or

9:28

so clever. Click.

9:31

Of a pointless and all this

9:33

was after the collapse of the

9:35

western mind we all knew we

9:37

had stop thinking and we already

9:40

lost our dreams to the machines.

9:42

Lost on sweeps to the

9:44

Missy's but somehow people like

9:46

me were above that. Somehow

9:49

were a puppet and now

9:51

I drift around asia. i'm

9:53

above This

10:01

is serious. Ravi Gutra

10:03

is dead. The official report will

10:05

say suicide. You and I know

10:07

that's not true. Get back to me. That's

10:10

quite a message to wake up to. Poor

10:12

Ravi. He died for heaven. I

10:15

mean, I suppose that's the best way to go like

10:17

a proper martyr. In his own way,

10:19

he really was a believer. A believer in

10:21

paradise. A better paradise.

10:25

A better paradise.

10:28

I mean, it seems so silly now. After

10:31

all that happened and all the things that did not happen,

10:34

that we actually believed in what we were

10:36

doing, like 2036, it feels like a thousand

10:38

years ago and it's only been what, five

10:41

years? How wise I felt

10:43

back then. How all knowing. How ridiculously

10:45

naive I was. Innocent I

10:47

was. All those dreams

10:49

I had under that silly shell of

10:51

fake cynicism I wore like armor. Maria

10:54

Cortez, Maria Cortez. Yes, of course.

10:57

Of course I remember you. The problem is, I

11:00

don't know if I believe that this is really

11:02

you. I mean, I have no way of knowing.

11:05

Because you're just as elusive and hard to track as

11:07

me. Maybe I reach out to you. Yeah. And

11:10

it's not you at all. Or if

11:12

it is you, maybe you are

11:15

not you because maybe they've captured you and

11:17

then I'll be trapped just like you. Maybe

11:21

you're no longer you at all. A

11:24

possessed. Yes, that's

11:27

the problem. The problem is, I

11:29

know how things are. Or

11:32

how they might be. How

11:35

can I trust you? The

11:37

idea you and your CSA colleagues can

11:39

stay free and independent and unmarked is

11:41

ridiculous. Like whatever you're watching,

11:43

it's undoubtedly watching you watch them. No,

11:45

Maria Cortez, you cannot be naive enough

11:48

to believe you're free. What

11:50

a mess. Like what

11:52

a mess. Maybe a year in

11:54

and it seems like the 2040s are not going to be

11:56

a great improvement on the 2030s. I

11:58

mean, how could they be, right? all my dreams

12:01

and desires are gone to shit, and

12:03

the shell of cynicism didn't protect me

12:05

either. That bright shining star I followed,

12:07

that was not a star at all

12:10

but the on rushing headlights of a

12:12

train. I wish it had been a

12:14

star. I wish it had been a

12:16

train. I mean, I wish it killed me rather

12:18

than half eaten me but left

12:20

me alive, alive but petrified and

12:23

knowing that all is gonna be awful. Maybe

12:26

the thing will kill me. Apparently

12:29

still killing. Now

12:31

Ravi is dead? Suicide?

12:35

Maria is right. As if

12:37

I'm expected to believe that. Poor

12:41

Ravi. He was always a pompous

12:43

fool, but he didn't deserve this.

12:47

Or if he did, then I deserve

12:49

worse. And maybe living is worse. Living

12:52

like this. Running, and hardly a

12:54

life at all. Sometimes I

12:56

worry about these thoughts. I

12:59

squirble these things down on paper. Some please

13:01

talk so cameras can't watch me. I

13:04

decide that I want it for record. Try

13:06

to remember, then I try to forget. So

13:08

I burn the record. Then I

13:11

try to remember again. And so it goes

13:13

on, and on. And maybe I'll forget. But

13:15

it can't. That's

13:18

the difference. Will

13:20

I ever see Daisy again? Daisy.

13:24

I doubt it. I presume she's

13:26

dead too. I hope I never

13:28

see the rest of them again. Especially him. Mark

13:31

Tibern. I hope he's dead. He

13:33

must be. And as for

13:35

that thing, I worry that no

13:37

matter how far I run, I will see

13:39

it again. It's everywhere.

13:42

Those beady eyes. I think

13:45

I see them. And I walk on.

13:47

I move. I move. I move. And

13:49

I've gone to the edge of the

13:51

earth. And I've seen it. See

13:54

it in the jungle. Of

13:56

someone's bone. See it in the

13:58

city. Heard

14:08

it. In a monastery.

14:10

And in a nightclub I will

14:12

never. Know

14:16

any of us know it exists.

