East Meets West 275 – The planet is a reality show

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We evaluate the Mayans, the presidential election and Iyaz Akhtar joins us to decide if we’re living in a reality show. Also zombies.

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/EastMeetsWest275ThePlanetIsARealityShow/eastmeetswest275.mp3

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_G7SMA7U3FRUKUJ4MTE5CIZ6VEY francis

The zombies virus might came from another planet, like Caprica. As in the reimagined SyFy shows, Battlestar Galactica, and Caprica series.
http://twitter.com/Punterjoe Joe inMA

I wish everyone who thinks that I am a pessimist could meet Roger. I feel like Polyanna next to him! My perception after listening to his predictions is that his philosophy can be distilled down to “reality is just a metaphysical Ponzi scheme” (which I prefer to think of as a brilliant idea without an endgame). I’m not saying I disagree with him. I have had a nagging feeling that we maybe near “the end times”, but I think if the apocalypse happens, it will be because enough fearful, superstitious people believe it will happen that they will behave in such a way as to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. If everyone acts as if all order is lost, then anarchy WILL reign.
I will admit, I tuned out when the talk turned to zombies. I interact with enough folks like that – at least as far as their political or religious views go – that I don’t care to speculate about the metaphorical version of the inexorable mindless horde.
Congratulations on year 7. May you continue until the singularity makes Roger’s prediction a reality. ;)
http://twitter.com/JohnCSnyder John Snyder

You were talking about different types of zombies, but I believe they are all one thing. At first it was nearly braindead people who had been poisoned by voodoo witchdoctors. Eventually a virus evolved to fill this niche and you had the slow, plodding zombies featured in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Since then, we’ve seen the rapid evolution of zombies, and even the branching out of the infecting virus usually with the result of faster, stronger undead. Also, zombies want to eat other creatures not for sustenance, but because it’s the best way for the virus to replicate.

Also, you were joking about the planet being a reality show, but you were almost right. The news outlets are the reality show. Look at the 2012 election – they are covering candidates in a way that increases drama. Each episode features a new main character. When one person’s story arc is over, they just go away – Herman Cain, Bachmann, Rick Perry. And why do it this way? Money, of course. You can pull in much higher ratings if you can keep the tension high. There’s an interesting youtube video I saw yesterday that runs along this same line. http://youtu.be/pHt5WYh83A4 Yes, I know it’s a 14 minute video that isn’t about cats or rainbows so it might be tough for most to get through. But he does have some interesting points.
Aumy0503

The same way a raid boss only needs 1 hit point to defeat a raid, Obama will defeat anycomers from the GOP. No Indy can succeed in current US politics, it’s silly to make comparisons to the Canadian /British Parliament systems.
http://paul7.myopenid.com/ Paul

“Every time I look at the economy I think President Obama can’t win. And every time I look at the Republican field I think he can’t lose.”

I think this quote from Paul Begala (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/04/the-gop-s-voting-rules-may-empower-the-party-s-ideologues.html) is dead on as to my thinking about the current presidential election.
sdf

It all comes down to what Republicans hate more – a black president or a non-batcrazy conservative.
http://twitter.com/derrickc82 Derrick Chen

Not to nitpick (and correct me if I’m wrong), but I’ve recently heard that the people are known as the “Maya” and the word “Mayan” is used to refer to the languages spoken by the Maya. On a slight tangent, I can’t help but wonder if organizations such as the History Channel and the Discovery Network do a big disservice by constantly airing these 2012 Maya end of the world “documentaries” that perpetuate false myths that any Maya scholar will disprove (ever notice how shows always get the same “experts” in those shows)?

As for the talk about zombies, like John Snyder mentioned, there are several types of zombies, as they’ve “evolved” over time from more magic/supernatural-based origins to “scientific” ones. 28 Days Later, which introduced the latter (albeit a very fast “zombie”) did actually consider Roger’s question within its plot. At the end of the film *spoilers* we see the infected dying out due to hunger.