The NoSleep Podcast - The Oyster - Promotional Episode

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

Episode 1 of the new sci-fi podcast, "The Oyster". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Cummings here, and I'm excited to share the first episode of a great new podcast with you. From the creators of Darkest Night and Deadly Manners comes a brand new immersive sci-fi podcast called The Oyster. Humanity is on the brink of extinction, and only a fraction of the population will be chosen to take shelter in hopes of surviving. Episode one, which we're presenting now in its entirety, will plunge you deep into the dark world of the Sorting. The oyster will immerse you with its rich, atmospheric binaural audio environment, and it features an all-star cast, including Logan Browning of Dear White People, Mamadu Ache of Jurassic World, Carla Gugino of Haunting of Hillhouse,

Keith David of Requiem for a Dream, Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad, Constance Zimmer of House of Cards, Don Al Rawlings of Chappelle's Show, and Andrew Santino, of I'm dying up here. Also featured are our very own David Alt, Nicole Doolin, Nicole Goodnight, and me. And now, it's time for episode one of the oyster. It is November 13th, 2050,

and today, Atlanta's the last major American metropolis to face the sorting. For the next 24 hours, residents of the city will be waiting in their homes for officials to unveil their score, revealing whether or not they have a future waiting for them In New Eden, in downtown Atlanta, protesters are currently flooding the streets with cries against systemic injustice. I can't listen to any more of that. Can we try and have a nice dinner?

It's been a long time in this world since things have been nice. Dad, come on, we can try. You mean we could try to pretend? Do you know what I heard today? Micah, please. They're only letting 80% of the population underground. We know. And you know what percentage? they think will be black?

Five. Five percent. I told you there is an algorithm they're using to decide who gets to stay or go. It's not black or white. It's always black and white. We're being reduced down to a number

and the last I remember, it was three-fifths of a white. Micah, stop. The president said it's about value. And you believed her? We are good, law-abiding citizens, we add to society, and we're worth having around.

You think they care about any of that? We have to hope for the best. Where's that ever gotten us? Enough. How many times do I have to tell you to that we'll be fine? Hannah, your fancy brain implant job isn't going to save us. Dad, neuron devices are installed on the entire population. They need me and I need you.

They're not going to let anything happen to us. Honey, you can't promise that. The world always has a plan of its own. zone. Mom, you don't understand. No, you don't understand. You think you have value that you're worth something to these people? Micah.

Take the sum of everything you think you are. And divided by the fact that you are black. And the powers that be aren't. That's all there is to it. That's not fair. Things are different. The world hasn't changed that much, baby girl. You can work

your whole life killing yourself to be someone they value. but you never will be. At best, you're just another house lay. At worst, you're just like me. This is the police. We're here for the sorting. Put on your masks and face the door.

Stay calm and do big... Chires of crickets fill the sky like a cascading cacophony. Grass ever so gently grazes the gaps between your toes. Fireflies hover around you as a guiding light, shining bright, leading the way back home. Then, right as you begin to sweat, the hair on your arms stands to remind you, you are God's child. And this is where you belong. You are God's child. And absolved of it.

There are billions of stars above you. There are lights pulsating. Every tree and fern around you pulsating. And if you're lucky, you feel connected to that pulse. Connected, connected. If you listen closely, you can hear it. Slowing alongside your mind, like currents flowing alongside the links of a river. None of these things are you.

None of them belong to you. They just... You see, every experience, every memory, every feeling you've ever had is just an electron stored in your brain. There was a time when these things your feeling could have been real. It would have been real. But...

Underground... That possibility is... is gone. I don't know when you're listening, where you're listening, or how you're listening. What I do know is, if you've gotten this far, you're seeking answers. Answers to why the world is the way it is. I don't know everything, but this is my story, at least. My story. The Oyster. Ben, I enjoy talking to you, but we should always talk to a professional, and BetterHelp has the answer for just that. BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist,

and you can start communicating with somebody in under 48 hours. Have you ever used therapy, Ben? I haven't, but typically nobody calls me back within 48 hours, so that's amazing to hear that Better Help will do just that. It will, and it's not a crisis line. It's not self-help. It's professional counseling done securely online. You've always told me you had almost no one to talk to. Well, now you do. I know. Sometimes, you know, I do enjoy these talks. As you know, most times, I'm never even listening to you. And this will listen to you always.

BetterHelp is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy and free to change counselors if need be. Unlike me, where you're stuck with me for, well, forever. A BetterHelp is committed to getting you with someone that can help you get through whatever it is you're needing to get through. And living down here gets depressing. So BetterHelp has changed my life forever. It's more affordable than traditional offline counseling,

and financial aid is of course available. I can do it from the comfort of my own bunker. And they help clients worldwide, so no matter where underground you live, you're going to get the help you need. Visit betterhelp.com slash oyster. That's BetterH-E-L-P, and join the over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health

with the help of an experienced professional. In fact, so many people have been using BetterHelp that they're recruiting additional counselors in all 50 states. Special offer for Oyster listeners get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com slash oyster. That's BetterHelp.com, My birth name was Hannah, but now I go by Ori. ORI was my family name.

