Can You Find This Human?

Flash Forward

Flash Forward Presents

Science

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we travel to a future where your face is findable no matter where you go. Guests: Scott Myers — former editor of the Perplex City Wiki Laura E. Hall — game designer and author of Planning Your Escape Tom-Lucas Säger — technologist & Satoshi finder Stan Alcorn — senior reporter at Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting Erin — long lost camp friend Dr. Kate Klonick — assistant professor of law at St. John’s University School of Law → → → Further reading & resources here! ← ← ← Flash Forward is hosted by, Rose Eveleth and produced by Julia Llinas Goodman. The intro music is by Asura and the outro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Mattie Lubchansky. Get in touch: Twitter // Facebook // Reddit // [email protected] Support the show: Patreon // Donorbox Subscribe: iTunes // Soundcloud // Spotify Episode Sponsors: BirdNote Daily: BirdNote Daily is a short, two-minute podcast that answers all of your burning bird-related questions — like, how do birds stay perched in a tree when they’re asleep? What's the difference between a raven and crow? What’s the biggest bird that’s ever lived? The World As You'll Know It: a podcast about the forces shaping our future. BetterHelp: Affordable, private online counseling. Anytime, anywhere. Flash Forward listeners: get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/flashforward Shaker & Spoon: A subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make hand-crafted cocktails right at home. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/ffwd. Tab for a Cause: A browser extension that lets you raise money for charity while doing your thing online. Whenever you open a new tab, you’ll see a beautiful photo and a small ad. Part of that ad money goes toward a charity of your choice! Join team Advice For And From The future by signing up at tabforacause.org/flashforward. Tavour: Tavour is THE app for fans of beer, craft brews, and trying new and exciting labels. You sign up in the app and can choose the beers you’re interested in (including two new ones DAILY) adding to your own personalized crate. Use code: flashforward for $10 off after your first order of $25 or more. Purple Carrot: Purple Carrot is THE plant-based subscription meal kit that makes it easy to cook irresistible meals to fuel your body. Each week, choose from an expansive and delicious menu of dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks! Get $30 off your first box by going to www.purplecarrot.com and entering code FLASH at checkout today! Purple Carrot, the easiest way to eat more plants! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Flash Forward. I'm Rose and I am your host. Flash Forward is a show about
0:15.1	the future. Every episode we take on a specific possible or not so possible future scenario.
0:22.7	And this episode we're actually not going to start in the future like we normally do.
0:28.0	Instead we're going to start in April of 2005.
0:33.2	One of the challenges for me whenever I'm explaining what perplexity is or you know what
0:38.3	what was it, how did it work, what did it do is just trying to figure out where do I even begin
0:42.4	talking about it because it had so many weird angles you know. This is Scott Myers. He's a software
0:47.1	developer and in April of 2005 a new game that he had been waiting for was released. It was called
0:52.6	Perplex City or as he says it perplexity. You know I didn't think about that actually. Yeah I guess
0:59.1	I guess I pronounced it just perplexity but it's true. I mean it is clearly it is perplex
1:05.4	city. It's this city of you know perplexing stuff. Perplexity was a long term alternate reality
1:13.6	game. We take the idea that the world is your playground and we can do anything in it and maybe
1:22.6	instead of having our normal humdrum daily jobs where we go about doing boring things like boring
1:30.5	people we kind of get to be these secret agents or we get to be covert operatives or we get to be
1:37.5	people who are just communicating with people in a different place who know secret codes and where
1:42.5	we might be tapped for for special operations at any moment. Alternate reality games or ARGs
1:48.9	have been around for a while. The earliest versions existed before the internet and relied on
1:53.9	communication through letters, payphones and newspaper classifies. In 2001 one of the first online ARGs
2:01.2	called the beast coined the phrase this is not a game an idea that is usually central to these
2:07.8	experiences. Like many ARGs perplex city was big and complicated. It had all kinds of layers and
2:15.7	ways to play but the basic storyline was a mystery that players had to solve. The hook to perplexity
2:23.3	is that there's this cube and it was a really long time before we know what what what kind of cube
	...

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