Welcome to Radio Hydrogen’s Newsletter, which is all about Science, Social Innovation and Wonder stuff, or Schemes, Dreams, and Infinite Things.

There’s chewy mind-bendy stuff, and there’s bite-sized snippety stuff, as well as information about new shows on Radio Hydrogen and collaborator projects. Scroll down and see what takes your fancy.  

In order of appearance:

1. Skatepark on Mars - Lakshmi’s Dragons

2. Parallel Times 1. Green Labour - a major party in a nearby universe.

3. Parallel Times 2. Marillion and the Cobra - a weirdly appropriate replacement for Fish as vocals for Marillion. I’m sure Marillo nerds have guessed it already.

4. The Death of Death - The Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense by José Cordeiro and David W Wood. (A book recommendation)

5. Latest Shows - Me, myself and Rusty + Cynthia Leonard aka Cynthesizer

6. Sapient Evolution A portal to music Explorers

1.Skateparks on Mars

 “Lakshmi’s Dragons”

(Skatepark on Mars7 Minutes)

The Dragons’ Den or Shark’s Tank if you’re in America or Oz, is absolutely one of my favourite forms of entertainment ever! It speaks to several of my emotional and intellectual drives; empathy & altruism, business wisdom, snobbery & judgementalism, frustration, laughter – joyous and mocking, philanthropy, regret, jealousy, sorrow, and love! It also speaks to my misanthropy and need for violence.  

I pride myself on being one of those people who doesn’t bark at the television during a news broadcast or at BBC’s Question Time. That is not the case, however, with Dragons’ Den.  For some reason I revert to a black-toothed cabbage throwing peasant at a public execution for all the stupidity and morbid fascination that the show exports and evokes. 

The current format, then: Five easily offended ego-sensitive but the nonetheless undeniably accomplished +millionaires pretending to have a social conscience, entertain the business pitches from a variety of business aspirants/inventors who range from the brilliant and tenacious to the overly precious and idiotic. 

For all my bloody vitriol, my default position is always for the protagonist making the pitch to win the deal. Always! It’s a beautiful thing when, particularly, if they are more inventor than businessperson, that they score a life changing deal, not just the money – that doesn’t come for free, but the resources and infrastructure that the dragon or dragons have to offer. Resources and infrastructure the people pitching did not, and likely could not build in this lifetime without this kind of gift. That part of the deal is most definitely a gift. I celebrate their victory and good fortune. The Dragons will devour most people that don’t have a working knowledge of their figures or a realistic projection of returns over the next the few years. But occasionally, when faced with someone who is financially inept, but conceptually amazing, the Dragons will show mercy and something analogous to compassion, and so grant them their wish.

But some of them have to go and screw it up, don’t they? They’ve convinced the Dragon, that their product is good. They’ve effectively won! But oh no,  his ego engages and he  feels that he can play hardball with the monsters whose scraps from the table are solid gold and eternally life-enhancing enough. Before he even speaks, you can see the change in his demeanour, and you know what’s coming!  Millions of people are barking at the television.

“Don’t do it, don’t you do it, don’t you bloody do it!”

You are watching the telly through latticed fingers because it’s just too painful to watch this train wreck coming, a disaster you can do nothing, nothing to prevent.

“Oh no, he did it, he went and did it. IDIOT!”

The dragon’s eyes go cold and dead. There’s nothing behind them but contempt followed by infinite emptiness.  Then comes the admonishment and scorn. This tends to be a unifying moment for all the dragons, regardless of their otherwise allegiances or antipathy. Their nostrils flare with the scent of blood and fear, their eyes roll back into their skulls, and an idiot who had effectively just torn up a winning lottery ticket, is eaten alive on national television.

Morbid fascination and subsequent devouring aside, there’s also those lovely moments where the Dragons are confronted by a drooling mutant that would give hipsters the vapours, but their concept is so good that the Dragons waive the fact that they are financially inept, and elect instead to be charmed by this quaint gold-threaded peasant.  This kind of hobbit is given special dispensation for her lack of accounting prowess.  Her life is changed and we punch the air. Your life will never be the same! – nice one!

Most of us, even when we are feeling superior, smug, or angered by the people pitching, want them to walk away from the Den with a deal.  As embittered thwarted and sabotaged dreams, I want them to win.  It is with that in mind, that I would love to add another dimension to show. There have been several rejected entrepreneurs who have gone on to be successful with their endeavours, but the show’s funnel for success is way too narrow.

After the hapless fool has been rejected by all five dragons, he, she, or they, turn their plaintive gaze to the large ornate Dragonhead telephone sat upon a table in foreground as the dragons blur into the background. You can imagine the camera shot, can’t you? Sometimes it rings, sometimes it doesn’t.  When it does, it is one of the show’s, dozen or so enlisted telephone millionaires. This is a lifeline to the now dejected entrepreneur. An aid enters the floor with all the decorum of a royal butler to answer the phone. The caller may be a big player such as Richard Branson, or they can be an unknown parochial millionaire.

