Don’t let the title out you off, not attract you too eagerly. The 9pm Summer Series 2025 continues with philosopher, reprobate, and all-round cleverthinker Patrick Stokes, and a conversation about many, many things. He’s also half of The Fake McCoys.
In this episode we talk about the philosophy of AI and technological determinism, certain aspects of ICE, how sex drives innovation, teleportation, Erich von Däniken and his ancient astronauts, pigs, bats, wine moms, deathbots, the nature of memory and the extended mind thesis, and a “wonderful word” that was invented by J R R Tolkien.
This podcast is available on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, JioSaavn, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, Spotify, and Speaker.
You can also subscribe to the generic podcast feed.
Episode Links
-
My work sits at the intersections of the Continental and Analytic traditions, with research interests in 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy, personal identity, narrative selfhood, moral psychology, death and remembrance, and philosophy of religion. A particular focus of my work has been bringing Kierkegaard into dialogue with contemporary analytic philosophy of personal identity and moral psychology, as well as exploring temporal and perspectival aspects of the question of selfhood.
-
A/Prof of Philosophy at Deakin Uni (all views mine). Writer, radio producer, half of The Fake McCoys. Works on digital death, personal identity, Kierkegaard, moral phil. Has more hobbies than advisable. Melbourne + Werona
-
Social media is full of dead people. Nobody knows precisely how many Facebook profiles belong to dead users but in 2012 the figure was estimated at 30 million. What do we do with all these digital souls? Can we simply delete them, or do they have a right to persist? Philosophers have been almost entirely silent on the topic, despite their perennial focus on death as a unique dimension of human existence. Until now.
-
[23 March 2021] We talk about many things, including the joys of Denmark, Scott Morrison’s week of disrespecting women, the colour of fleas, the Australian way of fear, Sydney–Melbourne rivalry during the Quarantimes, Clive Palmer, Elon Musk, the Lost Boys of Daylesford, and quite a lot about the philosophy of death.
-
Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (/ˈɛrɪk fɒn ˈdɛnɪkən/; German: [ˈeːrɪç fɔn ˈdɛːnɪkən]; 14 April 1935 – 10 January 2026) was a Swiss author of several pseudoscientific books which made claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, including the best-selling Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Däniken was one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the "paleo-contact" and ancient astronauts hypotheses.
-
[11 January 2026] What we are seeing across the country as organized gangs of wine moms use Antifa tactics to harass and impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is not civil disobedience. It isn't even protest. It's just crime.
-
[Posted circa 9 January 2026]
-
[13 January 2026] Malaysia and Indonesia became the first countries to ban the use of the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok on the social media platform X, after numerous instances of it being used to create nonconsensual, sexualized images.
-
[10 January 2026] Last week Keir Starmer said an update of Grok – an AI tool which allows users to alter clothed images of women and children by making them appear in bikinis and sexually suggestive poses – was “disgraceful… disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated”.
-
[30 September 1999] Who is the trailblazer in e-commerce? Don't look to Bill Gates, says Polly Sprenger, but to a stripper called Danni Ashe...
-
[30 August 2016] The omnipresence of porn is just as much about nudity and the well-endowed as it is technology. From chatbots to virtual reality, erotica drives innovation.
-
Don Ihde (/ˈaɪdi/; January 14, 1934 – January 17, 2024) was an American philosopher of science and technology. In 1979 he wrote what is often identified as the first North American work on philosophy of technology, Technics and Praxis.
-
[Date unclear] The science critic must get in on the origins, rather than the results of the technoscientific process. I have long argued that one flaw in applied ethics fields is that they are like the ambulance corps which attends the battlefield — they fix up the wounded, but do not either prevent the battle or ameliorate its consequences. Only when the critic is, in this metaphor, present at the strategy planning of the generals, can the critic hope to affect the outcomes.
-
[6 January 2026] A look inside Elon Musk’s big tent.
