E09 S1m0ne ft. Pam by Gladio Free Europe • A podcast on Anchor
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In 2002, S1m0ne posed the question of what would happen if we were to replace actors with computers. What 20 years ago seemed like a fantasy in the realm of science fiction has increasingly begun to rear its head in our world, and we as a society are still grappling with the consequences and implications of our increasingly virtual reality. Computer-generated actors, models, influencers, and pop stars, we’ve got them all on this week's episode. Hosted by Liam, Abram, and Pam. Further reading Lil Miquela on Instagram Ananova, the first virtual newscaster Kyoko Date/DK-96, the first virtual popstar E-Cyas, the first male virtual popstar t-babe segment on E! News Webbie Tookay segment on ABC News Hatsune Miku sings Ievan Polkka

On this week's episode of Gladio Free Europe, Abram and Liam spoke with friend of the pod Pam about the 2002 flop of a film S1m0ne, an interesting premise marred marred by a bad execution. When film director Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) finds his latest project grind to a halt after its star quits. Rather than finding a new actress to reshoot the film, Taransky decides to redo it with the help of a piece of software capable of digitally generating totally photorealistic humans, which was designed by his deceased friend. Thus "Simone" (Rachel Roberts) is born and rockets to stardom as an increasingly nosy press tries to learn more about this elusive young actress, believed to be a real person by everybody except for Taransky.

Although (as far as we know) there is no real-life Simone in the sense of an entirely computer-generated celebrity believed to be real by the public, digital celebrities do have a niche of their own. Vocaloid Hatsune Miku remains popular, a digitally-rendered influencer named Lil Miquela has over 3 million followers on Instagram, deceased singers such as Michael Jackson and Tupac have been "brought back to life" to perform, and deepfakes have entered the public consciousness with applications running the gamut from funny videos of famous people dancing (deepfake Putin has taken over Russian Tiktok!), to pornography, to tools of propaganda (this ad released in the run-up to the 2020 election featuring a child murdered in a school shooting is a particularly unsettling example). Abram, Liam, and Pam use S1m0ne as a jumping off point to discuss the history of the idea of computer-generated humans, its early real-world iterations in the 2000s and 2010s, and what this phenomenon could mean for society at large in the near future.

As always, we're looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say about the episode, questions, commentaries, and criticisms are all equally welcome! We'd like to thank the Hexbear community for helping us grow as a podcast thus far. In these last few months we've built up a small organic audience and in no small part it's thanks to you guys and gals. We also ask that if you feel strongly about the show, we would also greatly appreciate it if you would rate/review our show on Apple Podcasts, Podcast Addict, or any other podcasting platform of your choice so that people interested in our style of content could find us more easily. If you are so inclined you may also follow us on Twitter at @GladioFreeEuro. Have a great Wednesday, and stay tuned for next week!