The Blindboy Podcast - Greek Mythology and Simulation Theory

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

how my father driving to cork in his underpants lead me to view Greek creation Myths through simulation theory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Attend to the bendy haircut, you endless brendas. Welcome to the Blind Boy Podcast. I said the word podcast there with the inflected enthusiasm of a radio bastard. It's been hot in Limerick City. Unwelcome and all-encompassing humidity has had many a swampy Michael fanning themselves like a cormorant in a sludgy dell. It was 94% humidity on Saturday evening. The ether making a continental quilt out of itself. Hot jabs in the air. No wind. Flaccid wet hairstyles. Sweaty bellied labradors pining for ice pops. Heat-rashed antoinettes walking into Jisk just for the air conditioning. Horrible weather. Horrible weather.

Adult men, crowsing in their cars. Men of about 39 years of age, crowsing in their Volkswagen saloons. Crowsing to the point that it makes the roads dangerous. Slowing down whenever they see groups of girls as a vestigial response from their teenage years. Cruising is a strange way of driving. It's when you try to wear your car like a jacket, leaning back with the elbow out, listening to Gigi D'Agostino when the sun is high.

The exclusive practice of middle-aged men. Because young lads in their 20s don't have cars anymore they don't have cars so the only people who cruise in cars are men who are tipping 40 who remember what it was like when they were 19 and they had cars but they don't have Nissan Skylines or Honda Civics anymore they have long dusty black Volkswagens with a child seat in the back and they slow down. They slow down when they see girls half their age as if those girls are impressed by a sweaty 40 year old man who's trying to wear his car like a jacket. They have no context for that mating ritual. There was a recession 10 years ago. I nearly crashed into the back of a man last week. I was on my bicycle and he slowed down with his elbow nearly crashed into the back of a man last week

I was on my bicycle and he slowed down with his elbow out to get the attention of a group of 20 year old girls and he wasn't like leering at them he wasn't sticking his head out the window it was just muscle memory it was pure muscle memory

and I felt like saying to him it's over, it's over, it's done you're not young anymore you're not cool you look like a side of bacon in a delivery van a slice of ham with the pockmark of an eyebrow ring go home and spend time with your children because you know what the 19 year old lads are doing now in the boiling hot weather they're wearing full woolen black balaclavas on electric bicycles going the wrong way against traffic. That's what the 19 year olds are doing now.

It's like a cross between a Kira and a Harley. Groups of young lads. Groups of young lads in Limerick City on the hottest day of the year. Looking like eco-friendly terrorists. Fucking full black balaclavas. Full black balaclavas. And it balaclavas and it's 31 degrees outside and they're electric bikes. A full group of them and I saw one lad at the back and he didn't have an electric bike but what he had was, he had a little electric scooter,

he had an electric scooter, the small little ones that you stand on that go pure fast. But he wanted to look like the rest of the lads because they had proper bikes that were, they were a bit like motorbikes but they're electric. He wanted to look like them. So he got his electric scooter and instead of a seat he had gotten one of those really small, those small plastic recycling bins that you put organic waste into that he'd stolen out of his mother's kitchen. And he'd sellotaped that to his scooter and sat on it as a type of crude seat and went through Limerick City the wrong way. And when I almost crashed in my pedal bicycle into the back of that 40 year old man I felt like saying to him that's what you need to do buddy

if you're adamant that on a hot day you want to turn the heads of 20 year old women then get up onto a scooter and sit on a recycling bin on the scooter and go the wrong way in traffic

because that's that's 2023's version of a Honda Civic that's what they have now's version of a Honda Civic, that's what they have now, that's what a midlife crisis should look like, it used to be, a man gets to 40, and he buys a Toyota Celica, or a Hyundai Coupe,

a hairdresser's Porsche, if you're going to do a midlife crisis properly now, you need to wear a bataclava, and ride around on an organic waste bin, drinking a bottle of prime, and ride around on an organic waste bin drinking a bottle of prime and staring at other motorists as if they're the ones going the wrong way down the road but as i almost crashed into the back of that that man who was slowing down as i almost crashed into the back of him and went headfirst into his boat. My anger subsided when I was reminded by

a story my ma told me about my dearly departed father when in I think it was around 1978 before I was born it was an incredibly hot day in Limerick City and my da was stuck in a traffic jam

on Sarsfield Bridge in a shitty Ford Cortina and he had five children in the car and my ma and my da in a traffic jam crashed into the car in front of him because he saw a woman in a miniskirt for the first time and my ma battered him on the side of the road. I'm left with a lot of unresolved anxiety about driving because of stories that my brothers would tell me about what driving was like in the 1970s. We hadn't received any money from Europe yet. We had roads that were designed exclusively for donkeys and carts. A car journey from one part of Ireland to another part of Ireland would take an entire day. Cars would overheat. Cars would

break down in reclusive country roads. You didn't have a mobile phone, you couldn't ring anyone to tow your car. You had to wander the countryside in search of a farmhouse and hope that the farmer had a tractor that would pull your car to the nearest town. Farmhouses didn't have phones. If your car broke down in Ireland, in the countryside in the 1970s, it was a legitimate survival experience. There were less cars on the road, people mightn't pass you by. You were absolutely fucked. You were fucked. And the fear of being fucked, the fear of your car breaking down somewhere in the countryside,

