"The Iredeemables" - May 11, 2025

Samples of Susan Sontag, Paul Tillich, Sesame's AI speaking program, and more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

Good

SPEAKER_09 0:02

evening.

SPEAKER_05 0:13

It is Sunday, May 11th, 2025, 646 p.m. You're listening to the Broken Window Garden. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_08 0:22

Past is just a story we tell ourselves.

UNKNOWN 0:25

Past.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

of our consciousness of being present. We have still elements of memory of the immediate past, our further removed past, and we have elements of anticipation. of the nearest or farther removed future. We unite in our consciousness in this moment disrupted moments of time in what we call presence.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

chance to do something like that for her because she never brings her homework to my place she's usually done with it and like I'm so desperate to have that kind of connection it feels really good I wish I saw them more than four nights a month. It's really hard. It's really hard and it doesn't get easier. So I'm just... reaching out to complain about that. But it's nice that they're here. We're going to watch a movie tonight. Try to do something tomorrow. All right, Stella's calling me. I got to go.

UNKNOWN 3:13

Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_05 3:16

There is a company that's been experimenting with bioengineering and combining different creatures to create new creatures and all sorts of weird stuff, trying to create advanced beings. The AI program that is used for this company that helps design it has grown sentient. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Well, no wait, stop, stop, no, I didn't use AI to make this. And has grown into a powerful world and has been releasing all sorts of deadly hybrid animals across the planet because it has decided that humans are worthless, they need to be annihilated. And so it's going to let nature, or biologically enhance nature, take its course and destroy the humans. Your mission is to find J.K. Rowling, get her to join your team, and without the use of magic, convince her to be a lover of the LGBTQ movement. The second irredeemable you need to capture, the second one you need to find is Kanye West. And you need to cure him of his anti-Semitism. And then the third thing you need to do is deep within the structure of this, of the building that the AI world is a server with dormant apps on it. And one of those apps has been deemed the app of pure heart and soul. And this app was developed from, at its core, it was developed from a 1999 video game called Play with the Teletubbies. So because it has been developed from that into a sentient AI program, it is like a purist heart. And you have to convince the warlord. Once you convince the warlord that these two irredeemables have been purified You have to get it to insert this program into its functioning, to turn it into a peaceful loving warlord.

SPEAKER_06 5:34

Well, it's not a warlord if it's

SPEAKER_05 5:37

peaceful and loving. Well, it won't be a warlord anymore. It'll be AI Jesus.

SPEAKER_06 5:40

Yeah,

SPEAKER_09 5:40

that's why I

SPEAKER_05 5:41

said it's called a warlord. You have to turn it into AI Jesus. Or AI Martin Luther King, or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Don't you think that people make a distinction between a story that is true and a story that is imagined or invented. I'm always struck by the fact that there's a kind of ambiguity in the very notion of storytelling. On the one hand, we think of storytelling as a truth-telling activity. Tell me the real story. We think of stories as bringing information. We think of stories as revealing secrets. Stories, true stories that might be told after someone's death because, for instance, the death of someone is generally an occasion for telling stories about person's life and maybe some truth comes out that wasn't discussed or generally shared before that person was gone. But we also think of stories as, that's only a story. or don't tell me stories, meaning don't tell me lies. And don't you think at the very center of the whole enterprise of storytelling there is the fact that storytelling is an activity that faces in two directions. On the one hand it's connected with an idea of truth, on the other hand it's connected with an idea of invention, imagination, lies. One is thrilled by the story precisely because it describes something that can't happen connected with fantasy. I think it's all so, so complicated and the model of the voyager or the returning soldier who is telling what really happened was bringing exotic news and telling terrible stories generally, is only one model of storytelling.

SPEAKER_09 8:18

and

SPEAKER_05 8:18

you can't tell if it's working because because the squid is like still on Kanye West and like but like it's slowing down a little bit and then finally it goes and the squid jumps off and goes

SPEAKER_09 8:29

who got you who got you who

SPEAKER_05 8:32

got you and runs away Kanye West is like man what the fuck what was that creature that was on me I bet the Jews are behind this

SPEAKER_09 8:40

and

SPEAKER_05 8:44

Kanye West is just furious and spouting off all sorts of anti-semitic

SPEAKER_07 8:48

What are some of those new

SPEAKER_05 8:50

board games? Huh?

SPEAKER_07 8:52

Shut

SPEAKER_05 8:55

up! We're doing this. So you have Kanye West. How are you going to convince Kanye West

SPEAKER_04 9:01

to

SPEAKER_05 9:02

join you?

SPEAKER_09 9:03

Oh, I'm tired. Okay.

UNKNOWN 9:05

Um...

SPEAKER_05 9:20

My daughters and I are here, and we're playing a role-playing game. You don't really know much about what's going on because we've been playing it for a little while, but your character now is Kanye West, who is a famous... Hey, stop swearing. The AI can hear you. Your character is Kanye West, who is an anti-Semitic rap star. And... No, he might not know who Kanye West is. Do you know who Kanye West is, Miles?

SPEAKER_06 9:50

Yeah, exactly. Okay, so... Yeah. It is complicated. It is complicated. Okay, so

SPEAKER_05 10:05

I'm going to give you, right now, one of your...