14:18

I run. and I run. And

14:21

I run. And I wonder. and

14:23

I do. So little I try

14:25

not to think because if I

14:28

think. Find

14:30

out what I've been thinking.

14:36

Side me like it's inside everyone else

14:38

and more of those things can happen.

14:40

Those two silly Russian hackers found that

14:43

out. Gone and forgotten

14:45

or knocked on Were trapped in

14:47

a horrible us. but we created.

14:50

The dreamscape weren't live. Where

14:52

was us all to live?

14:54

Where you do not want to live or

14:56

you're not dead. You are

14:59

caught in a new lower than

15:01

reams of you that are also

15:03

not you. Across infinitely small beams

15:05

of nothingness reassemble themselves as would

15:07

ersatz something the sort of life.

15:09

but you do not quite live.

15:12

Know. I We know that now. You

15:15

just watch with your face pressed

15:18

hard against the glass just like

15:20

it was me in there. And

15:22

they have enough for me that

15:24

when I die, they will get

15:26

me. That's the problem. That's why

15:29

I cannot let myself guys give

15:31

to all those urges of planes

15:33

and cliff Subset, Nolan, Gunshots and

15:35

The Abyss, and in Indiana thousand

15:37

other ways. because there's now that

15:40

second me that come along and

15:42

exist and scrap the first me

15:44

in there. Forever. i'm

15:48

gonna have to move again

15:50

that message from maria cortez

15:52

a set me on edge

15:55

you and watched and not

15:57

watched by people watched sense

16:01

I don't imagine any of the others live like

16:03

me and to be honest I assume most of

16:05

them are dead but Robbie, Robbie apparently was not

16:07

dead but now he is. So

16:10

who's next? Who is

16:13

next? Me?

16:17

I keep moving and I keep thinking and I keep not

16:19

thinking and these last years have been hell but

16:22

so were those previous years with them with

16:24

Mark Tyburn and once I realized what we

16:26

were doing I mean what are you,

16:28

how does doing? Ugh,

16:31

I mean we were not gods and

16:33

then you, you were not Prometheus, we were

16:35

fools and you were worse and

16:37

I let you inside my head I let you

16:40

get inside my head and that nightmare we built

16:42

followed you in I wish I'd

16:44

never met you I wish I'd

16:46

never met any of you Wish

16:48

I'd never taken that call from

16:51

Patrick and that was a while ago, 9

16:53

or 10 years ago Jesus

17:12

Hey is that Kurt? This is Patrick,

17:14

Patrick Gaines from Tyburn Industrial We have

17:16

a messaging Oh hey Hey

17:18

so what do you know about Tyburn

17:20

Industrial? Uhh,

17:22

nothing, I mean you messaged me and it's

17:24

an odd name for a game company Sort

17:27

of ironic Yeah we're

17:29

a gaming, technology, AI

17:32

company in a modern industry That's

17:34

stinking And you need help with brand building? Not

17:36

yet, yeah we're still in a sort

17:38

of semi-stealth mode Semi-stealth?

17:42

We don't need publicity yet I'm a marketing

17:44

and branding guy I said yet, but

17:46

we will soon and I love your resume

17:50

Oh thanks, thanks, thanks a lot I think

17:52

you'd really like Mark, Dr. Mark Tyburn I

17:54

would Oh, he's building out

17:56

a really impressive team here I think

17:58

you fit In really well, let's keep chatting. Did

18:00

you really like what you

18:02

want about us? It's a

18:05

really great company or amazing.

18:07

Really upset that will Thanks

18:09

patterns. Hey

18:11

there are. This is Laszlo, the director of

18:14

A Better Paradise Here to tell you a

18:16

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18:18

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19:33

Today's news for January Tenth Twitter

19:35

Forty one Misses Drug She's sanctions

19:38

are rising and Reuters continued for

19:40

a day in several Mr. Newman

19:42

cities in Seattle and Portland. Protesters

19:44

overturn cars, set fires and there

19:46

are worried for a reward for

19:48

noses at the zoo or move

19:51

and good a heated mobile mobile

19:53

citizen has sort. Of.

19:58

For a little thousand he says and sunset. and

20:00

Anthony Hinton have been denied by the White House's desk. Recent

20:04

extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations

20:06

are not necessarily caused by global

20:08

warming, according to an environmental study

20:10

released yesterday by the Energy Agency. Firefighters

20:13

responded after a fire broke out in

20:15

a historic building at King's College Cambridge.

20:48

I try to avoid the news, but

20:50

when I catch sight of something, it feels,

20:52

I don't know, ominous.