-
[5 January 2026] Another AI system designed to be powerful and engaging ends up illustrating how guardrails routinely fail when development speed and feature races outrun safety controls.
-
[8 May 2025] Chris Pelkey died in a road rage shooting in Arizona three years ago. But with the help of artificial intelligence, he returned earlier this month at his killer's sentencing to deliver a victim's statement himself.
-
Thomas Nagel argues that while a human might be able to imagine what it is like to be a bat by taking "the bat's point of view", it would still be impossible "to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat".
-
From the now iconic Barack Obama 'Hope' poster of the 2008 presidential campaign to the pit-head 'Camp Hope' of the families of the trapped Chilean miners, the language of hope can be hugely powerful as it draws on resources that are uniquely human and universal. We are beings who hope. But what does that say about us?
-
"Julian's most famous and luminous affirmation “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” continues to shine as a powerful declaration of optimism. Julian’s radical optimism, forged in an era of immense suffering, offers a profound framework for navigating the complex challenges of 2025. She reminds us that optimism is not denial. It is courage. And it endures."
-
Julian of Norwich (c. 1343 – after 1416), also known as Juliana of Norwich, the Lady Julian, Dame Julian or Mother Julian, was an English anchoress of the Middle Ages. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving English-language works attributed to a woman. They are also the only surviving English-language works by an anchoress.
-
[22 November 2025] With the 2wai app, you can create your own avatar in minutes and preserve your legacy for generations. Download the 2wai app on the Apple App Store and create your avatar for free.
-
Human connection, reimagined in the age of AI.
-
[10 October 2024] The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought both benefits and risk. One concerning trend is the misuse of voice cloning. In seconds, scammers can clone a voice and trick people into thinking a friend or a family member urgently needs money.
-
In philosophy of mind, the extended mind thesis says that the mind does not exclusively reside in the brain or even the body, but extends into the physical world... "The Extended Mind" by Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998)[2] is the paper that originally stated the EMT.
-
Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we’ve searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten: this has profound implications for us all.
-
"Be Right Back" is the first episode of the second series of British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror... The episode tells the story of Martha (Hayley Atwell), a young woman whose boyfriend Ash Starmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is killed in a car accident. As she mourns him, she discovers that technology now allows her to communicate with an artificial intelligence imitating Ash, and reluctantly decides to try it.
-
... after that night, she takes him to the cliff
-
[4 December 2024, a photo of Stilgherrian at St Vincent's Hospital after suffering a fall and an orbital floor blowout fracture, among other injuries.] O hai.
-
[2 August 2023] The world is a strange place. Even after most of the earth has been explored, mapped and explained there is always something weird which can rattle our peace of mind. Take for example the occurrence of mysterious sonic booms also known as Sky Quakes. Often perceived as far away cannon or heavy artillery fire, they have unsettled people across the world.
-
When her best friend died, she rebuilt him using artificial intelligence. [The digital recreation of the late Roman Mazurenko.]
-
[10 August 2025] The boom in digital clones of the dead began in the far east. In China, it can cost as little as 20 yuan (£2.20) to create a digital avatar of a loved one, but according to one estimate the market was worth 12bn yuan (£1.2bn) in 2022 and was expected to quadruple by 2025.
-
The National Anthem" is the series premiere of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror... In the episode, a member of the British royal family is kidnapped and will only be released if the British prime minister Michael Callow (Rory Kinnear) has sexual intercourse with a pig on live television.
-
"Piggate" refers to a claim that, during his time at Oxford University, former British prime minister David Cameron inserted his penis and/or scrotum into a dead pig's mouth as part of an initiation ceremony for the Piers Gaveston Society.
-
Virtual Veterans provides students with an opportunity to use AI in a positive way for their research into World War I. When ‘Charlie’ answers questions, he also provides direct links to primary sources that students can analyse to learn more about the aspect of World War I they are researching.
-
[24 April 2024] Less than 24 hours after the bot was launched, internet users were already attempting to ‘jailbreak’ the program.