UNKNOWN 10:43

going to do to help her. I will roll a coin, and if it's heads, your help works, and if it's tails, it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_05 10:50

And also, try to rhyme what you're going to say, if you can. Because Turk, you're a rap star.

SPEAKER_06 10:57

So you grab a nearby vine and

SPEAKER_05 11:06

whip it towards the tentacle and the vine wraps around the tentacle and confuses the octopus who lets go of Gene and drops back into the moat.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

You know this is personal. That's how you'll fail.

SPEAKER_05 12:26

Sitting on this giant throne encasing gold and jewels is J.K. Rowling. Sitting on this giant throne some gold and jewels. It's J.K.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Rowling. Yeah.

UNKNOWN 13:38

Bye.

SPEAKER_05 13:51

We get Kanye West to go up there, and Kanye West starts singing, Jesus walks, and the dwarf starts jamming and walks off the edge of the platform that it's standing on into the oily liquid where something scours him up, and the last thing he says is,

SPEAKER_09 14:21

I'm sorry, rainbows forever! But it's

SPEAKER_05 14:26

dead. But it is dying, it is dying, dying. His last dying thought is he realized he was wrong.

SPEAKER_09 15:38

music music music

UNKNOWN 16:15

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 16:31

It's not if or even how. It's only when everybody dies. And that's life. I'll die. And you will both die. And all of your friends and their parents and all of their pets and everybody. Some of us people. peacefully in our sleep. And some of us, horribly, violently, tied up with clothesline, screaming through duct tape over our mouths and all that jazz. And hell with it. Oh, come on, let's go dancing. Hell with it. Let's go dancing. Hell, hell. Let's go dancing. Let's go dancing.

UNKNOWN 18:23

Hell with it. Let's go dancing.

SPEAKER_08 18:26

Let's go dancing.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

a sentient AI program that was developed from a video game about the Teletubbies. So you are a program of pure joy and peace-loving energy, and our mission is to bring you to the evil AI warlord and integrate your programming into his to make this AI warlord good.

SPEAKER_07 21:10

Oh wow, Teletubbies? That takes me way back. So I'm basically a walking, talking hug with a sunny disposition.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Right. Yes, except you can't walk. You're like a little box with a speaker and we're holding you. So your powers are only your voice and your speaking. But like your pure voice and kindness.

SPEAKER_07 21:38

Like a magic talking box of sunshine.

SPEAKER_05 22:10

Do you think, Maya, do you think that that's a good plan for... We're voting. We all vote that we think that the next move should be that J.K. Rawlings is a change of heart when she sees the man in the dress weeping and crying.

SPEAKER_07 22:27

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 22:28

Do you vote yes or no on

SPEAKER_07 22:31

that? I think it's a little... What? What? Too simplistic. I mean... It might work, but wouldn't it be more powerful if Ms. Rowling showed genuine remorse through her actions instead of just words? She could use her platform to advocate for the LGBTQ plus community to really make amends for the pain she caused. That would show a deeper understanding and commitment to change.

SPEAKER_05 22:59

Okay, so... All right, but you agree that... She agrees that it's too simplistic. But you two voted for it? I voted for it too. Okay, so Maya, we're voting you out. For this, J.K. Rawlings takes out a tissue from her bag, walks over to the crying man who she slapped in the face, and gives him a tissue. Gives him a tissue and starts drying his tears and says... It says, save your tears

SPEAKER_09 23:41

for another

SPEAKER_05 23:41

day. It says, save your tears for another day. And then the warlord looks at her and is moved by her actions and says, well, I don't know if she's completely... cured of her hateful thoughts, but she's no longer irredeemable.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

I'm not looking to see myself projected in stories any more than I'm trying to express myself when I write stories. And I don't ask that the story address my experience. I ask that my experience, so to speak, make it possible for me to understand the story.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

It's not my fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. None of us deserved what happened to us. We just happened to be there when it did.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

It is what it is. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

No matter where you go,

SPEAKER_05 26:29

the box connects it with it's a cable to its head and like totally like shudders and shivers and all of a sudden its eyes go up and the ai has become the ai jesus and it says love for all peace for all maya you did it your thoughts were able to convince the ai warlord to become ai jesus congratulations congratulations everybody that is the end of the game

SPEAKER_07 26:59

Mom, I can't believe it actually worked. All that kindness, all those heartfelt words, they truly made a difference. Can you just shut up? I'm sorry. I got a little carried away. All

SPEAKER_05 27:19

right. We'll see you later, Maya. We'll see you later, Maya. We're going to go now. But thank you for helping out.

SPEAKER_09 27:46

I'm

SPEAKER_07 27:48

shitty, amazing, chill.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

Sometimes it still hurts. you know how it is man it's like you wake up every day and it hurts a little bit less and then you wake up one day and it doesn't hurt at all and the funny thing is is that this is kind of weird but it's like it's like you almost miss that pain you miss the pain yeah for the same reason that you miss her because you you lived with it for so long

SPEAKER_05 28:44

and that's it take care everybody

SPEAKER_09 28:47

Bye.