There is something charismatically cold about the dragon phone Dragon. It’s as if Keyser Söze has instructed Kobayashi to make a call to the show on his behalf. A muted conversation with mostly hushed acknowledgements takes place between the inaudible caller and the Den’s own Kobayashi. It would be fun casting around for that role. The conversation is one-way – non-negotiable! The aspiring entrepreneur puts up and shuts up. It’s a do-or-die deal. Take it or leave it, the invisible dragon is colder and indifferent. Dollars, Pounds and Souls, are after all, things that are merely audited.  It feels as if the phone dragon is taking the soul. He or she isn’t necessarily, but it does feel that way. Hell, the demon dragon might just spin them around, take their company and put them on a salary. If the dragon phone Dragon deigns to rescue the scruffy smelly little hobbit at all, it will be the scarier less comfortable option, but it is a way out.

Unless, of course, the seventh, final and most benevolent dragon comes to their rescue. All the while since the pitch began, viewers have been pressing their keypads, donating a quid or fiver here and there, and the pot is mounting. This is pure charity, of course, and it could amount to a lot of money. The advantage of the contestant having coins thrown at them by the public is that it is money they do not have to pay back. The disadvantage is that they don’t have a dragon or dragons to mentor, nurture, and protect them. No, do they have a Dragons’ infrastructure; distribution, sales & marketing, nepotistic & networking leverage, staff - ad infinitum. They have free money, but it’s a dwarf’s horde, and they’ll need to use it wisely in a dark forest without the protection of the dragons.

This model of the Dragons’ Den requires that it is live, which I am sure is a logistical nightmare, but nonetheless, very doable. It would add to the atmosphere of the show. I always wonder how people can time travel with results-based television. People go out of their way to avoid knowing the results of a football match so they can watch the recording when they get home. They suspend disbelief, the football fan might not know the results, but the History already does. You are wishing for something whose fate is already decided and banked. Strange! A live Dragons’ Den would be electric, exciting, vulgar, and dangerous, for sure. There’s be booing and hissing and applauding, as well as surprise guests, audience interaction. But more, it would be a great party and life affirming.  This can exist as an enhanced version of Dragons’ Den or it can be a competitor show. I don’t care. This or a variation of this is one of my Skateparks on Mars. One piece of pink paper or a diamond encrusted asteroid landing on my house says it happens. 

Parallel Times: Glimpses into Neighbouring Universes

There are several interesting Political Parties; left-wing, right-wing, and UP-wing, from neighbouring universes that I would like to bring back to our version of Britain. An American union leader friend of mine rather smugly said to me, “the Scandinavians and the Dutch are what the British will be when the British finally elect to grow up!” He was very proud of his soundbytey statement, of course. As someone who is almost exclusively English - almost, I’m not too offended by this. Given our track record for football violence, imperial entitlement, excessive teenage pregnancies, zombie serfdom, and an embarrassing general lack of political literacy, it’s a fair cop, I suppose.

Wherever you are on the political spectrum, Left-wing, or Right-wing, we have Scandinavia and Holland as next-step emulation models that we fail to aspire to, it’s true. I could have said, however, that America has Canada, but for some Walter Mitty Schizoid reason, there was a disembodied Alan Bennet on my shoulder advising against it. “I didn’t say anything,” even if there was a ‘chip on my shoulder.’ Ok, so in this issue, I caught a brief glimpse of a political party from a nearby reality, Green Labour, the left-wing treatment, if you will. Radio Hydrogen/Parallel Times is indifferent to the political mechanisms of the world. So, I make the promise to you that this is not partisan, and that we will bring what is interesting, not what we subscribe to. Peering into other realities is expensive and tricky, to say the least, so please do bear with the random and broken nature of our feeds.

2.Parallel Times

(Parallel Times 7 Minutes)

The following article contains historically contextual expletives:

“Green Labour”:BRANEdiv:/20191213-00:09:01-erge

Breakaway Julie

There are many advocates on the Left-wing of British politics that advocate for the unification of the of all the Left leaning parties in order to beat the Conservative Party . In our reality it is historically met with precious policy pedantry and obstinate principles from flag wavers in all parties. The genesis of this particular timeline owes itself to a single neurological storm in the mind of a disillusioned, hard, but nonetheless nuanced socialist podcast host/radio presenter by the name of Julie Bryan. She was still sleeping off a bottle of wine and entering a violent unconscious migraine after watching the early coverage of the 2019 General Election, when our two histories parted. Julie understood all too well the efficacy of modern exit polls and surrendered to what was inevitable, got drunk, and let oblivion take her.

