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This week I talk with Jamie Curcio to ask, whom do we serve? Who gives us power, and to whom do we give ours? Where does that power come from? To whom do we sell our stories?
We explore the world behind the world, linking Jamie’s writing and game world-building in the domain he calls myth punk, and the equally Eldritch complex systems wicked problem of climate action.
Studying that link, we can trace the outlines of emergent 21st Century religions — the reinterpretation of axial traditions suited to the digital era, the metamodern revival of land-based animistic traditions, and even weirder novel forms that arise at the end of one world and the effloresence of many others.
✨ Jamie's Links
Fallen Cycle Podcast
modernmythology.net
“Investing In The Unknown”
“The Cascade” Part 1, 2, 3
Tales From When I Had A Face: B&W Edition
Tales From When I Had A Face info page
✨ Offer Support + Join The Scene
• Become a patron on Substack or Patreon
• Make a tax-deductible donation to Humans On The Loop
• Invite me to work with you as an hourly consultant or advisor on retainer
• Join the Holistic Technology & Wise Innovation and Future Fossils Discord servers
• Join the Future Fossils Facebook group
• Buy the books we discuss from my Bookshop.org reading list
• Buy original paintings and prints or commission new work
• Tip me with @futurefossils on Venmo, $manfredmacx on CashApp, or @michaelgarfield on PayPal
• Buy the show’s music on Bandcamp — intro “Olympus Mons” from the Martian Arts EP & outro “Sonnet A” from the Double-Edged Sword EP
✨ Chapters
1. Jamie's Background (0:05:46)
2. Embracing the Unknown and the Role of Artifice (0:11:14)
3. Prometheus, Intentional Mystery, and the Nature of Agency (0:16:21)
4. Introducing the Fallen Cycle and its Mythological Framework (0:21:57)
5. Exploring Thematic Elements: Gods, Myths, and Consumerism (0:27:32)
6. Climate Change, Hyperobjects, and Societal Inertia (0:33:36)
7. Festivals, Dionysus, and the Value of Liminal Spaces (0:40:26)
8. AI as a Creative Tool and Collaborator (0:46:05)
9. Mythology, Role-Playing, and Enacting Change (0:52:16)
10. Engaging with Jamie's Work and Final Thoughts (0:56:03)
✨ Other Mentions
FF 195 — A.I. Art: An Emergency Panel with Julian Picaza, Evo Heyning, Micah Daigle, Jamie Curcio, & Topher Sipes
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History by Manuel DeLanda
Joseph Campbell
Friedrich Nietzsche
Arthur Schopenhauer
Buddhism
Western Esotericism
Evolving Media Network
Weird Studies Podcast (with Jamie, with Michael)
Tom Morgan
Gilles Deleuze
“The Soldier and The Hunchback” by Aleister Crowley
Prometheus (Movie)
Alien Romulus (Movie)
Eric Wargo
John Keats
Unweaving The Rainbow by Richard Dawkins
FF 53 — A Very Xeno Christmas with Evan Snyder
Stephen Batchelor
Samurai Jack (TV show)
Fern Gully (Movie)
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Josh Schrei
Hell by Timothy Morton
The Book of Exodus
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
Cyndi Coon
David Bowie
🐦⬛🐙🖤 230 - Jamie Curcio on Living in Mythpunk, Eldritch Complexity, and Finding The Bright Side of Dark Ages