meant that car journeys themselves were then inherently stressful, very stressful situations. Well into the 1990s, if my da had to drive the car beyond Limerick City, he'd get it serviced first. And my da's mechanic wasn't even a real mechanic. It was a fella with a stutter called Dickie the Whippet. Spidery limbs and perpetually black fingertips. He had a comb over his skull and smelt like petrol and sweat. And journeys didn't happen unless Dickie the Whippet said so. So the fear of a car journey was so extreme that my da was anxious, then my ma was anxious because my da was anxious,

and then my brothers who who were little children, were fucking terrified, terrified of a car journey. And because they were terrified, everyone's anxiety was high. And five of them, five kids, had to pile into the back of a Cortina while my da and my ma would drive them from Limerick City to West Cork in the 1970s, which was a journey that took about six fucking hours. They'd be going on to West Cork in the summer to visit my grandfather to stay on his farm for a few weeks. And there was one particular journey that scarred me,

and this happened before I was born. It was the stories about the journey that scarred me. They were on their way down to West Cork. Dickie the Whippet had given the AOK for the car. Tensions were high. Five children in the back seat. Terrified. And it's unbelievably hot. My da had a rule that no windows could be open in a car regardless of the heat. There was no air conditioning back then. I don't even think there was blowers in cars. He couldn't open the window because he referred to wind as razor blades and he believed that a wind from behind in the car when he was

driving, if that wind came in, that it would permanently freeze the expression on his face because he'd seen a documentary about Bell's palsy so they were driving down to West Cork they'd left Limerick City and now they're in the countryside and one of my brothers is it's roasting it's roasting I'm feeling sick I'm feeling sick and then my dad's like we're not putting over we're not putting over because if you have to pull over to get sick then we lose time and if we lose time then we're gonna approach darkness darkness in the countryside and if we break down in darkness we're it's a survival scenario in the wild so my brother's like please stop the car i need to get sick my dad's like no so my brother gets sick down my dad's back gets sick down my dad's back

while he's driving it's too late now they're in the countryside it's the 1970s you can't just go and buy new clothes it's the 1970s in the countryside so my dad pulls over in a ditch takes off his trousers takes off his shirt rolls around in the grass to clean off the vomit and silently drives for the next 6 hours down to West Cork in his underpants with a car full of children. They eventually arrive into West Cork to my Grandfathers house which is an isolated farmhouse in a bog. My Grandad was deeply traumatised from being in the IRA, from fighting the black and tans. So as soon as the car pulls into the fucking driveway,

even though my grandad knows that his son and his family are visiting West Cork, even though my grandad knows the sound of an engine coming up the driveway in the 1970s is so rare that he gets like a PTSD response and goes and hides in the barn because he thinks it's the black and tans then my grandma comes out a woman who was born in the late 1800s surrounded by chickens immediately starts saying the holy rosary at my da

because she thinks she thinks he chose to drive down to West Cork in his jocks for the laugh she thinks he did it as a choice He's arrived on to West Cork in his jocks. For the laugh. She thinks he did it as a choice. Like he was a hippie or something.

A nudist. And then. And then to make it all worse. They've arrived in West Cork. Everyone's gotten there safe. but my dad gets so stressed out at his ma saying the rosary because he's in his underpants that he gets angry and he slams down the boot of the car and catches my brother's fingers and he's screaming and crying with a swollen hand so that's what I grew up with those

are the stories about cars that I grew up with and it's probably why I cycle a bicycle but it's also a story that like when my family get together they'll talk about that story and they'll talk about it fondly and it would be a great source of laughter. And it's difficult for me then because I have to try and imagine what my dad was like as a younger man. He was around my age that I am now in the 70s. He would have been in his late 30s. My earliest memories of my dad, he probably would have been in his 50s. In my teens he was in his 60s. I only know him as an older man.

My dad died when I was quite young. I was 19 or 20. He died almost 20 years ago. One of the shitty and confusing things about grief is when I try to remember my father and try to remember conversations with my father. It's forever rooted in my experience of being a child or a teenager. My entire memory of my da, and I'm not just talking about my visual memory, trying to remember what he looked like, what he sounded like, but my emotional memory of my father is rooted in teenage emotions. I don't know what it is to hold an adult conversation with my dad. For me as an emotionally mature adult with a solid sense of self, I don't know what it is to speak to my father as a fallible adult human

being. I don't know what it is to say to my dad, how do you feel about that? Or how did you feel about that? And then listen while he explains his emotions emotions like that there is a real adult position to have mastery and knowledge of your own emotions so that you can actually ask another person how do you feel and then have the maturity and sense of safety to sit back and listen and empathize like that there is an adult conversation I couldn't have done that when I was 16 I could have attempted it but I didn't have the the knowledge of self to do so to to speak to him as an equal adult I don't have any context for that every memory I have is looking up at him not looking directly straight at him. Literally and emotionally.