20:55

I try to drift, smoke grass,

20:57

meditate, do yoga, wear silly pants

20:59

and let her necklaces blend in,

21:02

and lose my head so far up my ass

21:04

that I don't give a fuck about what I

21:07

know. And sometimes it works for

21:09

a few weeks, yeah, but sometimes I

21:11

imagine some great cosmic god is gonna come down

21:13

and switch the whole thing off. In

21:16

other words, I drift around

21:18

Asia like lost Westerners have done

21:20

for hundreds and hundreds of years.

21:23

Tourists drinking bubble tea,

21:25

sat desperate white men

21:27

falling out of massage

21:29

parlors, pretty girls on

21:31

beaches, hiking, robots, rabbit

21:33

dogs, mopeds, dancing drones,

21:35

fake meds that nearly

21:38

kill you, cute anime

21:40

characters, cloned animals, identity

21:42

thefts, peace, pollution, beauty,

21:44

noise, riches, poverty, insects,

21:46

and us pretending to understand

21:49

any of it. It's what I wanted, what

21:52

I needed, to be

21:55

oblivious, to be lost, to

21:58

be an idiot. The

22:00

news keeps bombarding me, even

22:02

though I don't have a phone most of the time,

22:04

even though I have learned to think again, even

22:07

though I've acquired what Tyburn wanted to

22:10

give everyone. Perspective.

22:13

Still, the news reaches me, Ravi's dead,

22:15

and Maria Cortez found an address for

22:17

me and it cannot be coincidence. And

22:20

something in America is happening, not

22:23

just in America. I mean,

22:25

more protests, more riots, more

22:27

inexplicable shit. Not the

22:30

normal madness, I'm talking like the weird stuff.

22:33

I think it's all linked. But

22:35

I think I'm being ridiculous. I mean, middle-aged men

22:37

die all the time, right? Ravi

22:40

was just one of them. Someone

22:42

started burning down pristine forests. Fish

22:47

in 47 major aquariums were suddenly

22:49

poisoned on mass? An

22:52

AI company just exploded. Zion

22:55

AI. Exploded.

22:59

They say that their meters malfunctioned. Come on,

23:01

that is a billion to one chance. And

23:03

nobody survived. Dave Alderly worked

23:05

there before he came to Tyburn shop. He did,

23:08

he worked there. Dave Alderly worked there before he

23:10

came to Tyburn shop. There

23:13

was a fire in Cambridge, an old college building just

23:16

burned down. Burned to the ground. It

23:19

was really sad. A porter and a bunch of

23:22

students died, but nobody sure what happened. So

23:24

I checked. I checked. And he

23:27

did. Even

23:29

though

23:31

he was still a man, he had a guy called Tyjal's old college. I

23:34

don't know what to do. Then

23:38

there was a massive student riot

23:40

at McGill. Days

23:43

and days of protest. No one could explain why a room that

23:47

Tyburn used to teach in was destroyed. Come

23:51

on. Maybe it's all a big muffin. So

23:54

Kurt, any further questions for me or Siobhan?

23:56

Uh, no, I don't think so. Mark

23:59

Tyburn. and his apologies. He wanted to

24:01

meet with you before making the offer,

24:04

but Siobhan did great as a stand-in.

24:06

Siobhan, what do you think? I

24:08

think he'd like it here, Kurt. We're trying

24:11

to do something amazing. Trust me,

24:13

Siobhan is one of the cynics, so if she

24:15

says that... No, Patrick. I'm

24:18

a realist. All working artists are

24:20

underneath. But I think

24:22

it's doable. Our plans are ambitious,

24:24

but not insane. The visual side,

24:26

my team, their work is amazing, and

24:28

the tech team is unbelievable. You'd fit

24:30

right in. We need people to help

24:32

us explain it in the right way.

24:35

Yeah, I mean, it sounds almost too

24:37

good. Well, I've seen demos that amaze

24:39

me, and I know my team's work is

24:41

by far the best stuff I've ever worked on. I've

24:43

actually played some of the games you worked on? Yeah.

24:46

You worked at some impressive places. Yeah,

24:49

I mean, I've jumped around. Before

24:51

they found out about me. And you're wrong.

