Ep87 Fucking Robot Fingers

The full Net Society crew is back together to confront the arrival of disturbingly dexterous robot fingers and what increasingly capable humanoid machines could mean for work, athletics, warfare, and everyday life. From there, they examine AI future scenarios involving regulation, universal basic income, recursive improvement, and the tendency for technologists to build toward decades-old science fiction. Pri then introduces her theory that mass literacy may have been a 500-year glitch, sparking a wider debate about shallow reading, the emergence of an elite “scribe class,” and whether writing will become a luxury craft in an increasingly oral and AI-mediated culture. The conversation expands into the effects of declining literacy on law, government, language, and collective memory before turning to COVID-era education, childhood independence, and the potential for AI tutors to reshape learning. The episode closes with reactions to the latest generation of frontier AI models and a look at remix culture, collapsing intellectual property boundaries, and whether AI-generated Seinfeld makeovers could somehow bring monoculture back.

Mentioned in the episode

Creepy robot fingers https://x.com/TheHumanoidHub/status/2075272514755059773?s=20

AI 2040 Plan A https://ai-2040.com/

People reading was actually a 500 year glitch https://pridesai.substack.com/p/people-reading-was-actually-a-500

Schoolhouse Rock! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Just_a_Bill

New Grok Model 4.5 https://x.com/SpaceXAI/status/2074915721684086811

OpenAI ChatGPT 5.6 https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2075274275104399670

Meta Muse Spark 1.1 https://x.com/finkd/status/2075218444056707458

Show & Hosts

Net Society: https://x.com/net__society

Aaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01