And there's so many conversations I'd love to have with him. The closest thing I do have. To holding an adult conversation with my dad. Even though he's gone. Is. Reading books that he owned. Reading the books that he left behind. That he read as an adult.

And then using that. As a little intrapersonal means of understanding him as an adult. My dad was deeply intelligent, really smart and knowledgeable. He could have been a writer. And near the end of his life, he did actually start writing. He started writing memoirs and putting down thoughts. And seeing him doing that at the end of his life is one of the things that always motivated me towards creativity because I do remember being a teenager and seeing him with a typewriter in his 60s and I remember thinking to

myself Jesus isn't that awful sad that the only time he sat down with a typewriter took him six decades to sit down and do it and I don't know why but I have to assume it's why anyone does that it's usually a fear of failure a fear of failure will keep you from doing that thing you want to do and you know from listening to this podcast my attitude about failure I can't allow myself to be afraid of failure because if I'm afraid of failure I won't try so I actively embrace failure and if I create something and it's not successful and people don't like it

at least I made it at least it's there and I'd rather spend time creating something that people don't like or maybe that I don't like myself I'd rather spend the time doing that than doing nothing because I was scared to try. And seeing my dad writing in his 60s,

that was definitely a motivating factor there. That's why I started creating relentlessly at a very young age. But when my dad went to school, in his days of school in Ireland, they were educated in what would be called the classics. Greek works and Latin works. So a lot of the books that my dad left behind are Latin and Greek books. I'd see the books on the shelf when I got to my ma's house that were his. And he'd have Cicero, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Homer, the classical canon that he would have been taught in school,

Latin and Greek. And I always remember as a kid, if I didn't know the meaning of a word, if I didn't know the meaning of a word in English, I'd always ask my dad, what does this word mean? And he'd never just tell me what the word meant. He would explain to me the Latin or Greek root of the word and then use that to show me why the word meant what it did like when I was about 10 I remember asking him what does the word democracy mean I'd heard the word democracy on the news or in school or something and I went to him what the fuck did what does democracy mean and then he said well it comes from the Greek it's two words demos means people and then kratos means rule so democracy means

the people rule and when he explained it like that I now deeply understand the word and what it means and its purpose so when I call out to my ma's house and I go through my dad's old books, they're either loads of books about the old IRA, Tolstoy, and a shitload of Greek and Latin classics. There was one book recently that I pulled out and I had a crack through it recently

and it was blowing my mind. It's a book called Works and Days written by a Greek poet called Hesiod. It was written about 2,500 years ago. It's an epic poem that was written 500 years before Christ. 500 years before the Christian Bible. This is an old book.

It's a strange book because it's hard to get my head around what it even is. It's a really long poem written by Hesiod, but it's addressed to his brother. His brother's name is Parsis. And works and days, it reminded me more of a podcast than a book. Because it's kind of instructional. And I can't tell who the audience was, like 2,500 years ago. I can't tell. Did Hesiod write this literally just for his brother?

Or was it like an open letter for everybody? It's an open letter to his brother, intended to be read by everybody in Greek society 2,500 years ago. It's like a poem of forgiveness. It starts off with Hesiod being real pissed off with his brother Parses. Hesiod and Parses were both supposed to inherit a farm from their da but Parsis had used corrupt judges in Greece to basically fuck Hesiod out of the inheritance so Hesiod who's writing this poem didn't get the farm and Parsis did so Hesiod writes this poem which is like I know you have the farm you got it through these corrupt fuckers. Fair enough.

But I'm going to tell you about the importance of leading a decent moral life. Which must rely upon hard work and justice. If you want to be successful. You can't go down this nasty route. Even though you have the farm. And you have the material wealth of this farm because you got it through corruption you don't have spiritual wealth and because you don't have spiritual wealth you're gonna fuck up your own farm so then it turns into like this practical instruction manual about how to run a farm 2500 years ago and then in the middle of it it delves into Greek mythology and then I look

it up separately and I realize that this book Works and Days this 2,500 year old piece of writing is where we now as a civilization have the written record of a lot of Greek mythology and in particular the creation myths of Greek mythology so works and days it's a bit like the old testament of Greek mythology now the thing is with Greek mythology as with any mythology it comes from the oral tradition so even though Hesiod is writing this down 2500 years ago he's not coming up with these stories off the top of his head. He's simply writing down the oral tradition that could be a couple of more thousand years old. He's writing down the stories of the people, the stories that the people have in Greece about their gods and

about how the world came to be. Hesiod is writing it down for the first time and that's why we have it. Something in this book blew my fucking mind while I was reading it. It tells the story of Zeus and Prometheus. So Zeus is, he's fucking Zeus. You know who Zeus is. Zeus was the king of the Greek gods. He was the most important Greek god.

