Filmmaker Rodney Ascher joined Connie Willis (info) to discuss his film projects and evidence he has collected that may prove our world is nothing but a computer game for an advanced god-like alien race. Ascher said that his documentaries are not horror films, but "have horror elements in them." He said that although Stephen King is not specifically a fan of his work, he did mention his film "Room 237" (based on his novel that was made into the film by Stanley Kubrick) in an interview. He also discussed his TV series entitled the "The Primal Screen" which examines pop culture images that startled and frightened us as children with "things that feel like they’re almost human, but not quite human" such as scenes from movies and even TV commercials.
During the course of interviews for his film on sleep paralysis, Ascher recalled that one man told him that he believed he was "seeing through the simulation." This led Ascher to create a film based on the theory that our reality may be a simulation, created by some higher level of beings who have been able to create something that is so perfect that we believe it to be real. He cited a 1977 lecture by science fiction author Phillip K Dick, in which he described his belief that we were living in some sort of computer simulation and that one of the clues was that things are occasionally not as we remember them, which is also the theory behind the so-called "Mandela effect." The current working title for his new film about this subject is "A Glitch in the Matrix."
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The first caller during Open Lines was Nathan from Ohio, who told Connie that he agreed with the idea that something "is able to control and manipulate reality" and claimed that he has been "an abductee all of my life." He said that in his experience, the beings who take him seem to "get something from terrifying people." Judy in California expressed her belief that Hollywood shows are "telling us what we need to know, but maybe in coded form" about UFOs, aliens, and other controversial issues. Wayne in Washington State said that deep conspiracies and secrets in the office of the President of the United States "go way back," and commented on his opinion that Richard Nixon "had some involvement in signing treaties with the aliens."
Frank in Alabama stated his belief that "due to technology, actors will be extinct in about 15 years" and that radio (such as Coast To Coast) is one of the last refuges of sincere and emotional discourse. Elaine called from Florida with a story from her childhood, when she recalled seeing a "little grey mouse" which looked at her and crawled into her hand. The next thing she remembered it was much later and she had missed dinner. Connie suspected that this was an abduction "screen memory." Joe in California said that he has had multiple contacts with aliens and that they have a "triple helix" DNA structure in their bodies.
News segment guest: Tim Binnall.