For this episode I spoke to Nick Susi, Executive Director of Strategy at dotdotdash who recently wrote a really interesting article on his Substack titled magic, online!. The article goes into the history of magical thinking that accompanied many of the past’s technological achievements like phones that let you talk to the dead or fairies that appeared in some of the first photographs and how today we again see magical thinking accompany AI’s proliferation.
During the interview we talk about how magical thinking acts as a coping mechanism for uncertain times, AI doomers vs hypemen, and why content creators are illusionists (sorry!).