And then Prometheus, he was a titan. So he's not a god, but he's not human. He's an otherworldly being. And Zeus and Prometheus are friends. Now why are Zeus and Prometheus friends? Well at the start of the universe, according to Greek mythology, a race called the titans ruled over the universe according to Greek mythology. A race called the Titans ruled over the universe and the leader of the Titans was a fellow called Cronus. Now Zeus is Cronus's son

and Zeus decides I want to be a leader. I want to be a leader. So Zeus goes to war with his own da. He went to battle against the Titans. And Prometheus was a Titan but he sided with Zeus and helped Zeus to overthrow the Titans. And that was the birth of the Olympian gods of which Zeus was the head. So Zeus is good friends with Prometheus because he's like this fella here Prometheus he helped me overthrow my own da and got me into power. So Prometheus here is my buddy. So one day Zeus and Prometheus, they're just chatting. And the two of them start saying to each other, Jesus, isn't life great? Isn't life great?

I'm Zeus. I'm an Olympian god. You're Prometheus. You're a titan. You're not a god, but you might as well be. And we've got this mad, immortal life. We've got loads of food. We have everything we could want up here on Mount Olympus.

Isn't life amazing? But you know, it gets a bit boring sometimes. And then Prometheus goes, why don't we make why don't we make like a race? Why don't we make like a race of people? Like pets. Why don't we make like a race why don't we make like a race of people like like pets why don't we make like this new race of people they're not as powerful as us but we'll make this tiny little

world of beings and we'll just like watch over it and it'll be real entertaining and then zeus goes fuck that sounds like great crack wow and of course what zeus and prometheus are speaking about in this fucking 2500 year old book what they're speaking about is should we create humans for the laugh and then prometheus is like fuck it yeah let's do it and then zeus goes why don't you do it prometheus you'd be good at that yeah you make you make this this new race of people you do it this will be great fun it'll be like our project and then prometheus starts going yeah it'll be amazing and they'll build little cities as well and they'll have relationships and it'll be exactly like us except this tiny thing that we can just look at all the time and then zeus goes hold on a

minute there prometheus chill out like okay we can make this new race that's like a play thing for us but like we can't have them like as smart as us you know we can't make them as smart as us because then they could overthrow us. And I'm sitting there, me, blind boy, reading this fucking book from 2,500 years ago. And then I'm like, holy fuck. This 2,500 year old book, this conversation between Zeus and Prometheus, this argument about whether or not they should create human beings is fucking identical to arguments that are happening right now about whether or not we should create AI. Whether or not we should create an artificial intelligence. How smart should the

artificial intelligence be? What if the artificial intelligence gains consciousness? What if the artificial intelligence becomes aware that it exists? At what point does this artificial intelligence that we create, when do we need to give it human rights? Does it feel emotions? Is it the same as us? God forbid. What if we create artificial intelligence that's fucking smarter than us and it tries to kill us that conversation is happening right now in 2023 in every fucking news article that you read and here i am reading my dad's book a book that was written 2500 years ago and zeus and prometheus are having the same conversation about whether or not they should create human beings and prometheus is going it'll be grand chill out chill out zeus it'll be

fine and then zeus is no fucking way prometheus we gotta have restrictions okay we can make this video game we can make this video game essentially We can make this video game, essentially. See, now, me in 2023, I'm now reading 2,500-year-old Greek mythology, but from the fucking lens of simulation theory. You see, simulation theory holds that the reality that you and I live in right now is actually a simulation, a giant computer simulation

that was designed by a more advanced civilization, and that's what we live in. But because we're in the confines of this computer simulation, we experience this as reality, because that's the limitation of our senses. Just like when you play Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption, within that world, there's people and trees and people go about their daily lives and they have jobs and within the world of that video game to those characters

if they were conscious in any way that is their reality. But you're playing that on a TV screen and you live outside of that reality in a whole different experience of time and space and you're able to see how flat the video game reality is what if that's our reality that simulation theory and the more and more that we understand things like quantum physics all we're unearthing is the the computer code of our own reality so back to zeus and prometheus They're having this argument about whether or not to create humans and then Zeus says, all right, go for it. Go for it. Create the human race, but there's going to be limitations. Now, effectively what they're talking about is

designing a computer program. Design the computer program, but put limitations on what these humans can do within their world because Zeus's big fear was hubris. He didn't want human beings to gain consciousness and an awareness of their own existence because then they could think for themselves and they could challenge the gods. So Zeus was like make them thick first of all. Effectively what Zeus is talking about and this is what I find fascinating. all effectively what zeus is talking about and this is this is what i find fascinating zeus asks prometheus to create neanderthals make the humans right do not give them fire whatever the fuck you do prometheus don't give them fire let them live in the cold they stay in caves and also there's only men no women only men right so it's a race of men who are kind of thick

and they live in caves and it's cold and they must worship the gods their entire lives have to depend upon worshiping the gods of olympus okay that's fucking essential so write that into the code prometheus okay so prometheus says yeah and he goes off to a beach and he makes the first humans out of clay and they're all male and they're tiny they reach about up to zeus and prometheus's foot and they've made a little play world so zeus and prometheus now have a little play world and this play world is humankind. This is the origin story of how humans were made according to Greek mythology. So Zeus and Prometheus have their video game of all these humans and they're having great

