{"podcast":{"title":"ReadMultiplex.com Podcast.","slug":"readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112","podcast_index_feed_id":7658112,"rss_url":"https://media.rss.com/readmultiplex-com-podcast/feed.xml","website_url":"https://ReadMultiplex.com","image_url":"https://media.rss.com/readmultiplex-com-podcast/20260128_070123_a3c0b2016b37f2d1f92d66e15b307722.png","author":"Brian Roemmele","episode_count":64,"summary":"Multiplex is an experiment, an experiment that will be on going. An experiment in publishing as I am not a professional writer nor will it be likely any contributors would be professional writers. Much of the content for Multiplex will be direct results from first hand empirical research that I am personally working on or other researchers are working on. Multiplex will also follow the work of other great researchers that are inventing new technology or new uses for existing technology. The experimental nature of Multiplex means that content can be dense and sparse at times. What we won’t do is write just to fill in space. We will aim to have regular content for the member-only area, This means that if you choose to become a member you are supporting the work of the writers and not an exact number of postings. There will always be free content to be found on the site as well as the X feed.—Brian Roemmele Website: ReadMultiplex.com","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T22:21:03.729497+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112"},"episode":{"title":"ReadMultiplex.com: The Downside To The Age Of Abundance From A 1949 Radio Show.","slug":"readmultiplex-com-the-downside-to-the-age-of-abundance-from-a-1949-radio-show","published_at":"2026-03-23T02:41:21+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112/readmultiplex-com-the-downside-to-the-age-of-abundance-from-a-1949-radio-show","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112","url":"https://rss.com/podcasts/readmultiplex-com-podcast/2650540","audio_url":"https://content.rss.com/episodes/366493/2650540/readmultiplex-com-podcast/2026_03_23_02_40_01_df53da4c-9ebe-4ff5-920a-be0b5fce5ec5.mp3","summary":"In the golden age of radio, X Minus One (NBC, December 21, 1955) delivered a 29-minute gut-punch adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s 1949 short story “Marionettes, Inc.” Public-domain, this episode is no quaint relic. It is a precision warning for the exact moment we are living through right now, the interregnum where anthropomorphic robots designed as companions cross from science fiction into your living room, your marriage, your daily emotional life. Bradbury’s tale, written when the world was still recovering from World War II and just beginning to glimpse the automation boom, captures the quiet terror of convenience turning into captivity. Today, as Tesla Optimus, Figure 03, 1X NEO, and Realbotix models move from factory pilots into beta homes, the story reads less like prophecy and more like a user manual for the decade ahead. Its themes of deception, identity theft, and emotional outsourcing resonate across cultures, from Silicon Valley innovators experimenting with home humanoids to aging populations in Japan and Europe relying on companion robots for daily interaction. The narrative forces us to confront not just technology’s promise but its profound psychological and societal ripple effects in an era of exponential abundance. In the age of abundance we have been mapping across the ReadMultiplex.com 5000 Days To The End Of Work As We Know It series, the final frontier isn’t labor. It’s love, intimacy, and identity. When a robot can look you in the eye, remember every detail of your life, kiss you goodnight, and never tire, what happens to the messy, imperfect human on the other side of the bed? Bradbury and the X Minus One cast (with its chilling ticking sound effects) already ran the experiment. The results are not pretty. They are prophetic. This is the 1955 origin…","meta_description":"In the golden age of radio, X Minus One (NBC, December 21, 1955) delivered a 29-minute gut-punch adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s 1949 short story “Marionette…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1746,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112/episodes/readmultiplex-com-the-downside-to-the-age-of-abundance-from-a-1949-radio-show/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/readmultiplex-com-podcast-7658112/readmultiplex-com-the-downside-to-the-age-of-abundance-from-a-1949-radio-show.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}