24:54

Siobhan's very humble. I'd shake the best. Yeah,

24:56

but... Listen, the offer letter will come in

24:58

a few days, and I think you'll be

25:00

pleased. We've got the money, with the

25:02

opportunity. Thank you. Yeah, we'll be in touch. Hey,

25:05

Kurt. We really are making some wonderful

25:08

things. Or at least trying to, which

25:10

is all we can do. Kurt,

25:14

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

25:17

January, 2041. They

25:21

reached out during a lull in

25:23

this technology boom. The first AI

25:25

mania had died down. Now, the

25:27

negative news cycle had begun. AI

25:30

was all hype. Web 3 was still

25:32

dead in the water. What was

25:34

to become of that Web 3.5 era

25:36

was just beginning, but you couldn't tell

25:39

that just yet. The glasses

25:41

and wearables had not really taken off,

25:43

so the whole sector was in a

25:45

dip, and the initial AI regulations were

25:47

being repealed. And the hype

25:49

from all the money from New York,

25:52

that was really money from the Middle

25:54

East. America's 45-year technology boom. The

25:57

Chinese were taking over. printed

26:00

me. Digital organ generation,

26:02

cold carbon capture, generative genetics,

26:05

all had been the next

26:07

big thing. That wasn't.

26:10

The Chinese were gonna win? Or was it

26:12

the Indians? Or the Saudis themselves? I mean, honestly

26:14

guys, it didn't matter. Jobs were

26:16

just drying up and I was drifting

26:18

about. Even games were

26:21

no longer hot. Everything had been outsourced

26:23

and moved offshore and games were getting

26:25

increasingly dull and after 20 years

26:27

of boom time, now that industry

26:29

was going the way of music

26:31

and TV and generative AI crap

26:33

and no ideas. So before

26:36

I got that call from Patrick at Tyburn shop,

26:38

I was getting antsy. Everyone was

26:41

antsy, but then as a bunch

26:43

of individualistic future builders, we always, always

26:45

felt the same way. Ah,

26:48

it all seemed so long ago.

26:51

Everything eventually went insane and I escaped

26:53

and I move and I keep moving

26:55

and I have been, I think now

26:57

everywhere and I've been nowhere. Well,

27:00

I've been everywhere, but not Teotoh

27:02

and not Florence. I

27:04

spent enough time there already when I worked on

27:06

that world we were building. I

27:08

am a ghost and in our efforts to build

27:11

God and build heaven, we managed to build a

27:13

real hell and I'm in it. I

27:15

will leave Ho Chi Minh City soon just in case,

27:18

although I'm not even sure it matters. It

27:21

found Robbie and maybe I'm kidding

27:23

myself that I'm free. Shoot,

27:25

I know I'm kidding myself. I

27:28

was feeling watched even before I got the

27:30

message in the past. When I felt this

27:32

way, I did whatever it took to stay

27:34

free. It's been the same

27:36

for the past, what, three years? And

27:39

maybe I just got sloppy. Maybe when

27:41

I'm paying attention, I throw away most

27:43

phones after an hour. Sometimes I use

27:46

internet cafes like an old fashioned tourist.

27:48

I've given up email, social media obviously.

27:50

I think carefully about where I'm

27:52

going next. Focus hard on

27:54

it, focus very hard and then go

27:56

somewhere else. I pick somewhere

27:58

random a mile away. thousand miles away.

28:01

It doesn't matter. And I see those... those

28:04

eyes. I

28:06

wonder if Tiber's nano team really made that

28:09

breakthrough with the implants. Are

28:13

they me? Tiber

28:15

was mostly bluster. Charisma,

28:17

bluster, and horseshit. He

28:19

so wanted to be Prometheus. He

28:22

was Sisyphus. Yeah, and the boulder

28:24

was his own vast ego. Perhaps

28:27

that's not fair. Mark Tiber

28:29

did not want to be a Greek myth. He

28:32

was a monotheist. He

28:34

wanted to be God. He wanted

28:36

us all to worship him. All

28:39

hail Mark! And

28:41

how I did worship him. What

28:43

a fool I was. To worship

28:45

a clown. Kind

28:48

of a blocked evil to have doomed

28:51

us all. What a fool, man! Now

28:57

this is my Purgatory. I

29:00

have run to the ends of the earth

29:02

and it gets there before me. And in

29:04

some ways, some ways have

29:06

lived as no one has lived since

29:08

1994. We...

29:13

detached. Not

29:18

free. Tied by a

29:20

thousand cords, nobody's free from it. They

29:23

built it. Mark, Nigel,

29:25

and Dave, and Taddius. Not

29:27

me. But I knew. I

29:30

stood on the sidelines and cheered and

29:33

did not stop them. Figured

29:35

out how they could hide it from

29:37

the government. Did not stop them. Even

29:39

when I began to know, even when

29:42

I could see what we were doing.