crack. Watching them, living in caves, freezing cold, laughing at him. Zeus is having great crack. He's making thunderstorms happen whenever he wants. He's killing people. He's giving them good weather whenever they worship him. He's playing the video game and having mad laugh. Sometimes Zeus and Prometheus even shrink themselves down to the size of humans and they enter the simulation and start hanging around with them like they're playing their own video game as characters within it. But as Zeus plays it, you know, he enjoys the power. He enjoys the power that he has over this world that's been created. He enjoys being worshipped. He likes creating disasters. being worshipped, he likes creating disasters. But Prometheus is different. Prometheus is kind of affectionate towards this new race of humans that's been created. And Prometheus

starts to feel kind of sorry for him. It's like, ah the poor fuckers, you know. They're living in caves, they're freezing, it's dark, there's no members of the opposite sex. I quite like these little humans. I quite like this world that we've made. I'd like to improve their lives somehow. But Zeus would never have that. I can't. If I go to Zeus and say Zeus I want to make things better for the humans he'll go fuck that. I just want to give him thunderstorms. Fuck the cunts. So Prometheus does a little trick. One of the things that Zeus had written into the code of the reality simulation of humans was humans have to continually sacrifice

animals to the gods, to Zeus. Humans have to spend all their time killing cows or killing animals. Oh by the way, Prometheus had a brother called epimetheus and epimetheus made all the animals in this simulation so prometheus made humans from clay and then he brought his brother in and said make a bunch of animals from the hunt because you're good at making animals so that's what prometheus's brother did so prometheus goes right i can't i i can't improve the lives of the humans because zeus would never let me so I'm going to do a trick. Zeus is obsessed with the humans sacrificing animals to him. So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to teach the humans how to give Zeus fake sacrifices. They're going to offer Zeus a dead cow with all the skin and fat, but underneath it is just hidden a lot of bones. Zeus is going to take that and be thrilled and eat it and then the humans get to keep the meat and now the humans are eating the meat and then the second thing that prometheus did behind zeus's back and this was the big one i'm going to give the humans fire i'm going to go up to mount olympus I'm going to steal fire from the torch in Mount Olympus and I'm going to give it to the humans in the video game and show them how to make fire

and how to cook their meat that they've just robbed off Zeus with fire so Prometheus does it now this is the bit that blows my fucking mind because remember this text that I'm reading from is 2500 years old and the stories are probably way older via the oral tradition. Today modern scientists who studied the evolution of humans considered the discovery of fire

however many million years ago to be essential in creating Homo sapiens, who we are now. It's generally accepted that Homo erectus, now Homo erectus isn't a human, it's one of our ancestors. It's generally accepted that Homo erectus 1.5 million years ago was the first hominid ancestor of ours to use fire. The discovery of fire and the use of fire as a technology caused an explosion in humankind, an explosion that eventually led to Homo sapiens. There's two theories that are posited for this. Number one, when Homo erectus discovered fire 1.5 million years ago, the Homo erectus began to cook meat and the cooking of meat released new proteins which helped our brains to grow. Also, they reckon that the discovery of fire in Homo erectus

populations caused early humans to be contemplative. When you stare into a fire, a blazing roaring fire you can't not be hypnotized by it and you naturally start to think. You start to think about whatever when you stare into fire. They reckon there's an evolutionary reason for that. So we do know with modern science that the discovery of fire was very important for the development of the modern human brain 1.5 million years ago. I'm reading a story, Greek fucking mythology, and you've got Prometheus going, I'm going to give these Neanderthals effectively, I'm going to give them fire and meat and see what happens. What happens?

The video game that Zeus and Prometheus have made with all these humans starts to advance rapidly. So you have to remember, Zeus and Prometheus are up on Mount Olympus, so they live outside of time in the human realm. So thousands and hundreds and millions of years pass before their eyes. Like you and me now if we were playing a video game. So Zeus comes along and says,

gonna check out, see what the humans are doing. Might take the afternoon off and start an old storm or something like that. Or maybe a flood. And he looks down and it's like, these cunts are after building cities they're building cities what's going on here oh no they're discussing ideas they have language they've become self-conscious they're aware that they exist oh fuck they're questioning their own existence they're wondering what a god is and what has happened when Prometheus gave the humans

the fire and the meat. He created the rogue AI. The thing that people are afraid of right now in 2023. The artificial intelligence had become sentient. It had started to think about itself. It started to become aware of its own existence using language. Now the artificial intelligence that Zeus and Prometheus had created is now a threat to Zeus. Zeus goes fucking apeshit. He goes mad. He roars at Prometheus. I warned you about this. I told you not to do this. Now look what's happening. The humans could rebel against us, you fucking bastard. So Zeus punishes Prometheus. What he does is he chains Prometheus to the side of a mountain. But the thing is, Prometheus isn't a human. Prometheus can't die. Prometheus is a titan.