Corbyn’s Labour lost the general election in 2019. Over the course of the next few months, Breakaway Julie, via her podcasts and otherwise connections and resources, capitalised on the huge directionless body of non-Tory voters and even some heretical so-called cuddly/eco capitalists from the back benches of the Conservative Party. She formed a sub-party/think tank which was dubbed; “The Tory Removal Initiative.” (TRI). TRI, realising they would not succeed in uniting the entire Left-wing, opted for another strategy.

They would demand that the Green Party and the Labour Party merge and become, “Green Labour,” complete with snazzy logo. TRI expected that this would be met with oh so practical, philosophical, and moral rationales as to why this could not and should not happen, of course. But this was a devious marketing ploy and publicity stunt they were undertaking. 

Julie co-hosted a live radio show on a regional station and manged to pull high profile members of the Green Party and the Labour Party in what was meant to be an almost technical discussion about the relevance of Leftism in the emerging world.

It was a short and sensational opening, indeed her only question. “Are you going to stop being two parties, and instead become, “Green Labour,” and bring an end to forever handing victory to the Tories?”

What ensued was nothing more than pandemonium, in the studio, and for days thereafter, nationally.

The female Labour Party representative was first to respond, “The problem is…” but Julie cut her off.

“The problem is you’re a pair of wankers representing ineffective dilatory wanker parties.” The male Green Party politician began to register his outrage, but Julie cut him off also.

“Silence you twat!” Silence did ensue for a moment, but it was followed by a comic and near violent kerfuffle. Oblivious to the exiting protestations of her guest and a whole world falling in on her to close her down, Julie drew breath and concluded the 90 second interview.

“Well, that’s it for today, thank you to the two nobheads  either side of me, for joining us today. if you are interested in becoming a member of Green Labour, an actual new party with a view to making the world a better place for everyone, then please do go to www.........” In a just a couple of minutes, Westminster history turned on a sixpence.

The newly constructed party’s server for subscription crashed in the first few hours. As you can imagine, things got a bit untidy. Questions were asked about the station’s in-house bleeper system. Julie faced some fines and bans, but her stage dive into the British public, the legal system, media circus, and even the opposition proved not to be as injurious as all that. It was a petty martyrdom for its ongoing advantages to her personally, and to TRI’s campaign. The fines and slaps to the wrists were plenty, but eminently survivable because of the success of the stunt. The audit of crime to punishment and reward, netted profits for Julie on many levels. It wasn’t just the new members she drew from the other parties, but also lofty businesses, gingerbread groups, and frankly, an inspired British electorate that came to her calling. Significant numbers signed up in the first few days. She had injured the membership of the two parties enough to cause them at least a bit of embarrassment.

In the final analysis, Breakaway Julie’s Green Labour is currently robust. It cannot and probably will not topple the Tories and the Labour Party, but with all three parties; Labour, the Green Party, and Green Labour, electorally adrift, TRI does have some leverage to bring about a coalition their goal something they joked about as a  Plan C.

The unions were very interested but were a bit more circumspect. Green Labour did promise them a very tight and beneficial relationship. As it stands now, if we assume that their reality is concurrent with ours, which, of course, it is unlikely to be so, the unions will probably be the difference to Green Labour rising above the power base of the Green Party or Lib Dems in our reality.

Next issue of Radio Hydrogen, we will bring you our bits of feed concerning a rather innovative brand of nihilistic capitalism that had unpredicted benefits for Britain. Next issue, check out the article on “British Meritocracy.” Just to reassure, we’re not Brit-centric, we’ve a ton of stuff coming down the feed from all over parallel universe equivalents from various historical split points.

Julie aka Julie BRANEdiv:/20191213-00:09:01-erge, or “Breakaway Julie,” became the originator of Green Labour in the alternate reality. It’s a discussion that has been had many times in our home reality. In truth, Green Labour seldom occurs in our local cluster of splits and is successful even more rarely. There are one or two that have pulled it off, however, but it’s rare. They are outliers that have much more significant differences going back a hundred and fifty years or so.

3.Parallel Times

(Parallel Times 3 Minutes)

“Marillion and the Cobra”:BRANEdiv:/20191213-00:09:01-erge

Breakaway Marillo

My friends were quite shocked at the proximity of this reality to ours, at least, in that it is relatively contemporary, going back only 34 years or so. We have an identical shared history with this timeline  up until 1988/89. It is not that big an outlier. It’s local, in fact. It speaks of what some people might consider a strange decision on the part of Marillion to take on Sinead O’ Connor to replace Derek William Dick, aka Fish, as lead vocalist instead of Steve Hogarth. I personally see the absolute sense of it.