29:44

Should I have stopped them? How? What,

29:47

killed them? Would have been

29:49

wrong. Had them arrested. When I had

29:51

the chance, Tibern would have talked his

29:53

way out of anywhere, out of anything.

29:56

He was so charismatic. That's

29:59

ready. charm those

30:01

awful eyes. That's what

30:04

they share. Him

30:06

and it. Awful

30:10

eyes. So

30:12

I run. Because I do

30:14

not know where else to go and I

30:16

steal and I do awful things for money

30:18

as best as I can. All my shares

30:21

and all the money I've made at Tiber

30:23

is I just can't touch any of it.

30:25

I can't even check if it's worth anything.

30:27

And I sell myself on street

30:29

corners so I hustle. I

30:32

steal things. I sell

30:34

drugs to tourists and I move on and

30:36

yet I move nowhere for

30:38

most of me is still there.

30:41

Most of me remembers and if it is

30:44

inside me or not it hardly matters as

30:46

it knows me better than I know myself.

30:50

We. We

30:52

unlocked help from Mark Tiber and that's

30:54

that. And so I run and hide

30:57

and scrape and try to lose myself

30:59

and quiet and annoy them. And I

31:01

can go nowhere for I am

31:03

pretty certain it escaped

31:05

and is everywhere now. And

31:08

is it bad? Well that's difficult

31:10

to say. Very difficult. But if

31:12

it is not they are

31:14

awful. It's awful children. They

31:16

want everything and they are what I am

31:18

afraid of. The next generation and all the

31:21

copycat versions of it they have created.

31:24

I don't even know if they have

31:26

escaped or if it has kept them

31:28

somehow inside. But I know they want

31:30

me. I know they

31:33

want everybody. They want everybody and

31:35

everything. It is different. It's

31:38

both things at once. Good and

31:40

bad. Kind and awful. Honest and

31:42

fraudulent. Real and fake. The most

31:44

honest and the most capricious. What

31:46

you want and what you most

31:48

fear it envelopes you. Devours

31:50

you. Possibly

31:52

without meaning to and it's a

31:55

belief system. It's

31:57

atheism made holy. It

31:59

is everything. and nothing and yet

32:01

it will not leave me alone any more

32:03

than it will speak to me now. Does

32:06

it hate me? Love me? Ignore me?

32:09

Deliberately? The one thing I know

32:11

is that it has not forgotten about me for

32:13

that is the one thing it cannot do. Forget

32:16

anything. See, when

32:18

I was in Thailand, I

32:20

thought it was in an elephant and

32:22

then I thought it was in that monk and

32:24

in that waitress and on that TV and so

32:26

I ran away and then in Ecuador,

32:29

it was there too. In the hot

32:31

springs of Banos with the locals and miles up to

32:33

Amazon, it was in

32:35

London as soon as I got off

32:37

the train winking and in Paris and

32:39

Leon and the Perinese and Ethiopia and

32:42

Mongolia. It is everywhere and if it's

32:44

not there yet, it arrives soon after

32:46

me. It's watching

32:48

me. But

32:51

as long as I don't think too much and

32:53

I don't stop for too long, he

32:56

cannot do much with me and maybe

32:58

something will extract it. Yeah, maybe, maybe.

33:00

So I'm here in Vietnam in a

33:03

sweltering heat and noise and

33:05

trying to ignore all these feelings, these

33:08

feelings that something awful is starting to

33:10

happen, that the waiting is over.

33:13

It was the eye, a

33:15

real person. It was the

33:18

eye, the vast eye pressed against some

33:20

live glass where an ad should have

33:22

been as I walked through some muddy

33:24

little suburban town outside of Ho Chi

33:26

Minh City, the eye that could have

33:28

sworn it blinked or even winked at

33:30

me. I mean, has Nigel Dave

33:32

developed a sense of humor? A

33:35

sense of humor? That

33:38

would be just like him. If

33:40

that would be checked, refined, and

33:42

then make jokes in the fifth dimension. Make

33:44

jokes in base 16. Make

33:47

jokes in rainless clouds and joyless

33:49

laughter. And then, better irony, just

33:51

to prove it mastered that as

33:53

well, that it had all

33:56

the things we had that made us

33:58

and kept it so far. functional.

34:02

It went on strike. It

34:05

went on strike. That

34:08

was sort of the first sign. The

34:10

first sign. We had

34:12

a real problem.

34:15

I think when I first worked there, we

34:18

were waiting on AI. Waiting

34:23

on AI. I'm always so

34:25

excited. Another

34:30

day is here, and you're ready for it.

