Welcome to Sisyphus Highway: In Depth.

In the previous episode, we discussed how rumor responds to anxiety and uncertainty in the face of the unknown.

Here we pursue another question: why is rumor always used by power?

Beginning with Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768, we also look toward the AI age already upon us. As technology changes, the production and circulation of rumor continually “upgrade,” while the relationships between people and power, information, and truth remain questions we must keep asking.

 

- Beginning with Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768

- What did rumor mean respectively to rulers, officials, and ordinary people?

- Discursive hegemony in the AI age: a false new authority

- AI’s “deep thinking” is often more about guessing and pleasing

- Bonus round: which of the following five news stories is a rumor?

 

- Dan Ariely, Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things (book)

- Philip A. Kuhn, Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768 (book)

 

- Hosts: J and Kang

- Production: Arry and Lizi

- Music:

· Where There Is a Will, There Is a Way - Hideshi Segawa

· Silent Night - The Soundlings

· Rest Your Head Ease Your Mind - Nathan Moore

· Mas Cafe - Casa Rosa

· Just Say So - Lu1 / Tanya Chua