The split point between us and Breakaway Marillo was in the Tabard pub, next to Turnham Green Tube Station, London. The Tabard was a highly fertile location for media, music, and intellectuals of all suits. It has its own theatre above the bars. An A&R woman made the apparently heretical remark that if Marillion were looking for a replacement, “why not try Sinead O’ Connor, that could work.” In our timeline the remark was obliterated by a plate sliding from a tray and onto a table, smashing glasses as it did so. In Breakaway Marillo, it  was overheard by a regional radio 4 presenter who hammered it into a social meme which took flight. The idea gathered momentum and the rest is history – their history!

Musically, it’s easy. Fish is as much a punk rocker as prog rocker. He is most definitely a poet. People go on about Marillion being a Genesis clone. I don’t see any jazz elements to ol Marillo: ‘Market Square Heroes,’ ‘Three Boats Down from the Candy,’ ‘Forgotten Sons’ – deffo not! Not even close. Bits of ‘Script’ here and there with squidgy Moogs and Fish’ vocal phrasing, yeah bits, but not wholesale: Emerald Lies, White Russians – shall I go on?  The list of Fish era non-Genesis sounding songs is pretty big. She Chameleon? Nah, I don’t see it. There’s more Peter Hamill or Magazine in Fish/Marillion than Genesis if you want to pick out influences.

Sinead and Fish are both angry punk vocalists. They can both lullaby as well as open throats. Take any Fish lyric and put Sinead vocals to it, including the soft refrains. ‘ Script for a Jester’s Tear,’ lends itself beautifully to Sinead voice as she proved in live gigs in BRANEdiv:/19881213-00:13:01-erge (Breakaway Marillo)

It might not work for the more pop/rock end of Fish-Marillion, like ‘Incommunicado,’ ‘Clutching at Straws,’ and probably not ‘Kayleigh.’ But how about  ‘Cinderella Search’ or ‘Tuxon?’ 

The sticking point, of course, would have been politics. She was a tortured soul, and she was an Irish republican, so what? A lot of Irish are, it’s a broad church. For all her fire, she was much more nuanced than her public persona or British media would have you believe. The obvious stumbling block would be, “Forgotten Sons.” I have not had enough Brane Data to know whether she performed it or not. I imagine not, although I don’t know. She could have done it justice; I am confident of that. I cannot imagine the rest of the band would have taken to her terribly well. Reading between the lines, there was some pragmatism, tolerance, and almost brotherly protection for her from a couple of the members, if somewhat wearily so. 

It would be an unstable chemical neurological cocktail, for sure, and clearly it was because it lasted two years, one tour, and one album.

The album is called, “Fire and Filigree.” Here is the track list.  

1. Brittonic

2. Cornwall & Cumbria

3. Soldier’s Girl

4. Soldier Girl

5. Fire and Filigree

6. Sasira Covenant

7. Faerie Friends

I wonder if Steve Hogarth found his way to Marillion after this odd, unstable gem of an interlude. I’d say probably.

I don’t get overly upset about celebrity deaths. I did feel though more than a touch of sadness for the death of Sinead O’ Connor.  

4.The Death of Death

The Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense

A book I recommend to any grounded realist wishing to live longer, possibly forever!

If you want to live longer, better, or both of those things indefinitely, and you are a materialist atheist, repulsed by and weary of fringe and/or pseudo-science, then this book was written for you. It’s been a long time coming. It’s nice and secular. It’s written by hardcore scientists and has testimonials by the likes of Michio Kaku as well as futurist luminaries such as Aubrey de Grey. “The Death of Death – The Possibility of Physical Immortality and its Moral Defense,” reports on current and very near technologies that will give us greater healthspans and lifespans.

Grab a jug of coffee and listen to my podcast with David W Wood about this book here: Humanity Unshackled - The Death of Death

Or, cut out the middleman and go buy the book:  The Death of Death

For any initiatives connected to the augmentation of the Human experience or Life on Earth via technology and better systems of democracy and distribution – not left-wing, nor right-wing, but UP-wing, then consider exploring the vast universe of possibilities currently in play or very nearly upon us. 

Future Surge  https://futuresurge.org/

If the Singularity is near, does that mean the Methuselarity is near also?

5.Latest Shows

Humanity Unshackled -  The Death of Death

Philosovox. - ASCENDYNAMICSNFP

www.radiohydrogen.space

6.Sapient Evolution

Music from all times, all places, all genres, all races, as well as unsigned gems. Our guarantee is that 90 minutes of listening to Sapient Evolution will put you in touch wit music that you will love, and that you will keep forever. Sure, they’ll be stuff there you don’t lie, but if you are an explorer, there is no better place to find treasure. Go to http://www.radiohydrogen.space and hit on of the ‘Sapient Evolution,’ tabs.

Thanks for subscribing. Contact via the addy provided here or from Radio Hydrogen. www.radiohyrogen.space. We want to facilitate, augment and dazzle. Feel free to brainstorm with us.

Rusty