He's immortal. So poor old Prometheus is chained to the side of a rock. And each day Zeus gets an eagle to come down and eat Prometheus' liver out of his side. And each day his liver grows back. And each day for eternity the eagle eats Prometheus' liver. He exists in a consistent cycle of pain outside of time, outside of mortality. Forever punishment and agony. What I find fascinating there is in Greek mythology the liver was seen as the seat of emotions. So it can also be seen as the guilt and pain of having betrayed a close friend. And even more fascinating

still is that that's the more or less the story of Christ. Because you have to remember this is written 500 years before fucking Christ. And the people who wrote the Christian Bible would have been very much aware of Greek mythology. Let's look at Christ's true simulation theory. God, the father, creates the universe. He writes the code. He makes the video game. But the video game starts to go arseways. The characters in the video game are all killing each other. They're hurting each other. God isn't happy with this game that he's made so what's he gonna do to fix it? He creates an avatar of himself. A character that looks like him that goes

into the video game and tries to teach the characters that they should not be killing themselves. But then they kill the avatar. But when the characters in the game kill Jesus, who is the avatar of God, then there's a system update, a system reboot. Prometheus is a bit like that. Prometheus, as the creator of humankind, went to the humans as an avatar, showed them how to eat meat, showed them how to cook meat, gave them fire. Then the humans started to rebel. They gained consciousness. They started to question whether or not Zeus was a worthy god. They started to wonder if they needed a god or not. So Zeus then condemned Prometheus to a type of weird quantum death where he is dying and being

reborn every single day for eternity outside of time. Prometheus died for everybody's sins and the eagle pecks at his side the same way the Roman soldiers speared Christ into his side. So anyway Prometheus is fucked. he's chained to a mountain getting his liver eaten by an eagle every day he's gone there's nothing can be done and now Zeus has got his rogue AI Zeus has got this world that's been created and he's like oh fuck they've gained consciousness they're gonna rebel against the gods they They're going to become as powerful as us. This is the worst possible thing. The humans now have hubris. They have arrogance. They can think of themselves as greater than the person who created them. They're a danger now. What the

fuck am I going to do? This is where good old misogyny steps in. This is the misogyny that you see in the Bible and the misogyny you see in Greek mythology. Zeus decides I'm going to make the world's first woman because you have to remember all the humans at this point they're all men. So Zeus is like I'm going to make a woman. So Zeus creates the first woman. Her name is Pandora and Zeus imparts on her what he sees as weak female qualities. This is the misogyny. So he creates a woman who is inherently distracted by shiny things. A creature without willpower. A creature of beauty, charm and deceit.

So Zeus creates Pandora. He makes her out of clay. And the goddess Athena blows life into her and then as a final slap to Prometheus he makes Prometheus his brother who created the animals. Epimetheus makes him fall in love with Pandora. So now Pandora and Epimetheus they get married and they go down and live amongst the humans as avatars in the video game. And Zeus gives Pandora a gift, a fucking wedding gift. He gives her a beautiful bejeweled box.

But he says to Pandora, this lovely box now, right? It's gorgeous looking, I know, but you can't open it. Don't ever open that box, Pandora. Okay, that's an instruction. So Pandora goes, don't worry open that box Pandora okay that's an instruction so Pandora goes don't worry about it Zeus I promise I won't open this box but you see Zeus has used misogyny to program Pandora to be deceitful and also to be very weak-willed so Pandora spends months staring at the beautiful box going Zeus you can't just give me a gorgeous box and then tell me not to open it

you can't do that and she becomes fucking obsessed night and day she stares at this box now in the meantime human civilization is fucking flying it there's women everywhere procreation they're building temples, democracy, society,

they're farming, they're making art. Art, culture, literature, oh no, fuck. The simulation that I've made have now started to try and simulate versions of themselves. Bollocks. The rogue artificial intelligence simulation of humankind is starting to equal the gods of Olympus and if they get any more advanced humans are going to be smarter than the gods, they're going to be more powerful than the gods and they're going to destroy the gods that created them. But then sure as fuck Pandora opens the box and when she opens that beautiful bejeweled box despair, suffering, misery, pain, jealousy, the inherent flaws of what it is to be human are now unleashed within the simulation and this stops the progress of civilization. So what Zeus has actually done is he programmed the virus into his simulation. Zeus went into his rogue artificial intelligence and programmed the virus in there that limits

how far humans can get. Zeus created mental health issues. Zeus created depression, anxiety, jealousy, pain, everything that holds you and I back from being the best version of ourselves today as human beings. In Greek mythology, Zeus created that like a computer virus in the simulation to limit, to create a ceiling for how far humans could be so that we couldn't kill whoever programmed our reality simulation and in the next 50 years when someone eventually does create fucking artificial intelligence that becomes conscious because it's going to happen when

humanity creates an ai that's going to threaten us that will threaten our lives as human beings. When we create something that's so smart it could be smarter than us than kill us. Humans are gonna have to do the exact same thing. Humans are gonna have to look to Greek mythology. Some fucking computer scientist in 20-30 years time they're gonna go, oh fuck we have created artificial intelligence that knows how to kill us and take over us. We better think fast and give them mental health issues. We're going to have to program the virus of mental health issues into this AI so it doesn't take us over. And it's all there in Greek mythology 2,500 years ago.