-
This book shows how our moral concepts are nourished by awe, reverence and various forms of love. These ways of encountering the world and other human beings inform our sense of good and evil, of justice and injustice, of obligation, of fidelity and betrayal, and of many virtues and vices. In ways moral philosophy commonly misses, this book shows moral understanding is broadened and deepened by what is disclosed only in these forms of encounter.
-
"Heaven Sent" is the eleventh and penultimate episode of the ninth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who... He crawls back to the teleportation chamber, and burns his body as a catalyst to restart the teleport, aware that due to the resetting rooms, a "blueprint" of himself is inside.
-
[12 February 2024] “My ex and I broke up after she had to move to another country for a job,” one Redditor confessed. “I found out about this [character creator] AI chatbot platform called Yodayo through friends, and, at first, I was not interested. Then, with the many lonely nights I find myself in, I tried it out. I used their image generator and made an AI image of someone that sort of resembles her.”
-
[16 March 2021] On a clear, cold Sunday in June 1867, three little boys wandered away from their home near the town of Daylesford, on Dja Dja Wurrung country in central Victoria. Over the next six weeks the boys’ story gripped the colony, and made newspaper headlines around the world. Over a century later, the case continues to capture the imagination of locals and visitors to the region.
-
The Gaia hypothesis (/ˈɡaɪ.ə/), also known as the Gaia theory, Gaia paradigm, or the Gaia principle, proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet.
-
The Black Cloud is a 1957 science fiction novel by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. It details the arrival of an enormous cloud of gas that enters the Solar System and appears about to destroy most of the life on Earth by blocking the Sun's radiation... The cloud unexpectedly decelerates as it approaches and comes to rest around the Sun, causing disastrous climatic changes on Earth and immense mortality and suffering for the human race. As the behaviour of the cloud proves to be impossible to predict scientifically, the team at Nortonstowe eventually come to the conclusion that it might be a life-form with a degree of intelligence. The scientists try to communicate with the cloud, and succeed.
-
[11 March 2025] Some recent pens: red mallee burl, Tasmanian sassafras, osage orange.
If the links aren’t showing up, try here.
Thank you, Media Freedom Citizenry
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners. You can always throw a few coins into the tip jar or subscribe for special benefits. Please consider.
For this episode it’s thanks again to everyone who supported The 9pm Summer Series 2025 crowdfunding campaign.
CONVERSATION TOPICS: None this time.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Bernard Walsh, Garth Kidd, Paul Williams, Peter Lieverdink, Peter Wickins, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
WE WILL, WE WILL JUDGE YOU, part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Joanna Forbes, Martin English, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
ONE TRIGGER WORD: Andrew Best, Drew Mayo, Errol Cavit, Frank Filippone, Jim Campbell, Jordan Wightman, Karl Sinclair, Kym Yeap, Mark Newton, Michael, Michael again, Miriam Faye, Nicole Coombe, Oliver Townshend, Peter Blakeley, Ric Hayman, Stephen Collins, Steve Sainsbury, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
RECOMMEND A SONG TO US, another part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Briala Bowmer, Kimberley Heitman, Mindy Johnson, and Rhydwyn.
PERSONALISED VIDEO MESSAGE: None of these this time either.
PERSONALISED AUDIO MESSAGE: Matthew Taylor, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
FOOT SOLDIERS FOR MEDIA FREEDOM who gave a SLIGHTLY LESS BASIC TIP: Chris Scobell, Craig Askings, deejbah, Hammy Goonan, James Henstridge, Leigh Costin, Lindsay, Opheli8, and one person who chooses to remain anonymous.
MEDIA FREEDOM CITIZENS who contributed a BASIC TIP: None of these either, which is curious.
And another ten people who chose to have no reward at all, even though some of them were the most generous of all. Thank you all so much. You know who you are.
Series Credits
- The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian via The Freesound Project.
- Edict fanfare by neonaeon, via The Freesound Project.
- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.