Every night, I still dream of the world before. Above, I was a neuroscientist and systems engineer at Neuron, the planet's most prestigious private institution. Initially, focused on brain implants and software to restore the loss of imperative cognitive functions. Quite simply, we helped create a synthetic relationship. between human beings and artificial intelligence. Eventually, the company morphed into a glorified VR device,

though that all amplified when we moved below. Welcome back to a minor inconvenience. I'm Art Minor. And I'm Ben Avery. It is November 13, 252. Exactly two years since we made it past the sorting, a turning point in the history of mankind. So let's take a moment to examine what that means.

Or at least our take on it. Years of government experience have to count for, Something, right? Well, art, it hasn't for over 25 years, right? Fair. Let's make an effort to put our polyside degrees to use and break down the biggest discernible changes. In public policy, our form of government has been changed to the ministry system. Which is a big shift with no backing and constitutional precedent. But again, hasn't mattered in 25 years. Agreed, agreed, we think Sandra Owens has made a concerted effort to minimize transparency and amassed more power for her executive branch. Frankly, the biggest change enacted by Owens has been

the folding of neuron into the ministry of experience. The company was started by eccentric billionaire and creator of all of our neuron devices, Dolos Devlet. We spent a lot of time here talking about Devlai's tax evasion, his array of super PACs, and his numerous civil rights offenses, which is why today's news is so concerning. President Owens has announced her appointment of Dolos Devlai to the newly created position of Minister of Experience. You could say that this could be more than just a minor inconvenience. That's Art Minor and Ben Avery from, you guessed it, minor inconvenience. minor inconvenience was a political podcast with a funny edge.

My dad said it was in times like those that we needed to laugh the most. So I keep subscribing down here as a way to bond with him, or at least his memory, which brings me to my life now. Down below, the ministry gave me the position of story preservationist. What that essentially means is that I talk to people about their most prototypical memories. log them and create an AI experience accessible to every human on earth. In some ways, my job is to preserve the human experience or at least selected moments of it. The day I heard of the oyster was just like any other. 8am, 48-year-old man, mechanical engineer by training.

Is this the story preservation office? Yeah. You must be Scott. Uh, yeah. Hi. Come on in. Take a seat. You seem nervous. I guess I am. I've heard about these sessions. Sounds pretty intense. They can be. What about the intensity makes you nervous? It's just easier not to think about this stuff. Focus on work.

I understand. That's precisely why we have to do it. Burying the pain never really works. And we need your work. story. A hundred years from now, people will need to hear about what happened to us, or else history will repeat itself. And all of this, the sacrifice, will have been for nothing. Is that the same pitch you give everyone that comes in here? More or less. I just don't get why you can't pull the memories from my chip. Isn't that why we all have these things in our brains? Something weird happens in the brain when it experiences emotional trauma. The way we store trauma-related memory is completely different than with regular memories.

Memories like seeing your favorite band in a concert or when your daughter took her first steps. When we experience extreme levels of stress and fear, it inhibits the hippocampus, which is what helps us store memories in a linear way. You drove to the venue, bought a beer, found your seat, and then the band came out and played. Your daughter pulled herself up off the ground, holding the edge of the coffee table, and then cautiously let go, putting one foot in front of the other. I'd rather not think about my daughter.

I understand. Do you? We've all experienced loss. The day of the sorting is all a blur anyway. I don't get the point. That's exactly the point. Traumatic memories are stored much less effectively. They can be fragmented

and be based entirely off of the sensory information you gather during the trauma. a certain smell, a taste, the color of the sky, a song. Maybe the brain does that for a reason, to protect people from the memory. I won't force you to do the session if you're not ready. Let's just get it over with. I think you might find it cathartic. What do you remember about your last days on Earth?

It started getting harder to breathe. What did that feel like? I was dizzy. all the time. Couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without taking a break. What else? Tell me about your wife. Laura was kind. She had such a big heart. We met in college, our senior year. She got pregnant and dropped out. We decided she'd stay home and be a mom. We never thought... Go on. We never thought that choice would... Well, you know how a mom without a college would... college degree is valued. Her score was a 19. All 36 years of her life boiled down to the number

19. But she had value. She loved me. She loved our daughter, Beth. Get the book. Mom, what book? Get Fiona's flower. Mom, I don't want to hear about stupid Fiona and her stupid flower again. I get it. Flowers die. Maybe Fiona should have been friends with someone who lives longer. I don't even know what to say. How about this? You eat these vitamins and finish that whole cup of water, and I'll read you whatever story you want.

Okay, Daddy. Mom, I know. We've talked about it. Honey, no. That isn't it? It is really important. Can you do that for me? We are here for the sorting.

Please, put on your masks and face the door. Where are your other two family units, Mr. Thompson? They aren't here. Mr. Thompson, are you sure you're beat? Why would I have any reason to lie? Because according to our records, your wife hasn't been a part of the workforce in over five years, and your daughter has...

as stage three brain cancer. What does that have to do with anything? 76. Sir, you have qualified to migrate. Will you go willingly? No. Very well, then. Wait!

Let go of me! Drag him away and clear the room. Go to sleep. We'll stop there. I'll write you a note to excuse you from work this afternoon. Thank you. Do you ever wonder what it's all for? I know what it's for. It's for the hope of a better tomorrow. And yet tomorrow never seems to come.

Sometimes I wonder why I do this. Story after heartbreaking story, lobbed in as just one more experience among thousands. Though they tell us underground every time that we feel, feel down, we are all doing our part for Eden 2070. Welcome back to a minor inconvenience. Ben Living Underground is hard, and even harder is finding something delicious to eat that's also healthy and nutritious. It's true. HelloFresh is the answer to that problem. They're America's number one meal kit underground. HelloFresh lets you

skip those trips to the grocery store and they make home cooking easy, fun, and also affordable. It's true. The recipes, they're easy to follow. They have simple steps and pictures. to guide you along the way, and they deliver right to my bunker. Get a great value. Save 40% when you use HelloFresh versus shopping at the grocery store. Now, the grocery store is underground, of course, are restrictive. Not everyone can go in, and you must be wearing a full protection garb. HelloFresh offers more than 20 chef-crafted delicious options every week to help you break out of your recipe rut, try new things, and make any night feel special.

You know, I mean, every night down here feels the same, so it's good to have Hello Fresh on our side to spice things up a little bit. Spice things up is what I love. There's many meals that have spices in them. You can juice them up and make them your own. There's low calorie, that's vegetarian, there's family-friendly recipes you can cook with the kiddos and more. Of course, assuming they've made it down here. HelloFresh is the first global carbon-neutral meal kit company. That's right. It's very important to someone like us.

Living underground, we need carbon-neutral meal kits. We're at risk every single day of losing everything. I like to eat nutritious and occasionally vegetarian. HelloFresh offers these options for me, so it's extremely simple to cook the veggies in the comfort of my own PJs and munch up. Go to Hellofresh.com slash oyster 90 and use the code oyster 90 to get $90 off including free shipping. That's hellofresh.com slash oyster 90 and use code oyster 90 to get $90 off including free shipping. It's November 15, 2052, and all I can hear are the cries of Eden 2070. After two years underground and some political unrest, all that we are given to hold on to is the hope of Eden 2070.

Essentially, what the current administration is telling us is that there's a sector of Antarctica that has the potential to be inhabitable by human life in 2017. Now, this begs the question, does a political party whose idea of polluting the planet to extinction really have a chance of capturing enough carbon underground to not only make Antarctica inhabitable, but also make it inhabitable for over 6 billion people strown over bunkers across the globe? If we can record this podcast from Antarctica in 2070, I'll do something wildly out of character, like register as a libertarian. Refusing to believe in Eden 2070 was not an option for most of us. Over 50% of the population has dedicated their lives to carbon removal and the dream of living above ground. Funnily enough, before the sorting, humanity had never invested in technology eliminating CO2 from the atmosphere. The best solution we had was creating more solar panels, protecting the few remaining forests and carbon capture into storage devices.

CCSDs were deeply flawed myths. meant only as an ideological cover for the trillion-dollar energy complex. In reality, they were meaningless. As a society, the new change of direction was quite the pivot. Yet, at the Ministry of Experience, we had a different reality. It was our job to not just create and record human experiences, but also to arouse the hearts and minds of the entire population to make this vision possible.

So, once a week, we had visionary meetings where the heads of various departments met to hear the goals of the president, what projects we were all working on, and how to meet lofty goals like restoring humanity back to its ideal form. You know, just another day at the office. Coffee, anyone? I still can't get used to it. Yeah, sorry, I don't know why. It's the water. It's all distilled. The minister is dialing.

in now. How are we this afternoon? Great, minister. Ori, you know you can call me Dolos. Anyway, you all know what's first on the agenda. Check-ins. Everyone's favorite. I know. I know. I know it's cheesy. But let's just get it over with. Let's pick someone special today. How about Jane? Jane. How do you feel today? This morning I feel invisible. Jane, look at me. I see you.

I see your unlimited potential. What you do for the ministry is as essential as I am. Can everyone look at Jane in the eye and tell her she's seen? I see you, Jane. Christian, fashionably late, as always. Just in time for check-in. You know it's over, right? Correct.

Let's get down to business. President Owens and I had a long call yesterday. She needs us to reduce human beings' rest time emissions. As you know, when humans are on neuron, they are emitting less carbon than their waking lives. Her thinking is that we need to come up with some program that has longer plug-in time. Here we go again. As the one person in the ministry fighting to preserve human memories for the new world, my work doesn't have the longest plug-in times and is not about being plugged in.

It is about preparing to not re-ingest the apple when we make it back to Eden. Dolos, I have your solution. That's Christian, Minister of Pleasure. All she wants is people to plug in and experience life as one big source of pleasure. pleasure and nothing more. Ah, hedonism at its finest. To her, a conscious mind is the ultimate enemy. I would be lying if I told you that I didn't anticipate these needs. Not only is the president right, but we also need to drastically cut the average person's resource intake by at least 30% to meet Eden 2070. That means that the average citizen needs to be plugged in 50% more to meet these needs.

Interesting. I've been working on a software that is like none other created. Think of every incredible human experience on Earth. The perfect drug, the most toe-curling, sublime orgasm of your life. Hell, even fucking divine love. Those all pale in comparison to the oyster. The oyster is unlike anything we have ever worked on. The oyster isn't just an experience.

The oyster is a state, a state absent from the mind. The way the oyster works is simple. It powers off every part of your brain, except the pleasure sensors which are at full capacity. It takes less power to function than any other experience. As a state, it uses less than 1% of the neuron CPU. Where are you in terms of development? I've tested the software several times on myself,

and I believe it's ready for human trials. Fantastic. Um, sorry if I'm at odds with the rest of you, but it sounds like you're saying we essentially get people to check out of real life for hours of their day, every day. Precisely. Am I the only one who sees a problem with that? These are human beings, not robots. They need to process what they're going through. We need them to stay motivated and hopeful.

If they're constantly escaping their lives to feel this manufactured happening, happiness, then what motivates them to create it in real life? Their happiness and hope will absolutely vanish if they find out we're on track to run out of resources in two years. So we should double down on our efforts to have Eden ready before then? And if it doesn't come together in time? Well, what are the side effects of this software? Surely long-term use would turn humans into vegetables.

Stop being dramatic. I'm serious. We'd be getting their brains to secrete excess amounts of dopamine, and then whenever they aren't using the software, they'll be craving that rush. All people will want to do is plug in. Which, as I am trying to explain, is the point. So we're like the U.S. government hooking the Chinese on opium to get what we want. I'm hearing you both, and I see both sides. Linda, Bill, any thoughts before I weigh in? I think... I think that our priority has to be resource preservation.

I agree, but there should be precautions taken. Surely we don't want people plugged in for days on end. Why not? What part of this aren't you getting? Christian, please. There's no doubt we need to implement some version of this software. It seems like the only efficient way to stop the hemorrhaging of efforts. But, ethically, it feels a little ambiguous.

Thank you. And, ORI, while I see the points you're making, we are beyond the point of idealism and naivete. We have no choice but to take immediate and stringent action. I understand that, Dolos, but the work I've been doing, the stories I've been collecting, it's a moral imperative. Without this documentation, our histories will be forgotten. You can still do your little interviews. No one said you couldn't. Thank you. That being said, will you accept the position of co-chair on the oyster if I assigned it to you?

At this point, my heart stopped. The oyster was the last project I wanted to waste my time with, but then I looked down and saw a sign. As Christian unzipped her purse to grab her water bottle, she shared a glimpse of an old children's book she had tucked away. It was Fiona's flower, the same book that the same book that the same book that the same thing. subject I interviewed earlier used to teach his daughter about death. You see, this is why I hired you both. Two brilliant minds that work completely differently from one another. The solution here seems clear to me.

ORI and Christian will work together to bring the oyster to human trials, with ORI making sure to implement safeguards to prevent the concerns she's raised. Dr. Ory has no background in software development. She's a neuroscientist. I fail to see how... And your failure to see is exactly why you. you two must work on this together. That is, if Ori agrees. I'd say she's made her position very clear.

Well, it doesn't move forward if she doesn't. That's ridiculous. Oh, I just had a question. Go ahead. It's been a while since we got any updates on the development of Eden. Last we heard, we were 18 months out from partial habitation. It's moving as planned. It won't be slowed down by the oyster.

I promise. Then? I agree. Excuse me? That's terrific. Well, that was productive. Ori, meet at Christian's Lab at 0,800 hours tomorrow morning. Let's check in on your progress in 48 hours. I look forward to seeing this collaboration. Godspeed.

The future of mankind depends on you both. No pressure. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Episode 2 of The Oyster is available right now on Apple Podcasts. Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Please go and subscribe to the oyster and tell them we sent you.