Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers ever to win all three of the world's top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. In the first half, he discussed the frontiers of technology, AI, and his new novel, "The Downloaded," which ponders what happens when a group of cryogenically frozen people are uploaded into a virtual reality and then forced to download back into physicality again. Set in the year 2059, Sawyer believes this is a plausible date for such technology to be developed. He also talked about how, though his novel had just been published, it had been featured earlier as an exclusive audiobook on Audible, with Brendan Fraser as the lead character.
As far as writing science-fiction, he quoted the author Theodore Sturgeon, saying, "Always ask the next question," which leads the writer to examine the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th order effects of new technologies, "and it's really only the science-fiction writer who has that as their job remit" to speculate on both the possible upsides and downsides, Sawyer commented. AI has exploded in recent months and he believes that its true intelligence is likely to emerge within the near future. It will be able to compose excellent novels within six years, he predicted. "I suspect that it will be able to do it not just better than me, but better than William Shakespeare, better than the best writers ever in human history," as it will read and digest a massive library of books, as well as the reviews and commentary about them," he added.
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Author and demonologist Nathaniel Gillis has been studying paranormal and epiphenomena for most of his life. In the latter half, he discussed the history of demonology and how it pertains to modern spiritual warfare, as well as alien abduction. He detailed an early case of demonic possession he worked on involving a teenage girl, where a guttural male voice came out of her body, even though her mouth was not moving. A Hasidic rabbi has suggested that to the demons, "we are wind-like instruments to which they can commandeer our consciousness and wear us like biological avatars," Gillis reported.
Citing the research of Nick Redfern, Gillis has concluded that demons and aliens may be the same deceptive entities masquerading under different guises. "It is not just spiritual, there is technology present," he said, adding that this intelligence is singular in nature and has co-evolved with our species. He talked about his newest work on "necronetics," which looks at how demons are trying to incarnate, such as via implants that date back to ritual magic and antiquity and through to the modern era with alien implants. Gillis also touched on his concept of "occult transference," wherein a possessed person is viewed as a kind of "pregnancy" or "replication of life" to the demonic intelligence.
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News segment guests: Mish Shedlock, Howard Bloom