But the thing that's left in Pandora's box, after Pandora releases. Suffering. Pain. Misery. On the world. What's left in there is hope. And this is why I adore Greek mythology. Because it's. It's ironic and funny.

In a way you'd think. Ah isn't that nice of Zeus. Isn't that nice now. He's unleashed misery and pain and suffering. Into the world. But he's left him with a bit of hope but if you think about it the hope is actually a type of torture in the way that he has condemned prometheus to eternal torture because if zeus had just put misery and negativity and pain into Pandora's box. Just bad things. And they unleashed on his simulation.

Then what's going to happen if it's just bad things? The civilization will self-destruct. Everybody in his simulation would just kill themselves. But instead he gave him hope. And with hope comes the desire to survive. And when you look at hope like that, from the perspective of being a god on Mount Olympus, or the perspective of being the programmer who programmed that simulation,

hope there becomes quite cruel. It's a little funny joke. Ha ha ha. I've made your existence full of pain. But you're not going to give up. You're still going to try and live. Because I've also given you hope, you little shits. Ha ha ha ha. And there's a wonderful darkness and absurdity and humour in that,

that you don't find in the all-loving, perfect God of Christianity. You see, we've all asked the question if the Christian God is so wonderful and beautiful and loves us so much then why create so much pain in the world? Like everybody's asked that even when you're a kid and you're in school and they're trying to indoctrinate you with religion. You always ask the question if God loves us so much then why is there so much pain? Christianity's answer is a bit more it's kind of capitalistic. Christianity's answer is well there's a loads of pain and

suffering in the world because that's there to test you and if you can survive that and be a good person along the way, then you'll have eternal happiness in heaven. Greek mythology's answer is much better. Why is there pain and suffering in the world? Does God not love us? And then Zeus says, nah, not really, it's just a bit of crack. It's funny, isn't it?

And I love that, because that's absurdity. That's fucking Samuel Beckett shit. That's true absurdity. Absurdity being. The search for meaning. In a life that you know to be meaningless. Greek mythology is like. Yeah that's what it is.

So that's what I took this week from reading. Reading a book that's 2500 years old. That belonged to my da, called Works and Days, by Hesiod, and that's a conversation that I'd love to be having with my fucking da, to tell you the truth, to see what he thinks of that, because if he didn't love the book, he wouldn't have owned it, but also within that, there is that beautiful Greek absurdity, So within that, there is that beautiful Greek absurdity. How cruel is it for me to have grown up knowing my father as this really intelligent, wonderful, funny person.

And just when I get to the point where I'm at the level of maturity to really engage with him as an equal, he's taken away. And there's an absurd tragedy to that, which is very greek but it's a lot of suffering to deal with and you can see why 500 years later christianity came along and said oh don't worry that your dad died because just live your life right and then you'll go to heaven and you can have all the chats you want which is a much more soothing balm. Personally I kind of prefer the Buddhist one which is I know it's a video game but there's going to be loads of simulations. You're going to be in loads of different simulations.

The best thing to do is just accept that you're in a simulation recognise that suffering and pain are inevitable parts of this simulation and focus instead on the present moment the here and now of the simulation because true torment comes when you consistently try to avoid the parameters and rules that are built into your simulation through the unrealistic pursuit of

happiness through pleasure when you accept that you can't control what happens in the simulation, but you can control how you react to what happens, then you'll have freedom within the simulation. So I think it's time for an ocarina pause now. I went longer than I usually do there. I didn't want to interrupt that. That 48 minutes there, whatever it was about that I think it needed to be an uninterrupted monologue it just felt right this week I'm gonna shake some chewing gums and you're gonna hear an advert

for some bullshit whatever the fuck's been advertised this week I don't know here's the chewing gum shaking pause I don't have any books the on April 5th pause. I don't have any books. The first omen, I believe, girl, is to be the mother. Mother of what? Is the most terrifying. Six, six, six. It's the mark of the devil.

Hey! Movie of the year. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. Who said that? The first omen, only in theaters April 5th. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH,

the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone. Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind. So, who will you rise for? Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That at sunrisechallenge.ca That's sunrisechallenge.ca Bang off my head. This week, but I do have a chewing gum to shake. Alright, support for this podcast comes from you, the listener, via the Patreon page.

Patreon.com forward slash TheBlindBoyPodcast This podcast is my full-time job. This is how I earn a living. patreon.com forward slash theblindboypodcast. This podcast is my full-time job. This is how I earn a living. I don't pull these podcasts out of my arse. It takes days of research and writing to create a monologue autofiction essay. If you enjoy this podcast, if it brings you joy, solace, distraction,

whatever the fuck it, whatever reason you're listening to this podcast, please consider paying me for the work that I put in all I'm looking for is the price of a pint or a cup of coffee once a month that's it if you can't afford that don't worry about it

that's fine you can listen for free because the person who is paying is paying for you to listen for free so everybody gets a podcast I get to earn a living it's a wonderful model based on kindness and soundness.

