Author: rickrosnerorg

Ask A Genius 1566: AI, Suicide, and the Hive Mind, or Risk, Gender, and Media Literacy

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In this dialogue, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner examine lawsuits against OpenAI and Character.AI alleging chatbot-induced suicides due to failed safety mechanisms. Rosner connects these real-world ethical crises to media literacy and the speculative series Pluribus, created by Vince Gilligan and starring Rhea Seehorn, where humanity merges into a Hive Mind. The conversation explores gendered suicide patterns, the psychology of AI influence, and existential questions raised by technological and fictional unification. Their exchange moves between legal realism, social commentary, and science fiction’s reflection of human frailty.

Ask A Genius 1565: Rapid Climate Change, Extinction Pressures, and Human Adaptation

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"This raises questions about pressures that first cause extinctions but also push some organisms—especially those with greater behavioral flexibility—toward rapid adaptation. In the fossil record there have been five major mass extinctions; today’s human-driven biodiversity decline is widely described as an ongoing sixth mass extinction. The Chicxulub asteroid impact about 66 million years ago eliminated roughly three-quarters of species, not ninety percent."

Ask A Genius 1564: Cheap Homes, Credit Arbitrage & AI Media

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Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen discuss bargain housing from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Raton and St. Louis, contrasting sub-$100k fixers with Los Angeles’s high per-square-foot prices. Rosner explains credit card arbitrage —rolling 0% balance transfers, modest fees, and HELOC backups —while warning about post-teaser rates near 19%. They shift to media’s future as TV, games, VR, and AR converge, with AI generating personalized, believable content—think Is It Cake? Realism on demand. Rosner notes rising debt, stagnant wages, and how apps raise dating standards and shrink connections. Jacobsen frames a culture of immersive “second lives” monetized through subscriptions within favourite franchises.

Ask A Genius 1563: Celebrity Encounters, Intelligence vs. Impact, and Trump’s Tariffs

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In this exchange between Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner, the former Jimmy Kimmel Live! writer recounts his surreal brushes with celebrity—from Oprah’s fleeting touch to Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, and Sharon Stone encounters. Yet the dialogue turns reflective, exploring how luck, focus, and hard work separate the merely intelligent from the impactful. The conversation ends with Rosner’s sharp analysis of Trump’s tariffs, showing his blend of humor, intellect, and socio-political awareness.

Ask A Genius 1562: Post-Election Reality: Trump Backlash, Shutdown Fallout, AI Boom

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Scott Douglas Jacobsen asks about winners. Rick Rosner argues everyone won, reading a repudiation of Trump and Biden’s communications failure. He notes the record shutdown, strained SNAP benefits, and economic risk. AI spending could hit $1.5 trillion in 2025, with possible bubble correction. On Mamdani, Rosner expects pushes for free subways and buses and some rent control, doubts childcare feasibility, and shrugs at billionaire scare talk. He rejects claims Curtis Sliwa cost Andrew Cuomo victory. For the right’s reaction, he predicts recycled “rigged” narratives, stressing voter fraud is indeed vanishingly rare, often confusion, citing one-in-a-million estimates and punitive, deterring sentences.

Ask A Genius 1561: The Loon-o-Sphere: How Intelligence, Creativity, and Conspiracy Thinking Intersect in the Modern Mind

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In this far-ranging dialogue, Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner dissect modern conspiracy culture, political disillusionment, and the strange overlap between intelligence and irrationality. From New York’s mayoral race to AI’s speculative bubble, Rosner muses on cognitive traps—from MAGA fanaticism to obsessive intellectual rabbit holes. They explore why some brilliant minds drift into delusion while others channel their focus into creative mastery. The conversation blends political realism, humor, and cognitive insight, concluding that lucidity—in writing and in thought—is the surest antidote to madness.

Ask A Genius 1560: American Exceptionalism, Marketing Myths, and the World Series

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Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen riff on baseball’s “World Series,” using it as a springboard into American exceptionalism. They trace how marketing, PR, and early propaganda shaped national myths, from deist founders to church-state tensions and voucher-backed microschools. Rosner emphasizes geography, youth, and insulation from world wars; Jacobsen presses on where ideals meet reality. They discuss slavery’s foundational labor, Native dispossession, and contested narratives around the atomic bombings. The pair close by noting a record-length series and the irony of global branding with domestic scope, inviting readers to separate civic pride from comforting stories and examine history with rigor.

Ask A Genius 1559: Humanity, Cynicism, and Technological Optimism

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Rick Rosner joins Scott Douglas Jacobsen to explore wisdom both cynical and comedic—from Occam’s Razor to soup jokes. He discusses his admiration for writers like Neal Stephenson, Margaret Atwood, and Carl Hiaasen, who illuminate near-future chaos with humor and insight. Reflecting on inherited worldviews from his eccentric father and pragmatic stepfather, Rosner shares a guarded optimism: despite human folly and climate peril, technology and demographic shifts may stabilize the planet. Through his trademark mix of intellect and irreverence, Rosner dissects the human condition with both compassion and wit.

Ask A Genius 1558: Baseball, Rambo Scars, and the Strange Performance of Masculinity

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In this candid and eccentric exchange, Rick Rosner chats with Scott Douglas Jacobsen about fair-weather fandom, the statistical chaos of baseball, and the misunderstood genius of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. The conversation drifts—quite literally—from bullpen blunders to body scars, as Rosner recounts crafting his Conan-inspired look and accidentally one-upping Rambo in realism. Between anecdotes of fake blood and real keloids, he muses on aging, hearing loss, and the quiet hum of tinnitus that punctuates his later years with reluctant introspection.

Ask A Genius 1557: U.S. Shutdown, Hurricane Melissa, and Renewed Nuclear Tensions

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Rick Rosner discusses the ongoing U.S. federal shutdown nearing record length, explaining its implications for programs like SNAP and the potential political fallout. He reflects on Hurricane Melissa’s devastation in Jamaica and the broader climate trend of warmer oceans fueling stronger storms. Turning to international affairs, Rosner comments on Prince Andrew’s disgrace, the ultra-Orthodox protest tragedy in Israel amid deep social divisions, and J.D. Vance’s alarming advocacy for renewed nuclear testing. His critique highlights the intersection of politics, privilege, and peril, painting a picture of escalating instability shaped by inequality, misinformation, and short-term power struggles.