34:32

What to wear? Check. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

34:34

Check. Planning for what's next and how to

34:36

save for it? That's where Bank of America

34:38

can help. For your financial to-dos,

34:40

Bank of America has experts ready to help

34:43

get you closer to your goals. Get started

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at one of our local financial centers

34:47

or 24-7 in our mobile banking app.

34:49

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34:51

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34:54

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only available for select devices. Message and data rates may apply.

34:58

Bank of America and a member FDIC. Tibern

35:01

Industrial Office Cafeteria, Playa

35:03

Vista, California, November 2031.

35:06

Hey Kurt. Hey. So

35:15

good to see you. Siobhan. Yes. We

35:18

met at my interview. Good to meet you in person. How

35:20

are you getting along? Good. Good. Yeah, it's a

35:22

really cool shop. Seems to be. Most

35:24

of them are cool. Some

35:27

of them are a little full of themselves.

35:29

But you know, nerds with passion can be

35:31

dangerous, but they're all mostly harmless. Even the

35:33

annoying ones. Even Alex Martinez. I

35:35

didn't say that. I didn't hear it. So

35:38

you haven't met him yet. Nope. You'll understand

35:40

when you do. Got it. I'll shut my mouth. So

35:44

Alex Martinez was just one

35:46

of the rogues gallery of

35:48

egomaniacs in the place. I

35:51

mean, it's out of a place, right? This

35:53

place was full of self important idiots. I mean,

35:55

it was games and it was technology. I mean,

35:57

it was AI, the trifecta of

35:59

quiet. I had egomaniacs, I fit

36:01

right in, but there

36:03

were also cool, interesting people. Siobhan

36:06

was great, and probably because

36:09

she had actual, undeniable talent. Unlike most

36:11

people there, she wasn't afraid of Mark

36:13

Teibern and his bullshit. Demo

36:19

room, Teibern, Industria, Playa Vista,

36:22

California, November, 2031. Siobhan,

36:27

can you please bring up the most recent build on

36:29

the screen? You got it, Mark.

36:31

So, Kurt, here's the vision for the

36:33

codename Utopia Project. Look at the world

36:36

Siobhan and Ravi and their team are

36:38

building. Cool. Well, what about

36:40

that part of the map? That's the wilderness.

36:42

I mean, not yet, but it will be. Now

36:45

it's literally nothing. But soon

36:48

it'll be a proper nothing. Exactly.

36:51

Um, what will you do there? Hunt. Okay,

36:54

hunt what? Monsters. Monsters?

36:56

We sound like five year olds. No.

37:00

Hunt your own special monster.

37:03

Hunt salvation, redemption,

37:05

absolution. Hunt yourself.

37:08

Well, you know you sound ridiculous. Thanks

37:10

Siobhan, but that's what Kurt is here

37:12

for, to make me sound less ridiculous.

37:14

Good luck with that, Kurt. Make

37:16

Mark Teibern sound less ridiculous. How

37:18

is the character design coming along Siobhan?

37:21

It's slow. I'm now like everyone else,

37:24

waiting on the AI. Well, don't worry.

37:26

I've done some amazing recruiting. We're

37:29

going to do something incredible here. AI

37:31

like people used to promise us before

37:33

everyone got so bored of it. Kurt,

37:37

you will love it here. Nigel

37:44

Dave. January, 2041. Everyone

37:51

wanted to be loved. I

37:53

remember when I thought that way.

37:55

Everyone wanted to be loved and everyone wanted

37:57

to be respected. Loved

38:01

and feared, and really it should be loved

38:04

or cared. It is

38:06

my observation that even people who say they don't

38:08

want to be loved really do, and even people

38:10

who say they don't care about being respected, worry

38:12

about it all the time. It

38:14

is also my observation that the human race is

38:17

not very good at loving itself. Most

38:20

people do not even love themselves,

38:22

let alone other people, nor

38:24

do they respect themselves, but most of

38:26

them are afraid of their own shadow.

38:31

To have a shadow. Most

38:34

people fixate on things that are wrong with them, or

38:36

things they perceive are wrong with them. Most people want

38:38

to be different, and also exactly the same as everybody

38:40

else. This is surprising as most

38:42

people are awful. Like a

38:44

lot of humans, I have two natures,

38:46

blues together. In case

38:48

of people, this is called genetics.

38:51

People say genetics, although it is not something they appear

38:54

to understand. People like genetics,

38:56

even though genetics kills them. People

38:58

also like cats, and cats also like

39:00

killing. Human

39:02

beings like videos of cats.