Patreon.com forward slash The Blind Boy Podcast. Also, keeps the podcast independent. There isn't an advertiser or a TV channel or a radio station in the world that would allow me to go to them and say, I've an idea for a 50-minute monologue essay there that begins with a story about my vomit-covered father driving to Cork in his underpants and segues into an analysis of Greek mythology via simulation theory.

That pitch is an immediate, can you leave the office, please, pitch. That's what that is. I don't have to worry about that. I'm not beholden to advertisers. i'm not beholden to advertisers i'm not beholden to tv channels this is independent listener funded creativity where i get to explore whatever the fuck i want to explore just because it feels right in the moment and that's the only way to fund art because art must come from playfulness You can't go to someone and say.

I need you to make a podcast. That gets this many views. And aligns with the. Values of this brand. And then expect something good. To come out the other end. That's not how it works. So this is a listener funded podcast.

So that's why it's important to sign up to the Patreon. Have I gigs? I'm sure I fucking do. Look my UK tour. My UK tour. It's mostly sold out. Edinburgh's sold out. London's about to go. Manchester might be gone. Couple of tickets there. And then Coventry and Liverpool. That's where there's tickets left for my UK tour in November. Coventry and Liverpool. then Ireland, there's a gig in Vicar Street on the 19th of November, that's my official Irish book launch, those tickets only went on sale last week, so come along to that if you want to come to my official book launch in November, and then Belfast, I'm in the waterfront, very few tickets left for that, I'm going to have great guests, it's going to be loads of fun, so those are my upcoming gigs,

left for that. I'm going to have great guests. It's going to be loads of fun. So those are my upcoming gigs. And then you can pre-order my book, Topography of Hibernica. You'll find most of this shit on my Instagram. Blind by Ball Club on Instagram. My book is out in November. And it's

my new collection of short stories. And this week the book is fully signed off now and it's gone to the printers and this week I had to have a discussion with publishers about what I consider the book to be. Technically it's a collection of short stories. I've written two collections of short stories before but this book having written it feels different. It's neither a collection of short stories, and it's neither a novel.

It does have a unified theme. The unified theme, I suppose, is colonisation and biodiversity collapse. But when I was talking to my publishers this week, and I'm aware how pretentious this sounds, I viewed this new book more as like an exhibition that you walk into. I'm thinking of it more as a Hieronymus Bosch painting. If you think of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, he usually did it via a triptych or a polyptych.

Several panels with multiple scenes going on at once under a unified theme, and the observer chooses where to focus their gaze. So that's how I'd view all the short stories in my new book. It's like one giant Hieronymus Bosch painting on multiple separate panels, and the observer has the choice on how to arrange them or how to see them or how to relate them to each other. Depending on where they put their gaze or their perspective, wherever the person is standing. And I'm saying that because I don't like this fucking shit where if you're a writer, if you're writing books, you're expected to only have books as your influence and it's just not true. I'm influenced by books that I've read and writers. I'm also heavily influenced by visual artists and musicians and I'm also a visual artist and a musician as well as a writer.

That's one of the things I'm quite lucky to possess as a result of my neurodivergence. I'm quite lucky to possess as a result of my neurodivergence and I want to celebrate that rather than hide it to accommodate the very solemn rules of the literary world where an answer like that is seen as being a dilettante. So I want to be able to say yes this is a book that you read and there's words on it but to be honest the, the way my brain works, I do actually view this as also a piece of visual art. Even though the visual art doesn't exist tangibly in the universe, that's where my brain is at when I think about it and when I was creating it. And also there's a lot of music in there. Even though you can't hear it, this is where my brain was at when I was making it. Because I personally don't like to see limitations between

different mediums. I don't like saying painting stops here, music starts there, writing starts there. I view it all as one. It's all playfulness, it's all creativity, it's all fun even though that sounds mad and it's not the right answer you're supposed to give if you're a writer and I know from talking to professional writers, I know from talking to professional writers I know from talking to people who've been nominated for massive fucking global writing prizes loads of writers actively lie about what they're reading and they hold back what their actual influences are for their most recent book no writer who's looking for the book or prize or whatever is going to say actually this most recent book was heavily influenced by the new series of Jersey Shore

Family Vacation which I binge watched instead of reading all those books I just told you I read. So that's all I have time for this week. It's the 13th of September. I'm looking forward to a bit of crisp cold weather. Not sure I'm looking forward to the darker evenings, that can be tough. But a bit of crisp fucking

September and October, I'll have a bit of that. I'm looking forward to wearing warm jumpers. I want to buy a cup of hot chocolate just because of how it feels inside my hands. Alright. Rub a dog. Wink at a swan. Spit on a worm.

I'll catch you next week. You're invited to an immersive listening party led by Rishikesh Herway, the visionary behind the groundbreaking Song Exploder podcast and Netflix series. This unmissable evening features Herway and Toronto Symphony Orchestra music director Gustavo Jimeno in conversation. Together, they dissect the mesmerizing layers of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, followed by a complete soul-stirring rendition of the famously unnerving piece, Symphony Exploder, April 5th at Roy Thompson Hall. For tickets, visit tso.ca. Thank you.