The Founders- Hackers, Poets, and Digital Prophets

Join Eli Mercer as he explores the visionary minds who predicted our digital present decades before it arrived. This episode dives deep into the cyberpunk canon—from William Gibson's Neuromancer and the invention of cyberspace, to Philip K. Dick's paranoid meditations on humanity and reality, Ridley Scott's noir vision in Blade Runner, and the philosophical depths of anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Discover how these founders weren't fortune-tellers predicting gadgets, but digital prophets mapping human psychology onto technological change. They showed us corporate surveillance states, information overload, AI anxiety, and identity crises in virtual worlds—all the things we're living through right now. This isn't about cool tech and slick aesthetics; it's about the human cost of progress and what we lose when boundaries between human and machine start to blur. These creators gave us a map of the territory we're walking through today, and we're hitting every pitfall they warned us about. The cyberpunk future isn't coming—it's already here, and the only question is whether we learned anything from their warnings. Want more thought-provoking content that challenges how you see technology, culture, and the digital world we're building? Head over to https://www.quietperiodplease.com/ for an incredible collection of engaging podcasts that will make you think differently about everything from internet mysteries to the future unfolding around us. Don't miss out—your next favorite podcast is waiting for you there.

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI