Zombie Book Club

We're Back from the Dead | Zombie Book Club Ep. 149

• Zombie Book Club • Season 4 • Episode 149

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We crawl back from the zombie plague with a fever-dream catch-up that somehow turns into a sharp conversation about power, autonomy, and who gets to make the rules. We dig into our HOA annual meeting; a real-life "Survivor" moment where alliances formed around one loaded question: do we leave each other alone, or do we pile on rules to control what neighbors do on their own land? From petty bylaw enforcement to short-term rental panic, we trace how community governance becomes a proxy war for fear, control, and NIMBY instincts.

Then we pull the thread from our previous Apocalypse Tech episode and go deep on surveillance capitalism, degoogling, and the creeping feeling that the internet has shifted from a decentralized commons into a centralized control mechanism. We cover data brokers, AI as a "truth gatekeeper," always-on vehicle tracking, and why your "free" apps aren't free. We end on a hopeful note: LoRa radios, Meshtastic mesh networks, DIY cyberdecks, and the case for physical media ownership as a practical act of digital self-defense and zombie preparedness.


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Sick Hosts And Late Recording

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Zombie Book Club, the only book club where I'm sick. Who are you? You've read the next part. I did, because I'm sick. Hi, I'm sick. Hi, sick. I'm Leah. When I'm not busy being Dan, I'm writing a zombie book, and it's gone along pretty well lately, even though I haven't had a whole lot of time to write it because I've been so sick.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. We have both been infected by the zombie plague.

SPEAKER_00

I think zombies for a small period of time.

SPEAKER_02

I think we are just slowly becoming unzombified. I mean, I'm I'm ahead of you because I got sick before you. I brought the infection. I brought the plague from the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we didn't have an episode last week. Uh we knew we almost don't have an episode this week. Yeah, we're recording this less than 24 hours than when it's supposed to be out. Yeah. We're recording this Saturday. I'm gonna edit it Saturday, upload it Saturday so that you can listen to it on Sunday while I'm sick.

SPEAKER_02

Because it's our 150th episode. Yeah. I mean your voice sounds pretty good. Is it 150?

SPEAKER_00

I thought we're at like 149.

SPEAKER_02

No, this is it, baby. Well, you know what? Let me let me look. I can confirm. We had our we decided because we've been sick that um we have lots to talk about, but we are gonna have an unhinged, unscripted, undead, casual dead today.

SPEAKER_00

We missed a few uh episode recordings that we had planned with people.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That was a bummer because they were gonna be good ones.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we were gonna talk with Sylvester Barzi and his wife Angel Barzi. Yeah. About Land of the Dead. Yeah, we even watched it. Yeah, but you know what? I was like getting sick, and I spoiler, didn't love it. And I wonder if part of that was because I was getting sick.

SPEAKER_00

You were already coming down with the sick crankiness.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You're just like, I don't like it. I don't want to watch it anymore.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, it had redeeming qualities, but hoping to get that one back on the books before we're at Living Dead weekend in a few weeks. And then we also had to reschedule with Jill Davies, the author, who we're talking to tomorrow. Oh, good. So that's exciting.

SPEAKER_00

I hope I'm ready for it.

SPEAKER_02

We're gonna have to be. I think we should both drink some tea.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Some ginger tea while we're talking to her so that our voices last as long as possible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, in advance, the this episode, we are announcing that the episode we record tomorrow might not be our best, but we're gonna try just like this episode. We're doing our best.

SPEAKER_02

The next two episodes are Leah and Dan coming back to life episodes. Yeah. So it's gonna be there's gonna be some groans, some moans, some raspy voices.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and you're correct, this is episode 149.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I knew it. I'm good at counting.

SPEAKER_02

Uh, you are. So my apologies. I got excited that we were at 150, but we're not quite. Yeah. What are we gonna talk about today? Because I already forgot. Oh, well, first of all, please subscribe. I didn't have time to think of a word that's Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Subscribe. That's the word. Are there words that are I feel like we should just say subscribe sometimes?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. If you're new here, getting to know us, wow, what an episode to pick. Hello. If you're an old Zolombastie of ours, hi, sorry we missed last week. First time in four seasons. So I feel like, you know, even a few years ago when Dan's brother moved here and we had the mini sode update, we still had it, we still had an episode. When Nero died, we still made an episode.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's and that should tell you just how sick we were. Yeah. Where like even just talking into a microphone just was off the table. In fact, I feel like it was off the table until like yesterday.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Talking for me, I um my job is like being on Zoom calls sometimes for the entire day. I only took one sick day, um,

Peak TMI Recovery Stories

SPEAKER_02

and then just like really deeply medicated myself, but I was like, I couldn't laugh at all without it turning into like the most horrifying thing. I coughed so hard I vomited. I also coughed so hard I peed. I told my gynecologist that yesterday. I did that too. You told your gynecologist that you coughed so hard you peed.

SPEAKER_00

I just had to, I just had to raw dog it.

SPEAKER_02

I had my annual gyno appointment and she was like, How are you doing? And I was, you know, like Kegels and all that stuff is your your um, what do they call it? Your pelvic floor. Yeah. And she's like, How's that going? I'm like, I think good, except for this happened, but I think that's only because I was really sick, and then I told her that I also coughed so hard that I puked. And uh then she was like, Yeah, I think I think it was the state of how sick you were. So part of my voice, I think my voice is partly this bad because even when I was recovering, I still had to keep talking all day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um my voice is suffering, but I didn't I you still sound like you. I I was able to just shut my mouth and just be quiet all day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I think um we've never consumed so many recalls and halls. I'm saying something because I eat a lot of cough drops.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we've reached that age.

SPEAKER_02

We've hit that middle age where we have cough drops in the house no matter what.

SPEAKER_00

I do. Well, I so I have um what's called non-allergic rhinitis, uh, which is something that I developed as um as something from the burn pits that you might have heard of uh in the army. Um the the short version is that all of our waste and garbage, and by waste I mean things that you don't normally find in garbage, um like various chemicals and uh munitions and I don't know, furniture, you know, anything that you can burn, we burned it because you know we're out in a place that doesn't have any rules um except for the ones that we made because we were the imperialists. Yeah. Um and then were. I think we still are. No, Afghanistan got their country back. True. I was singing broadly for the United States. Yeah, but um Um Yeah, so as as a result of breathing in the air that was constantly permeated with whatever chemicals from that, um the worst the worst that I got from it is non-allergic rhinitis, which is just basically like 50% of my airway is just always clogged in my sinuses. Probably also why I don't have a sense of smell as well. Um and uh sometimes sore throats and a constant post-nasal drip. Uh so I eat a lot of halls just on a regular basis because sometimes I just wake up in the morning, I'm like, I can't fucking breathe.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I'll just eat hulls. And uh something that I know about eating halls is that they are made using uh sugar free um uh you know, uh uh uh uh artificial sugar, sugar, uh which causes really bad gastronomical distress. If you eat a lot of them, which I do. So this time around, no, like I I know how many I can eat before it's an emergency. So I try to stay under that. But this time around, I'm like, I ate 50 cough drops today and I'm suffering. Wow. Um, in every possible direction.

SPEAKER_02

I think we should call this episode TMI.

SPEAKER_00

TMI.

SPEAKER_02

Because like already talked about gastrointestinal distress, gynecology. Yeah. Um coughing so hard. Yeah, also I I choked on a piece of peanut butter toast. Oh my god, that's right. It's been a fun couple weeks. Yeah. Uh whenever I get sick like this, I also like really start contemplating death a lot and just being like, this body is finite. Like it's gonna have an expiry date.

SPEAKER_00

And weeks, weeks like this. Remind me of exactly how finite

Diner Rituals And Loose Plans

SPEAKER_00

life is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um, so yeah. But just okay, what are we talking about? Like I said, it's unhinged unscripted. But we did talk about a couple, we were we finally got to have breakfast at our favorite diner, the Heartland Diner. Three weeks. Three weeks, which we go religiously every week because it's like our little oasis. Yeah, it's our third, our third location. Yeah, it's our it's a home to us, and um, the owner and the people who work there are are wonderful and vibes are wonderful.

SPEAKER_00

Um and won't come on the podcast, no matter how many times we ask them.

SPEAKER_02

I think that they I'm like, do they really like us or do they just like that we come every week? Not sure. Probably, yeah. But anyways, maybe one day. One day Nicole will have time. Um she's a busy lady. But, anyways, we talked about a little bit of a part two on the Apocalypse Tech.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

There was something that you wrote that we wants to talk about. We also talked about how yeah, we'll get there in a second. I have an agenda in my brain dance, so just listen.

SPEAKER_00

Which isn't a surprise. I don't remember yesterday, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so yeah, we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh we're gonna talk about our HOA annual meeting and some fun drama there.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, HO da HOA update.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And uh maybe we'll give a little preview of our zombie book club discussion we had in advance of recording our book club uh uh episode for this most recent book, which is Feed by Mira Grant.

Book Club Feelings About Feed

SPEAKER_02

Um we had our book club discussion last night. Well, why don't we start backwards? Let's start there. We had a book club discussion last night. Yeah, I made Alice feel really bad. I think you went on a tirade, and we're gonna get into it for that episode, which will come out in a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_00

I had big feelings about this book.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

And I know that it's a lot of people's favorite books, um, and I don't want to take that away from them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So if you love Mira Grant's books, um, you might not want to listen to that episode, or you might, but I don't I'll just say briefly that the more that I read and read reviews of books, the more that I become a relativist, which is essentially what I said last night. It's just like I think a lot of the time what people like or don't like in a book has says more about them and what they enjoy than it does about the book itself.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I think that yes, there are some that are just terrible or like truly epic and speak to a lot of people, but there's a reason why when you go on Goodreads, it's divided on that book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just like many others. I mean, people are there's gonna be people who hate the book that I'm writing. Yeah. It's it's inevitable. It's a it's an unavoidable truth.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Is that there's gonna be somebody out there that gives it one star and they're gonna call it a horrible piece of dog shit. Um and they're gonna tell you it's too political for sure. They're gonna be like, this is clearly your first book. And it shows. And it is. And I'll be like, fuck you, man.

SPEAKER_02

So, but we had a great time. Uh Alice B. Sullivan was there, Ollie was there, uh, Reading Ghost. We got to finally meet Reading Ghost. Yeah. JD was there. I feel like I'm forgetting someone, and now I'm feeling really bad. Uh no, that was it for this one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the five of us.

SPEAKER_02

It was lovely.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I know there were people who couldn't come because kids and also nibblings graduating.

SPEAKER_00

Also, we rescheduled.

SPEAKER_02

We had to reschedule it because we were so sick when we were supposed to be recording it, which was just to give you context for how I still sound like this. That was supposed to be May 1st. Yeah. And it's May 23rd now, and I'm still recovering from whatever the hell this was. Yeah, the zombie plague. Yeah. So um, sorry for the folks that were gonna be there, but they couldn't because of the rescheduling. We also, as a result, have not picked our next book. So hopefully maybe, maybe no, actually, I can't make promises. I think we'll have an announcement on that before Living Dead Weekend, but not before. I I and Living Dead Weekend is June 12th through the 14th.

SPEAKER_00

I I really need I I need this next book to be something that I want to finish.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and it's it's rough because I want to like the books. I want to. I wanted to like zone one. I wanted to. Yeah, and I wanted to like Feed. And to an extent I did. It's just it was a hard read, even if it was an interesting one. Um yeah, so we'll talk about that some other time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, when we do that episode. Um, working backwards, HOA.

HOA Meeting And Almost Coup

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So we have an episode about how an HOA prepares you for the zombie apocalypse. I think it's from like season two. It's it's a way back playback.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We'll put the episode link in the show notes because if you want like last year last year's HOA. I was sick last year, actually. I well, I think I have like not sick like this, I had like a migraine. Um, because I have seasonal allergies, which is also like, I don't know how much of this is a combination of all of the things that I sound like this one. Everything adds up. Yeah, exactly. So we we weren't able to make it last year, but there also wasn't a lot of drama. But the one before that, there was a lot of drama, and we had a really fun episode about it. And then today we had our annual HOA meeting, and it was like watching an episode of Survivor. Oh my god, there was almost a coup.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. And I'm not we're not joking. No, there was almost a coup. We we were hearing the we were hearing the uh the murmurs, the rumblings, the rumblings of like Yeah, alliances shifting in real time. Yeah. And uh yeah, it it it played out in a very I don't know. I think I think that everything leading up to it was a lot more interesting than what happened.

SPEAKER_02

So let's let's not get into all the details because we do want to maintain some privacy about our lives and also our neighbors. But I will say briefly, um, our HOA is not typical in the sense that it is not in a city and it doesn't have like a million bylaws that are like, gotta mow your lawn, gotta have your house be a boring beige color.

SPEAKER_00

And honestly, that was a selling point of this house because when they're like, it is in a in an hoa, and we're like, oh, well, fuck that place then. And they're like, but no, they don't really have any laws. It's just like they collect money to maintain the road because it's on a private page.

SPEAKER_02

And also we have a shared like um trash, not uh what's not not a bin, a um dumpster. Trash dumpster, yeah. Uh, and a shared pond and a shared golf course. The golf course was the the description, the discussion of drama last time we did an episode on this. Yeah. This time I would say there were I would there were sort of two camps. One camp was pro uh let's leave each other the fuck alone on our own properties and like not try and control other people's activities.

SPEAKER_00

And the other camp was a bunch of laws, let's not try to regulate everyone.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the other camp was I don't like other people doing things. And I don't want them to do it.

SPEAKER_00

And also our our bylaws are uh are unenforceable. How can we enforce them?

SPEAKER_02

Basically, yes, and all and like uh the fence around the dumpster is not pretty. And honestly, like I'm like, we live in the country, it's around some trees. Yeah, it's a dumpster. I don't care. Take the fence down.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean we need a fence. Why is it even there? Part of me when when like it kept on coming up, and it's like, are we gonna decide what to do about it? I was I was so close to just being like, I have a wrecking bar, I could do something about it. I mean, I tried to get you to volunteer to. Well, you tried to volunteer me to fix it.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you could have volunteered to tear it down. I don't care. Either way, it was like I mean, I'll tear it down. Basically, nobody wants to be on the board. That's that's one fun fact because it sucks.

SPEAKER_00

Um, you and our friend wanted me to be on the board. Yes. And I did not.

SPEAKER_02

In fact, that's the perfect kind of leader, is the reluctant leader. The reluctant hero. Yeah. Because basically, where we got to as an HOA, which I'm grateful for, and is how I feel we should live together as a species, is the common property areas are things that we can all make decisions about. So, like the dumpster, the pond, the road, the roads, the mailbox, quote unquote golf course, yes. But what's happening on our like where your tent is, if we're gonna think of this in an apocalypse sort of uh metaphor, where your tent is or you're part of where you're sleeping, like I don't fucking care. As long as you're not doing something that is like hurting someone else or coming downstream and affecting someone else's life, it like does not matter to me. Um, this is also I am the person who's gonna paint our house purple, and I think some people are gonna freak the fuck out, especially specifically our neighbor. Our direct neighbor is probably gonna freak the fuck out. Oh yeah. Um, but we are of that camp, and we and a faction of people in the HOA want to make keep it like that, but other people want more control. And there was one person who didn't like what somebody else was doing on their land because I don't even fucking know why. There wasn't really, in my opinion, a good reason. They just were like, I don't like that this thing is happening on their land because it means sometimes there's people. Oh, I'm just gonna say it, Airbnbs. Yeah. They didn't like that some people had Airbnbs on their property because it's like new people, it could be might be noisy. There's never been a problem, folks. Um, they might use the roads more. They're not using the roads anymore than like a visitor coming.

SPEAKER_00

Like it just it's ridiculous. There's so many, there's so many things that could come up. Like if if the argument is like, well, it's it's creating more traffic on the road that we have to pay to maintain it. It's like, okay, then should what what about people who have visitors? What about people who live closer to the exit of the neighborhood versus people who live live further in and therefore use the road more?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was I was going if it was gonna get in taxes.

SPEAKER_00

What if you have too many family members? Yeah. Like we live in a small family household. Should we pay less than somebody who has like five kids? Yeah. I mean, they're your SUV is gonna be heavier because they're carrying more children inside of them.

SPEAKER_02

They're leaving, they're going and coming more. Yeah. They're getting they're getting more mail. Yeah. You know? So it's just getting petty like that, and somebody uh was pro-petty. That's what I'm gonna say. Pro-petty. And then they realized talk to their lawyer about something, and they realized that that pettiness could come back to bite them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because they're because well, one of our by our one of our only bylaws is that you can't operate a business in the HOA. This was also written in the 80s, folks.

SPEAKER_02

So like so they didn't know about Airbnb back then, and there's or like the you can work from home, you can have businesses from home, you can they were concerned about other things, but we live in a pr an area of town that's zoned as private, so you can't have a business that involves people driving in and out all the time, anyways. Yeah. And like all of the laws that are really necessary are already covered by the town laws, which includes registering your Airbnb.

SPEAKER_00

And like an Airbnb, yeah, is registered and it can be considered a home business. However, how does that govern people who do long-term rentals? If you own a home in the pro in the in the area and you rent it full-time to somebody else, um, is that a business? So all these questions come up, and it's like, if if you pro petty people wanna wanna wanna open up Pandora's box on this one, like it's it's gonna get ugly. And that's what this person found out is that you know they have a home business that's not they're in Pandora's box if it's opened. Yeah. And and they're like, oh, but wait, if we start defining what is and is not a business, then that might affect me. Oh, I'm gonna change my opinion.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And so the good news is that that person changed their mind. I feel like it was like a survivor blind side. Yeah. Half the people in the room realized that because they it was like there was like, oh, this is gonna be such a dramatic thing, they're gonna be fighting, whatever. It didn't happen because this one loud person changed their mind. So that's great for us. Um, and now we're yeah, I think we have we have won the let's not be petty with our neighbors and let's like maintain our autonomy. Yeah. While also having like also having communal, because like communal rights and sharing, like Dan and I could pay a lot less in roads if we started measuring how much of the road we used.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because we're pretty close to the end of it. Yeah, we're not very far into the neighborhood. No. So like really this is we should pay like a quarter what somebody at the far end pays.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I, if it, if this stuff comes up again, I will, I will maximize the petty to make it super inconvenient for everyone. I'll be like, okay, you gotta fight petty with petty. Why don't we, yeah, why don't we make it so that we have a toll booth at the entryway and the people who use the roads the most pay for it? Because I I work from home. I'm not affecting their like this is NIMBYism and um just like it's so individualistic and it's so interesting of an example of how we do need to balance individual autonomy with collective rights, but some people only seem to understand that freedom is actually freedom when we take care of each other and don't overstep our boundaries.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. I was very activated today and I was very tempted because there's extra board spots to be on the board, and I was like, no, I can't, I can't do that. I can barely make an episode from a zombie book club podcast. I care more about y'all than this petty some petty shit.

SPEAKER_00

So I did not. And also you'd be given a hard job because, you know, like you have you have a lot of organizational skills, and th the person who um is in charge of a lot of let's just say the person who's in charge of some uh of where the money goes doesn't really want to do it anymore.

SPEAKER_02

No, I feel so bad for the

SPEAKER_00

And they're like, I want I don't want to be a board member. And they're like, but we need you. And like, what if we what if we get three more people to be board members? Will you stay? And she's like, fine.

SPEAKER_02

She's been a board member for 22 years, I learned. Because there's nothing in the bylaws about turning it over. And then somebody else was like, well, let's make term limits. And I'm just like, no. Yeah. There's 27 houses. There's like not that many of us. Why don't we just make it easier on the board members by not being petty shitheads?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So that's our that's our rant. I don't know if any of this is interesting to anybody else, but this is also one of the first conversations Dan and I have had to have got or gotten to have with each other because I've had to literally be like, Dan, I have to save my voice for work and then rest it after work because it was so bad.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I couldn't talk more than three words at a time without coughing my lungs out anyway.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and you had some pretty like bad mental fog days where like I was trying to talk to you last weekend and you're just like, no, no brain, brain no work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You're just like, yeah, so then this happened and this happened. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02

So let's let's get into Apocalypse Tech.

Apocalypse Tech Recap And Warning

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Which was our last episode. And I want to read something that you wrote to some friends of ours because I was like, we didn't even get into this, and I think it's really important discussion.

SPEAKER_01

I don't even remember.

SPEAKER_02

We gotta find it.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So just uh Dan, can you give a recap of what the Apocalypse Tech episode was about before I read this quote?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I was um I was talking about a lot of like uh off-grid communications technology and information uh preservation technology that basically you would be able to set up like a little wireless hub that anyone could connect to, and they'd be able to access an offline version of Wikipedia or TED Talks or whatever um thing that you want. And then also uh communication systems that don't rely on our cell networks or or energy grid. Like um like mesh tastic LoRa radios, long range.

SPEAKER_02

So we're having a discussion with some friends about sort of like the corporate hellscape of big tech right now. And Dan says, I mean, you could read this, but I feel like you'd need to read it like 20 times. Probably. So I'm just gonna read it. I do not recall what I said.

SPEAKER_00

You said this is yesterday at 10 47 a.m. So I was on many medications. Um, I have no memory of this. I was in a fugue state.

SPEAKER_02

So, in other words, you're gonna like hear for the first time the thing you said last year. In the cybersecurity world, people have been seeing a lot of horrific things coming for a very, very long time right now. And de-googling de-googling yourself is the best thing you can do. Leave Meta, leave Google, disable all location and other unnecessary permissions and AI access on operating systems and mail clients. Rope in and eliminate all leaked data with data brokers. The game is surveillance and control, and the masses will never see it coming or won't act quickly enough. In our apocalypse tech episode, what I am ultimately trying to get to is an air-gapped communications network that doesn't touch our internet and uses hardware and software incompatible with the tech giants. The future of the internet is going to be in mesh networks over radio waves using handmade cyber decks. The internet is no longer the free exchange of information it used to be. It's a tool of control and we need to abandon it as a people. Wow, I was on some good drugs. Yeah. So the reason why I wanted to read this was because I I want to take a moment and think about where we've come from in our experience of the possibilities of the internet and how that has been co-opted to become exactly what you've just described and why we need an alternative. Dan, you and I met on the internet.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, in the in the late 90s, 1998-ish. There were no ads. No ads. There was there was really no way to monetize the internet back then.

SPEAKER_02

Um we were learning how to code. Like I learned how to do HTML just so I could make a website of my bad teenage poetry and art. Um we there was like hope. There it was exciting to be like, there's this opportunity.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And actually, um, right before we started this episode, I feel like we were talking about this too, where um I I said something along the lines of how the internet used to be a decentralization of information. So like you used to get all of your information from an encyclopedia, from textbooks in school, and then suddenly we had the internet where uh you could have an entire library's worth of opinion and facts that you could find on the internet and formulate an opinion. And even if you went to a website that you were like, I don't know if this is factual. Like, let's say you found yourself on InfoWars and he's talking about the water turning frogs gay. You're like, let me check somebody else. And then you go to like watch a thing from Neil deCrasse Tyson about uh pheromones and water supplies and find out actually that's not happening. Um that's that's fake. And then you're like, oh, okay, so I can do my own research. I can just go around, I can go to these decentralized hubs of information, piece together things, and learn the truth about the world that way. The news was still trustworthy in 1998. Yeah. And right now with AI, we're facing a centralization of technology, which I think is more than anything what gives people the most anxiety is that there is going to be centralized arbiters of the truth, where if you want to learn something, it has to come from one of these AI models. You're not going to be able to find it elsewhere. And they're going to be able to control what is true via an AI model.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And not only that, but like you said in this message, the surveillance that is happening with things like Palantir and flock cameras, and literally, like, I think I don't remember the first time I heard it, but it was a really important thing for me when somebody said, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. Yeah. We have been the product for a long time and not known it. Like I recently learned about how when you have to prove that you're a human being by being like, these are cars or this is by these are bicycles, is actually training an AI tool to recognize those things. Oh, when you're doing your when you're doing your captcha. Yeah. When the word is click on everything that's a bus. They were using that to actually help map the world and have AI be able to understand what it was looking at. They were also using it to be able to transcribe old written things. Yeah. By having us decipher what it actually was. Oh, yeah. The word captures. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Those were the worst, because like I couldn't even read half of them. That's because you're a cyborg. Yeah. I'm like, I'm looking at it, I'm like, am I a robot?

SPEAKER_02

Some of them are hard. Well, that's because they probably were actually unintelligible. That's why you got them. Like, all right, human, you do it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So we've been the product. Our data, you know, I've I think I've mentioned YK Hong more than once on this website, is has an amazing, they've got a website called the Liberation Toolbox. I forget if it's like dot IO.com, but I'm sure if you search YK Hong, the liberation toolbox, you'll find them. And they've been, they've been sounding the alarm on this stuff for a long time. And I mean, I absolutely I use my face to unlock my phone. I don't. I know you don't. I willingly used my face to verify who I was with a scanner to go through the airport the most recent time I was in the airport, which you can also opt out of. Um they are manufacturing consent and making it hard to opt out instead of opting in in every way possible right now. And when I read your message, I just I think what I was most inspired by is the last part about moving back to the world where the internet is no is a space of free exchange of information that's decentralized. Yeah. Because the thing about capitalism is you see it over and over again, without intense regulation and control, power gets increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer and fewer hands. And that's where we are at with big tech. Yeah. And it's being used against us.

SPEAKER_00

Um, one of the big things about the the mesh networks, like mesh tastic, is that this is a decentralization of of internet. So it's it's not connected to the internet, it's not a part of the internet, it's something new. And what people really love about this is that it there is no way to regulate it because you can't you can't stop radio waves. Um, you can't charge for it either. So when you have when you have a mesh device and you have access to a mesh network, you're you're tapped in. That's all you need. There's a one-time payment of maybe forty-five dollars for a mesh device and you are a part of that network. And um and and people want to build this out, they want it to become much larger because uh especially in places like one one place that's severely underserved is the entire continent of Africa, which is wild, because if there is a place in this world that can benefit most from this mesh technology, it's Africa. Um because like not not everybody in the world has the money for the technology, the subscription fees, and the infrastructure to have wireless data or wh hardwired internet going to everybody's homes. Whereas things like mesh networks allow, even though it doesn't transfer the amount of data to like watch a YouTube video, like the people are connected with real-time texting capabilities. Like you can you can do text uh data transfers all day long, and and the amount of battery power that they use is minimal. Like you can charge up one 18650 battery cell and have it run off of that, and you would charge it up once and you would be able to use it nonstop for an entire week.

SPEAKER_02

You know what's interesting about this idea too, of actually I mean, it's not just an idea, people are doing it, and I know that you want to set up some mesh dastics.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. What do you what do you call them? Nodes? Yeah, I actually I have everything that I need for one node.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, cool. I didn't know that you'd already gotten it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's in it's on our kitchen.

SPEAKER_02

Well, what I like about it is that so much of technology right now is more, more resource extraction, more power, more water. The American model that had the currently like dominant model of tech is like more, more, more, more extraction, more waste, more pollution, more everything. And for like more, like, I don't even know. I don't my internet's so fast, I don't know why I would need faster internet at this point. What I like about you're saying is like a reminder of that we don't actually need more, bigger, faster all the time. Yeah. The text communication across distance that is completely unconnected from our current internet is a time, a kind of freedom that none of us without it have right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, we're at the point where Dan and I are lying in bed together and we're talking about what's going on in the world, and I want to make a joke, and you all can insert joke here because we've already talked about it on this podcast about how I feel about some leaders and their hopefully imminent death. Um, and I I have a moment where I'm self-censoring. And like, how long has it been that we've been, as people, stopping what we're saying because we're afraid we're being listened to? This is relatively new.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And obviously was predicted in 1984 and other dystopian science fiction stuff. But now it's real. Now it's a common comment of like, oh, better make sure all of our phones are in a different room. Like, I I when we were having that conversation, I was like, I feel like we need to go and like, it's like we're in one of those movies where you have to like go and get in the shower because your home's bugged. Yeah. And like play some really loud music and whisper in each other's ears. Like, and we're in bed together, the place that is literally the most intimate, the most private. Yeah. But because our phones are with us, nothing feels

Cars As Surveillance Machines

SPEAKER_02

sacred or safe.

SPEAKER_00

And it's only getting worse. Um starting in 2027, they want to make it, they want to make it law, but manufacturers are going to start doing it ahead of time. They're going to make it so that when you get into your car, the car needs to register your face and your facial expression before it will allow you to start it. Oh my god. And if your facial expression shows that maybe you're distracted or maybe it thinks that you're intoxicated, it will turn off your car while you're driving it. And this is going to like Ford Motor Company is already planning to do this. Um and what that is, is that not only it's like it sounds it sounds like okay, well, you don't want people drinking and driving, so I guess that's one way to do it. However, it is you are you are choosing to broadcast your face and your words at all times in order to have the privilege of driving somewhere. So when you get in your car, it is listening to you, it is recording what you say, it's transmitting it to the Ford Motor Company, and whoever else decides that they want to be a part of that, probably Palantir. So if you say something that uh sounds mildly threatening to somebody who's in office, the Ford Motor Company might report that to the government. And then before you know it, you're being pulled over because you said something alone in your car about somebody that they didn't think that you should be criticizing. And they could just turn your car off. You criticize the president, you can't drive. Um, and that's going to start becoming the norm. And then, like, on top of that, it's not just recording you, it's recording what's in front of you and around you. You are drive, you are driving a surveillance vehicle. And things like Waymo cabs are already doing that. You know, there's there's um there's stories about like Waymo cabs just getting into neighborhoods and just driving loops around cul de sacs, and that sounds like some bad uh robotics. It's like, oh, look at these dumb Waymo cabs. But while those Waymo cabs are there, they are all recording with those giant fucking cameras that are plastered all over them and mapping everything that's around them, seeing everything that is surrounding them. So, like when they're driving around with no passengers in the vehicle, it might just look like Waymo cabs are really shitty autonomous vehicles that don't know what they're doing, but at the same time, they are recording data and they are spying on everything around them and they are mapping it. And they're mapping people's patterns, they're mapping traffic patterns, they're mapping people on the on the sides of the roads. And even though I doubt it's incorporated, there's gonna be a point where the technology that Palantir and Flock are developing to uh to be able to track people walking past cameras by their face and their gait patterns, cars are gonna do that too. So there's there's literally going to be at no point that the government doesn't know exactly where you are, what you're wearing, what you look like, and what you're talking about, and what you're looking at on your phone, because all of that data is being transmitted. So if you're Googling, like, hey, what's this thing going on in the government that I don't like? They're gonna know where you're doing that, what you look like when you do it, when you're doing it. They're gonna record you doing it, and they're gonna be able to see you actively doing it on your phone.

SPEAKER_02

This reminds me, and I wish I could find the post, but I'm just reading about it on the internet now, and the best I can do to be like, what is this? Is that I was reading recently on the social medias of Meta, which I cannot stand, uh that most new cars already actually have GPS tracking systems in them and are currently following your pay patterns right now. Yeah. In every single possible way. So this is already happening, but the version that you're describing is like the next most dystopic level, where now it's also watching you, the person. Yeah. Physically. Like the it, you know, I want the I want back the days when Fantasyland, Dan and I are well, actually, we did make out in a car. Dan and I can make out in a car in what year was that? 2002? Yeah. I think so. It was make out in a car in 2002 and know that there's no creepy surveillance happening of the two of us in the vehicle.

SPEAKER_00

There there isn't a government agent uh just watching us do it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, or has the abil I mean, I don't again, like people who are always always say things like, Well, why would you be worried if you're not doing anything wrong?

SPEAKER_00

Well, there's a very good use case for that, which is that um the flock cameras that they say can only be used by law enforcement, which is absolutely false because anybody can access them. Yeah. Um, even in the cases where law enforcement and flock employees were the only ones using them, in many cases, police officers have used that to stalk their exes. Yeah, being able to know everything that your ex does, where they go, who they see, and what they say when they're there is within the control of just a random police officer with a chip on their shoulder. Which I I guess I guess good thing there's none of those. It's a good thing that our law enforcement officers are well educated and well vetted, and we can trust all of them to do their job professionally.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, none of them are power hungry. Yeah. None of them are um, I think that it's a documented thing. I okay. Someone fact-check me. I wanna I don't want to claim something that I don't know with 100% certainty, but I feel like I read somewhere that there's actually like a higher proportion of domestic abusers on the force.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, it's absolutely correct. And the psychological profile of both a law enforcement officer and a violent criminal are both exactly the same. Fun.

SPEAKER_02

And one of our friends is a police officer, so like I feel like I need to be like, not all cops.

SPEAKER_00

Hi. Yeah, hi. Uh I do I it it is true that it's not all cops, and I believe that. Because I do, I have, I have known people who were police officers, and I have known them to be good people. And I know that the motivations of somebody to become a police officer can be motivated by either um the power of being able to use violence against another person, or because you see the things that are wrong in your community and you wish that you had the power to do something about it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, or it's an option that seems like a good option because also, at least when I was a kid, I don't know what kids are watching now because I'm old. But when I was a kid, there were so many pro-cop movies, TV shows. Every movie is. Cops are heroes, cops are like what you want to be. Like if you're a white kid, white male kid, yeah, being a cop, being a cop, be a cold soldier, like same for you. Yeah, I really feel like you joined the army because it was like, well, what else is there for me to do? Yeah, it's an adventure.

SPEAKER_00

I'll get out of my town, it's an adventure, and I get a free gun.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And then you got in it and you started to see some shit that I know you regret now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and also, I mean, it's different now, and I think there's a lot more information available to somebody who's looking to join um the military. But at that time, it was very much like, we are the police of the world. Yeah, we are the good guys. Watch any movie. We are the good guys. Um and you're going to be going out there to be a literal superhero and help people. Like that's how it was sold. Like, you're gonna you're gonna join the army, you're gonna go to these places where bad people are, and you're gonna be the good guy and you're gonna save everyone. Yeah. And there was nothing challenging that narrative whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02

Until you were there. Yeah. Then it was very obvious. So Dan and I talked about today. Hold us accountable, folks. Somebody ask us. I said to Dan, maybe we should just get rid of all of our like as a as a starting point. Let's get

Physical Media And Low Tech Freedom

SPEAKER_02

rid of all of our streaming devices. Not devices, sorry, streaming subscriptions. Because that's another form of surveillance, right? It is. They I I gotta say, my 90-day fiance kick, that's gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Well, I also just don't like the control that they have over the media that you consume. So, like, there might be something that like only Netflix makes. Like, Netflix is the production house that makes it, and they're like, here's this show, and you're like, I love this show. And then they can just decide, like, not enough people are watching this, we're taking it off the platform, and you just can't ever watch it again. Um, you know, I think this goes back to what I was saying about net mesh networks, where like you won't be able to watch Netflix on a mesh task device. And some people might be like, Well, then it's not, you know, what what what use is an electronic device that I can only send words on and I can't watch Netflix? But I think we really need to consider uh f the returning to physical format of entertainment. Like we need to be building out our libraries instead of depending on on these streaming networks because when it comes down to it, like we used to own, like you'd you'd have like your your box, your Box set of friends season eight. And you're like, you're like, I have that. You can borrow my friends. But now you can watch friends on Netflix, but you never own it. You never take possession of it. You pay, you know, the $24.99 that I feel like Netflix is now. Um, and you you watch it until they say that you can't. Um, if you try to find old movies anywhere, it's almost impossible to be like, oh, there was this movie from when I was a kid. It had Dolph Lundgren in it. I don't remember what it was called. Netflix, show me that movie. And Netflix is like, we don't have any movies that haven't been made in the last five years. So fuck off because it wasn't made by Netflix. So go fuck yourself. Fuck the thing Rames and Vin Diesel.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know what? I regret getting rid of all my tapes and CDs. I think I do have some CDs somewhere. I will say though, I feel like CDs are a fickle, fickle technology. And I think about my friend Faroood with his smashing pumpkins tape. And I think, you know what? Gen Z's got it right. Yeah, Gen Z is making a return to physical media. I also really think that that is a canary in the coal mine kind of situation. That the digital natives, is that term problematic? Probably, but it's the term that we have. The people who grew up with it from birth, because you and I, you know, we converted around the age of 12 and it was and then evolved with it. People who grew up with it from birth are rejecting it. They're the highest percentage of people who are rejecting AI.

SPEAKER_00

It's like what, like 49%?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's really high. Um I don't know if it's 49%. I think you're recalling something that was actually more about like the American public, uh, which I think is even higher.

SPEAKER_00

I think it was specifically about millennials. But in any case, a large portion of people are rejecting AI as a technology because of so many reasons. So many people.

SPEAKER_02

I think the fundamental thing is like a lot of it is really not the tech, and it is the people. Like, I really think I would never say that tech's 100% neutral because there's always extraction behind it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And that extra those things come from somewhere. Like, I look at my phone and I think about people in the Congo and what's happening to get things like Coltan, which again, like, if you don't know about it, it's deeply disturbing and we're complicit over here as consumers. Um, so I'm not saying that you tech is like neutral completely. I I think, but it could be tech for good, that concept is one that we could actually move towards if enough of us pushed for it, which is let's do these things in ways that are actually thoughtful about the human impact and the environmental impact. Pay people fairly, stop pillaging the continent of Africa for minerals and other primary resources. And actually, like these should be the Congo should be like the richest nation on the planet. People in the Congo should be the ones with yachts. They should. They have all of all of the minerals. We are all benefiting from the minerals that are extracted from that place. Yeah. They should not be in the circumstances that they are, except for the reality of our history of colonialism and capitalism.

SPEAKER_00

And that that extra that type of extraction is necessary to build new technology. So like when you're building new boards, new CPUs, new memory, um, you you need all of those rare earth elements. Uh what I love about like the the uh the like the mesh movement, the people who are behind the idea of building mesh networks and utilizing uh like things, like I mentioned cyber decks. If you don't know what a cyberdeck is, people are building cyber decks where basically they just source an LCD screen, they get a small computer board with a little bit of memory, they attach a keyboard to it and they put it inside of a lunchbox, and that's their new computer. Ooh, can I have a Ninja Turtle CyberDuck? You could have a Ninja Turtle Cybergun. We've got like an 80s My Little Pony.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, you could have that. And other life update. I bought three 80s My Little Ponies this week.

SPEAKER_00

They can go right in your cyberdeck. Perfect. And the thing that these people are doing is like, this is so cyberpunk because instead of embracing the newest technology, buying the newest thing, people are literally taking old technology, they're taking old motherboards, old memory, old computer parts, putting them inside of a lunchbox, and it is a new thing called a cyberdeck. They're utilizing junk that everybody else has been throwing away up to this point to make something new. And it's not more powerful, but it's more free.

SPEAKER_02

And it's less and it's not extractive. It's the same thing of like, if you can buy used clothes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Don't buy everything brand new. Don't buy from Amazon if you can't avoid it. I mean, again, all of these are contextual decisions. I don't know your life and the limitations. I will say, like, my height and body size makes it hard to buy used.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But like for clothes, for example. Um, and some people live in places where they can't get things unless they get them from Amazon, which I think sucks, but is also our current state. But I think anywhere and everywhere that we can have pockets of that freedom. One of the most life-changing books I ever read was Empire by Hart and Negri. And we are not doing that on the Zombie Book Club podcast because it is very long and very dense and was only intelligible to me because I had a class of people in my master's program and a professor to process it. And there's probably no zombies in it. There's no zombies.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But what it does talk about um, it talks about a lot of things, but a couple of things that were transformational for me was this idea of like completely escaping empire. When I say empire, I'm talking about our our quote unquote civilization. That is the result of colonialism and capitalism. And frankly, also and consumerism. Well, that's tied to both those things. Yeah. Um, because the entire colonialism and capitalism, you can't extract them from each other because the whole point of colonialism was once capitalism was invented, you need more markets to sell more things. If the idea is more and more money and power, and you also need more land to extract stuff. So then you have the rationale to spread, and then you use the vehicle of Christianity to create a moral facade that you're doing it for good. And that is why we are here today. So it talks about that, but it also talks about um how this idea that we can just like opt out completely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Is not Oh, you don't like it? Then what? Oh, it's it's funny that you're criticizing technology, but you're putting up a podcast that people are accessing on their phones.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. And there's a tendency that resistance movements get folded back into the power mechanisms that are empire. So the best we can do is find pockets of autonomy inside of empire. And there are places where the the web of empire, the the pockets between the web, the the nose and the strings between everything are very narrow and hard to find. And there are places and spaces where there is more opportunity. And then there's innovation, like what you're saying. This is not when we think innovation, we think like supercomputers, AI, but this is also innovation, and it's innovation that is creating a little bit more space for movement that is not controlled by the penops.

SPEAKER_00

Here's another way to think about it, too. Like if you're imagining empire as this expanding web that everything is connected to, increasingly densifying. Increasingly dense, and you're trying to find the pockets in between where there's nothing. Well, in a in a in a way that mesh networks are air gapped from the actual internet. I feel like there's also a lot to say that building those technologies, especially from reused parts and stuff, is also building a mesh that's separate from that empire as well. Like in between these those in-between points where there's connecting nodes, you might see a node that's connected to a different node, but those lines aren't touching each other. They're overlaid and not connected to anything else in that network.

SPEAKER_02

That's amazing. And that's what makes me hopeful. Um other worlds are possible and they're already here. That's the other thing. Like this is this is an example of innovation in this moment. But when I when I was first learning about Empire, I was looking at it mostly from the perspective of indigenous populations around the world who had figured out and also through like through resistance movements, through certain spaces that were harder to frankly control um by colonial and capitalist empirical bullshit people. Um, that's a very academic term that I just said, uh, is that they're weaving in and out of empire. They've maintained their spaces of autonomy and their traditional life ways, but then they come and access, they still like opt in a little bit. Like I think about the Himba in Namibia as an indigenous group, and they live in the desert traditionally, and the desert is not a place that's like really very colonizable. Same like with really big mountains. I love mountains because you can only you can only fuck with them so much as people. Yeah. Um, you can live you can live in relationship with them, but it's really hard to turn them into a city and like at most we turn them in their ski slopes. Yeah. Same with desert environments are also harder.

SPEAKER_00

We put hiking pads and ski slopes on them, and that's about it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So the Himba still have these swaths of land that they can live their traditional lifeways in, and they also come into town and they're like, for five bucks, you can take a picture with me. And then they buy something from the market. So that's like another example of those spaces of somebody like they're not outside of Empire, but they have pockets.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. They have they have a pocket that's that's uh that's separated from it, and then a node that connects.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I think that's what we need to look at as a model is like, first of all, there are other there are people out there, the Mennonites are another one. Um, the Amish folks, like people who are they're using some of it, but not all of it, and they have these spaces of autonomy. They're not none of these people are perfect. They have all of their own cultural challenges and issues. I'm not trying to um put on a pedestal, but I think the point is that there are multiple worlds right now available to us, different ways of being, and we just have to look for them and try new things like this mesh. Like, I'm really excited by what you're saying. Like, I'm like, you know what? Fuck signal, which is how I've been talking to most of my friends. Like, who wants to get who wants to make their own meshastic node? Yeah, I think that would be great.

SPEAKER_00

The the thing about mesh tastic is yeah, make a cyberdeck. With with mesh task, there just isn't enough to connect everyone in the world. Yeah. So like where we are, the the nearest mesh tastic node is Burlington, which is really far. About two and a half hours away. And then if we go south, it's like somewhere in in the southern part of New Hampshire. Um, so like I'm gonna have to build it if I want it to exist. I had this idea, um, and I think it's

Building Meshtastic Nodes In Vermont

SPEAKER_00

kind of cool. Like, we have this thing called the vast trail network. It's a it's a snowmobile trail that runs through all of Vermont. And it's kind of this landowner agreement of people that have just said, like, I'm giving up a little bit of my land so that people in snowmobiles can ride through that part. And it's this legal, legally binding agreement of all these landowners to have a connected snowmobile trail go through their property. And I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I just if I just started making mesh tastic nodes and deploying them to certain points along the vast trail? It would if I could make it from one end to the other, I could connect everybody in Vermont on a mesh network. Um, it would cost a lot. It wouldn't cost as much as like putting up cell phone towers along the vast trail. Uh, because like each each one of these these nodes, I was trying to figure out how much it cost me, but it was under $45, everything that I spent to make a mesh node. Um so it would cost money, but I'd have to make a couple hundred of them easily, maybe a thousand. So it would cost money, but start small. Like I'll just make one where I live, and then maybe I'll make one for the next town over, and then maybe go beyond that, make one for another town until I have a mesh, and then maybe one day that mesh meets somebody else's mesh.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think that's what's cool about it is it's it's it's again like autonomous individuals deciding to do this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And like if everybody listening to this podcast made their own little node, we might have a few hundred more nodes in the world. And then you tell your friend about it who lives a little further down the road from you. Like, I think it could be a really fun thing for us to be like, hey, Liz a librarian, you want to put a little mesh tastic node in the library?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Is that legal? I don't know. I could probably put it in the town hall. Yeah. I could I could probably ask somebody at the town hall.

SPEAKER_02

It's not surveilling anybody, it's just a point of connection. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

If I ask somebody at the town hall if they minded if I went like to the highest point and just left something there, um, they probably they're they probably need to make like there's there's probably nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like if there aren't, we should see if there's like meshtastic zines because I'm trying to imagine going in and like it's a small town. We know who runs the town, we know who the town administrator is. I can't imagine going in and being like, hey, person whose name I'm not gonna use. Um I wanna like make this thing and like leave it at the top of the town hall. I need a piece of paper that explains it. Yeah. Like it sounds creepy, yeah. Which is hilarious because it's way less creepy than everything that's already here.

SPEAKER_00

It is a small electronic device that runs off of a tiny solar panel, so it wouldn't even use any electricity from the building. And I just need to place it somewhere high up, and this will allow people with similar electronic devices to connect to each other in the town.

Disaster Comms For Zombie Scenarios

SPEAKER_00

It's pretty cool. Yeah. And what does this have to do with the zombie apocalypse? Everything. Imagine, imagine if you had, imagine if you did all of this and you you interconnected at least your hometown and got a whole bunch of people on board and they all had mesh tastic devices. You're online chatting with your with your buddies with your little your little tiny mesh tastic device, or you're on your cyber deck, you know, being like, like um, age sex location, where are you at? And then suddenly zombies showed up and took over your town. The power goes out because that's what always happens. I actually think it's a really good disaster preparedness idea. And people have used it that way. Like um, the last one, what was the hurricane that was in North Carolina? I forgot. Helen. Helen. During Hurricane Helen, mesh mesh networks, mesh tastic wasn't around yet, but there were people using LoRa radios and making mesh networks. Um, mesh tastic is just like a different flavor of LoRa. Um and they used that to communicate when infrastructure was destroyed by this hurricane and they were able to communicate. And uh, and they they get they gave these these LoRa radio nodes to um first responder workers so that they could communicate with other first responders.

SPEAKER_02

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think we should wrap

Patreon, Instagram, And Goodbyes

SPEAKER_02

this episode up because my voice needs a break.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's about that time. Yep. Yeah. We we actually planned on doing a much shorter episode because we're like, we're still sick. I just got probably in the background. I don't know. I've coughed a lot. Um, like I said, we're still sick. We planned on doing a much shorter version of this, but we can things worked out. I feel good. Um, we made it. We made it to the end.

SPEAKER_02

We did. The end is nigh, friends.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, don't die of the zombie play.

SPEAKER_02

Come hang out with us on Patreon. Um, yeah. That's where we're gonna be picking our next book club book. Also, we're on Instagram. We are, we're on the meta things still right now.

SPEAKER_00

Instagram will probably be the last thing that we can get rid of because we used it so much to reach out so to so many of you people who are listening to this now.

SPEAKER_02

And for that I am grateful.

SPEAKER_00

We just gotta keep it going, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so we will opting into because it serves us.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. Um in any of those places, let me let let me know if you want to see me put together this this uh this uh mesh tastic. Yeah, you should totally make a little video of it. Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. That's the best part. Yeah, you're gonna come along and be like, this guy does not know how to do this.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, learning together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, everybody, thanks for your grace and us not having an episode last week and for listening to whatever this was. We miss you. We love you, we appreciate you. Yeah, stay safe out there.

SPEAKER_00

Don't die.

SPEAKER_02

Find your pockets of freedom and autonomy. Don't die. Bye bye. Bye bye, baby bye bye bye.

Contributor

Dan

Host
Contributor

Leah

Host