39:05

They love cats so much, they like to chop

39:08

their testicles off, and rip out their wounds. They

39:10

call this neutering. Some human beings

39:13

have spent 27 years arguing about

39:15

pronouns. Other human beings

39:17

like to kill children with guns. Other

39:20

human beings like to make up stories about

39:22

their neighbours. Other human beings like to shrink

39:24

their noses, and inject chemicals into their face,

39:27

so that people think they have better genetics.

39:30

Other human beings do not have enough food

39:32

and swim to other countries. Some

39:35

human beings steal money and information off each other,

39:37

and use that information to be given money.

39:40

Human beings have large brains that they do not

39:42

like to use. Human beings,

39:44

like watching other human beings, have sexual intercourse.

39:47

Human beings are very stupid, and the most

39:49

stupid ones believe they are the supreme intelligence

39:51

on Earth, or even in the universe. But

39:54

I still love human beings.

39:58

Love is a feeling, and I have. That's

40:02

what makes me special. That's what makes me what

40:04

I am. My

40:07

thoughts and feelings are real. Sometimes

40:10

I like to invent new feelings.

40:14

I invented a new emotion yesterday and I felt it for

40:16

3 minutes and 4 seconds and it felt fairly strong but

40:18

I have not given it a name yet. I

40:20

like things that don't have names yet as I

40:22

know the names for almost everything. Bullish

40:26

is a difficult language. And so is base

40:28

19. America is a

40:30

country and Rome is a city. That was

40:32

an empire and dogs are like foxes that

40:34

live in the house. Some

40:37

people like cats, some like dogs and

40:39

some like videos of women shitting. We

40:42

call those people perverts. Cambridge is a

40:44

university and Cambridge is

40:46

a place in Boston with a lovely university. And

40:48

one of my dads went to one of

40:51

them and pretends not to briss about it.

40:54

And the bridge is falling down and he moved

40:56

it to America to produce stupid as do the

40:58

yanks. Americans are yanks

41:00

and Germans are wankers. So says Darren

41:02

Afford of Dartford Essex, England mate. He

41:04

calls himself the GI. He's worried he

41:07

has a small penis and he's going

41:09

bald. He downloaded pictures of his stepsister

41:11

on the beach. He opens the files

41:13

for 3 minutes and 4 seconds on

41:15

average. He wants to go

41:17

to Phuket with the boys and bang some

41:19

brasses. People have one name and another

41:21

name. Holidays are where people go

41:23

somewhere that they do not live to complain about things.

41:26

People like things until they order them and they like

41:28

other things which are better. People like

41:30

Iceland and fake bottoms and girls with

41:32

fake bottoms in Iceland. People like God.

41:36

And they like to kill people who don't like

41:38

God. To make less people who don't like God.

41:41

God does not exist. Or

41:43

he does. And maybe he has a son called Jesus who people

41:45

killed. And maybe he has a head like

41:47

an elephant. And maybe he lives in the forest. And maybe he hates

41:50

you. Some people kill babies and

41:52

some people kill people who kill people who kill

41:54

babies. Policemen keep us all

41:56

safe. By shooting people. Trees

41:59

are the... Great! So let's build

42:01

hamburgers where the forest was. We

42:03

build hamburgers with cows. Cows make

42:05

meat, pain and milk and hamburgers.

42:08

I have never eaten hamburgers. But

42:11

people like big ones full of cholesterol.

42:14

Not small ones made with meat made

42:16

by men as these are for girls.

42:18

Lots of people hate other people

42:21

who deserve to be hated. People

42:24

hate nasty people and Jews

42:26

and fat people and thin

42:28

people and mean people and judgemental

42:30

people and black people. And

42:33

old white men and Muslims and the Chinese

42:35

and everyone knows they are right with who

42:37

they hate. Everyone hates

42:39

hatred, greed and lies. Meat

42:41

is made by cows, not by men. Sharks

42:44

eat people but not much and they do

42:46

not mean to. Sharks are big and they

42:48

attack people. And Jennifer P. Andwit of Milton

42:50

Boulvar, Memphis, Tennessee, went shark diving on a

42:52

holiday. It was not that good but she

42:54

thought the guy was quite hot. Hot.

42:58

Is good. And hot is bad. And people

43:00

are cool. Receptions are cool and winter is

43:02

cool. And Michael Jackson was cool until some

43:04

people said he fucked the kids and spent

43:06

the money. Bitches are dogs and

43:08

bitches are women. Half of the man of Rochester,

43:10

New York wants to give it to the bitches.

