# Digital Minds and Endless Miles Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-box-of-oddities-512437/digital-minds-and-endless-miles Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-box-of-oddities-512437/digital-minds-and-endless-miles.md Podcast: [The Box of Oddities](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-box-of-oddities-512437) Published: 2026-05-04T04:02:00+00:00 Episode link: https://tracking.swap.fm/track/YfZO4tERxneauNcW9Fgn/mgln.ai/e/211/traffic.megaphone.fm/ARML7805228363.mp3?updated=1777824417 Audio file: https://tracking.swap.fm/track/YfZO4tERxneauNcW9Fgn/mgln.ai/e/211/traffic.megaphone.fm/ARML7805228363.mp3?updated=1777824417 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-box-of-oddities-512437/episodes/digital-minds-and-endless-miles Duration seconds: 2239 ## Resource Can a Brain Live Without a Body? | Digital Immortality, Ancient Curses & the World’s Most Brutal Race What if the first creature to outlive its own body… wasn’t human? In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro dive into one of the most unsettling scientific breakthroughs in recent memory: researchers have successfully mapped and simulated the entire brain of a fruit fly—every neuron, every connection—and brought it to life inside a computer. Is it thinking? Is it aware? Or is it something stranger—something in between? From digital consciousness and the eerie implications of “connectomes” to the philosophical nightmare of uploading the human mind, this story blurs the line between science and science fiction in a way that’s hard to unsee. But that’s just the beginning. We also crack open the ancient world to explore chilling Egyptian tomb curses—warnings etched in stone that promise everything from fiery deaths to supernatural retribution. Were they symbolic… or something more? And why do so many of them involve birds with a serious attitude problem? Then, in a completely different flavor of human endurance (or madness), we explore the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race—an almost incomprehensible ultramarathon where competitors run the same city block in Queens… for up to 52 days straight. No scenery. No escape. Just miles, repetition, and whatever starts to surface in your mind when there’s nowhere left to hide. Is it spiritual enlightenment… or psychological unraveling? This episode asks big questions: * Can consciousness exist outside the body? * Are we inching toward digital immortality? * What happens when the brain becomes data? * And why would anyone willingly run 3,100 miles in circles? If you like your science unsettling, your history cursed, and y… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-box-of-oddities-512437/episodes/digital-minds-and-endless-miles/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-box-of-oddities-512437/digital-minds-and-endless-miles.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.