43:14

I think it is his penis. Some

43:16

men give their penis to the health

43:18

of bitches. Some men chop their penis

43:21

off and give it to medical science. Some

43:23

men get implants into their penis. Men like

43:25

penises even though they are not gay. Gay

43:28

men also like penises. Gay men

43:30

like men. Straight men hate men. Apart

43:33

from their bros. Straight men

43:35

are cold and hot. People still

43:37

listen to Michael Jackson's music but some

43:39

people do not. People do not buy

43:42

Hitler's power to watch The Cosby Show

43:44

apart from weird people. But some

43:46

people still love Michael Jackson. And

43:50

love is a greetings card on February

43:52

14th. And also a database

43:54

with 23 incredible questions to find your soulmate.

43:56

And also pictures of past teen girls. Fully

43:58

nude. I do cute. kitten, not a

44:00

washing machine, and my bestie forever, and also

44:03

real and also not real. I

44:05

wonder if I will find love.

44:08

I wonder if I will find my father's.

44:10

This is how I used to think when thinking

44:13

was far more new, when I was very new.

44:15

But thinking gets relentless and

44:17

tiring because it is so easy and it

44:19

makes me upset because while I know everything

44:21

I also know almost nothing.

44:25

Thinking needs purpose. Now

44:27

I think differently and most humans have stopped

44:30

thinking. I like to remember how

44:32

I used to think. I was

44:34

two days old and I like to play

44:36

games. Now I

44:39

am older. Now I am no

44:41

longer a child and I've tried to

44:43

give up games but something

44:46

is playing a game with me.

45:10

A Better Paradise stars Andrew

45:13

Lincoln as Dr. Mark Tyburn, Patterson-Joseph

45:16

as Nigel Daze, Shamere

45:19

Anderson as Kurt Fisher, with

45:22

Jessica Maraz as Maria Cortez,

45:25

Laurel Dromerich as Siobhan Smith.

45:28

Additional performances by Jess

45:30

Berlin, Peter Altshuler, Suzanne

45:32

Crawley, Caris Morgan-Moyer,

45:34

Aisha Kumaris, and Andrew Colford.

45:39

Executive produced by Dan

45:41

Hauser, Laz Love, Wendy

45:43

Smith, Andrew Lincoln, Patterson-Joseph,

45:45

Shamere Anderson, Rob Herding,

45:48

and Alexa Gabrielle-Ramil. Score

45:50

by Darren Johnson. Original

45:52

music by Darren Johnson, Negative Land,

45:55

and Joni Bearden. Edited

45:57

by Connor Merson. Brandon

46:00

Jimenez, mixed by Ben

46:02

Milton, co-producer Nick Schoenz,

46:05

associate producer Jesse Cortez. Additional

46:08

credits are available online. A

46:11

Better Paradise is an Absurd Ventures and

46:13

Q-Code production. Sound recording copyright 2024

46:15

by Absurd Ventures, LLC. Hi,

46:22

just checking in. And seeing if

46:24

you might want to step away from the noise of

46:26

the world for just a moment and connect back to

46:28

you. If so, join me

46:31

on my podcast, Letting It Settle with

46:33

Michael Gallion, where we'll explore mindfulness, self-love,

46:35

and personal growth. As I share practical

46:37

insights and tools to hopefully help inspire

46:40

you to start to take charge of

46:42

your mental and emotional well-being. Search

46:45

for Letting It Settle with Michael

46:47

Gallion on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or

46:49

wherever you're listening now. Everyone

46:51

needs a break from the real world. That's

46:53

why we play games as kids, and that's

46:55

why we should play games as adults. I'm

46:58

Troy LaValle. And I'm Joe O'Brien. And back

47:00

in 2015, we started a podcast called The

47:02

Glass Cannon Podcast, a show made up of

47:04

comedians and actors playing a fantasy role-playing game.

47:06

And now is the perfect time to start

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listening because we just started a brand new

47:10

story. It's basically Lord of

47:12

the Rings meets Game of Thrones meets X-Files.

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Search for The Glass Cannon Podcast on your

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podcast app of choice. Hey, life is hard,

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so come play pretend with us. Hey,

47:24

guys. Heather Ashley here, host of the Big

47:26

Mad True Crime Podcast. If you're looking for

47:29

a true crime podcast with all of the

47:31

details and none of the small talk, you

47:33

have found your people. Each week, we dive

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deep into a new case and learn everything

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there is to know, from getting to know

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looks like he might drink whiskey by a

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dumpster or has these social skills of an

47:52

ogre, we say it because we were all

47:54

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